#but i will likely come out to my rabbi which will most likely go over well. he's been giving green flags from the start

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Were you out as trans to the Rabbi who managed your conversion? I'm Jewish and trans too (from birth tho), and I'm interested to know how it worked for you

I'm still in the process, but I have so far not told anyone about my being trans. I don't know... I just don't feel as though I need to qualify my manhood, if that makes sense. I've been finding in many of the largely cishet jewish spaces that I'm in that I feel more accepted even when I'm stealth than when I'm in non-jewish cishet spaces, so I really don't find it that big of a deal to make it Known. Obviously, it may be different when it comes to my rabbi, and it'll likely come up because I want to look into maybe an alternative to a brit (not out of requirement, out of my own want)... If you couldn't tell, I'm still trying to figure out what I want haha!

I guess the long and short of it is... It just works for me? It's rather boring the way it's been for me, and for that, I really am grateful. I know it's not the same for everyone, and I want to make it clear that this can absolutely coexist with having a really boring, uneventful experience with this.

[vraska-theunseen]

google how to not be sosososo anxious all the time. its not even like stress that motivates me to get things done it's just like. i make a mistake and misunderstood instructions in class and my teacher is like "you were supposed to figure out precisely where 180 was before taping the draft and punching your marks" when i like an idiot guesstimated it and after a moment of me going "oh..." bc its something i can't fix bc i've already punched in all the holes on the part he's like "i think you'll be okay" and goes back to what he's doing and then for three hours im like he's so annoyed with me i bring things to him too much and ask him too many questions and make the stupidest mistakes every day he hates me. i ask a friend something and they don't respond because they're busy or forget about it or don't see it or any number of other reasons and then a couple weeks later i send them something else and they don't respond for a few hours and its enough time for me to convince myself i said something a while ago that they took offense to without realizing and they're ignoring me and i send another message saying "are you mad at me did i do something can you tell me what i did so we can work it out" and he's like "what?". a friend posts about people treating them badly in a way that's clear they're talking about a specific phenomenon or person and im always like omg are they talking about me did i do something bad and not realize it... and its someone i talk to so infrequently and casually it obviously would not be a concern or someone i've known for so many years that they would obviously come to me if there was any conflict that arose. help

[infiniteglitterfall]

A Chabad synagogue in Pomona, New York, burned to the ground on April 17th, along with its three Torah scrolls.

Torah scrolls are hand-written, hand-made, and kept in elaborately decorated cases or wrappings.

Many of them have long histories; my synagogue has two, I think, that were smuggled out of villages being destroyed in pogroms or in Nazi attacks. One of them is the only remaining piece of that village on earth.

Sometimes, the Torah scroll doesn't even belong to the synagogue, but is on loan from a place like the Memorial Scrolls Trust:

There's an entire Jewish holiday just for taking them out and dancing with them: Simchat Torah, "The Joy of Torah."

In fact, that was the holiday on which Hamas's invasion took place.

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So it's a particular tragedy when a Torah is destroyed.

Chabad itself has a page about what goes into making just one Torah scroll:

"An authentic Torah scroll is a mind-boggling masterpiece of labor and skill. Comprising between 62 and 84 sheets of parchment -- cured, tanned, scraped and prepared according to exacting Torah law specifications -- and containing exactly 304,805 letters, the resulting handwritten scroll takes many months to complete.

"An expert pious scribe carefully inks each letter with a feather quill, under the intricate calligraphic guidelines of Ktav Ashurit (Ashurite Script). The sheets of parchment are then sewn together with sinews to form one long scroll. While most Torah scrolls stand around two feet in height and weigh 20-25 pounds, some are huge and quite heavy, while others are doll-sized and lightweight."

I learned all of this on Tumblr.

Once upon time, in people's "punch Nazis" days, I would've been able to find some mention on Tumblr of this synagogue burning.

There is none, so I'm posting about it.

And I'm going to quote Daniel Weiner, Rabbi of Temple de Hirsch Sinai in Bellevue, Washington, when his own synagogue was vandalized last November:

"It’s horrific and heartbreaking.... [Taking out your feelings about] what's going on in the Middle East by defacing a sacred space of a synagogue -- that’s the very definition of antisemitism."

I'm also posting about the Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue in Toronto, whose windows were broken on Friday, April 19th, by someone who also tried to break the front door down.

And the April 15 graffiti outside a Bangor, Maine synagogue that said, "Nazi Israel 30K murdered," next to a crossed-out Star of David. The same synagogue faced pro-Hamas flyers plastered around it in November.

I was going to include all the synagogues vandalized over the past six months. But there are way too many. Several every week. Lots are swastikas.

I'll go back to just doing attacks on and near synagogues.

Someone has to talk about the 1-year-old who was stabbed outside Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel (BZBI) synagogue, in Philadelphia, on April 13th.

The foiled terrorist attack on a Moscow synagogue on April 11th.

The man who, on April 9th, screamed at the rabbi at Moldova's Great Synagogue, "What are you doing here? How come no one has finished you off for everything you are doing to the Palestinians?" Just one week after people had vandalized a Holocaust memorial in nearby Soroka, and sprayed "Free Palestine" on it.

The Oldenburg, Germany synagogue that was firebombed on April 5th.

The Florida Las Olas Chabad Jewish Center, which on March 16 burned, but not to the ground. The Torah scrolls were safe, and no one was hurt, but the back of the building was severely damaged.

The planned-but-thwarted-on-March-7th ISIS massacre in a Moscow synagogue.

The stabbing of an Orthodox Jew in Switzerland on March 5th. (He was badly injured, but expected to survive.)

A man leaving a synagogue in Paris was beaten on March 3rd.

People set the courtyard of a synagogue in Sfax, Tunisia on fire on February 27th. Firefighters managed to put the fire out before it consumed the inside of the building.

The synagogue is no longer used; there are no Jews left in its area, and fewer than 1,000 Jews left in Tunisia overall.

(Thousands of Tunisian Jews were sent to work camps during the Holocaust. Antisemitism across the Middle East continued to increase rapidly for decades. By the 1970s, 90% of Tunisian Jews had fled to France or Israel.)

On February 18, an Orthodox Jew leaving Synagogue of Inverrary-Chabad in Lauderhill, Florida, was beaten by an attacker yelling racial slurs.

Someone deliberately chose International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, to smash all the windows in the front of Sgoolai Israel Synagogue in downtown Fredericton, New Brunswick.

On December 29, Turkey arrested 32 people linked to ISIS who were planning attacks on synagogues and churches.

On December 17, a man drove a U-Haul truck up onto the sidewalk between a barrier and the front door of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington D.C., got out, and started yelling "Gas the Jews." He also sprayed a foul-smelling substance on two people leaving the synagogue.

December 17 also saw 400 synagogues across the United States receive bomb threats.

On December 11, a man attacked an elderly couple on their way into a synagogue in Los Angeles, screaming, "Give me your earrings, Jew!!" and beating one of them bloody with a belt. (Happily, he chased the guy down the street, and caught him when his pants fell down.)

On December 10, a 16-year-old was arrested in Vienna for planning an attack on a synagogue.

On December 8, on the first night of Hanukkah, 15 synagogues in New York State received bomb threats. And someone screamed, "Free Palestine," and fired shots outside of Temple Israel in Albany, NY. Which has a preschool that was in session.

Meanwhile, the five Jews left in Egypt were canceling public Hanukkah candle-lighting at their synagogue out of fear of reprisals. Particularly after two Israelis in Alexandria had been gunned down by terrorists on October 8. (While Israel was still fighting Hamas in Israel.)

On November 15, a terrorist group set the only synagogue in Armenia on fire.

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) has a history of working with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

(PFLP is part of Hamas's network of groups. Samidoun is their nonprofit arm - which is why Germany banned Samidoun last year, although it's still active in many other countries.

PFLP is also actively supported by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a diaspora nonprofit group, and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), an SJP spinoff in NYC.)

On November 11, halfway through Shabbat services, police asked Central Shul in Melbourne, Australia to evacuate "as a precaution" due to a "pro-Palestinian" protest that had chosen the neighboring park as its gathering place. Australia has seen some very outspoken antisemitism at protests, including the march shortly after October 7 that chanted "Gas the Jews."

Also on November 11, protesters targeted a synagogue along a march route. They sat in their cars, spraying green smoke and shouting at people leaving the synagogue. The march itself featured a record number of horrifying signs and chants.

On November 7th, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal was firebombed, and the back door of the Jewish organization across the street (Federation CJA) was set on fire.

On November 4, protesters chanted "Bomb Israel," and burned an Israeli flag outside the only synagogue in Malmo, Sweden.

During October, there were 501 antisemitic acts under investigation in France in just three weeks, including groups gathering in front of synagogues shouting threats, and graffiti such as the words “killing Jews is a duty” sprayed outside a stadium.

On October 18, people firebombed a synagogue in Berlin after homes all over the neighborhood were graffitied with stars of David.

And also on October 18, hundreds of "pro-Palestine" rioters attacked the Or Zaruah Synagogue, in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa, while worshippers were inside.

Based on the video, they seem to have blocked the synagogue entrance completely, while screaming "Murderous Israel" and waving Palestinian flags. (Melilla is an autonomous zone belonging to Spain. It borders Morocco.)

On October 17, during pro-Palestinian protests, hundreds of rioters set fire to Al Hammah synagogue, an abandoned house of prayer in central Tunisia. They hammered down the building’s walls and raised a Palestinian flag on the building. Police did not intervene.

The Facebook page "Tunigate", which has around 88 thousand followers, published a video of the assault. So did "Radio Bousalem”, with 83 thousand users. The vast majority of comments on these videos welcome these acts. The building was severely damaged and almost completely razed to the ground.

On October 15, bomb threats were sent to many East Coast synagogues. Attleboro synagogue Congregation Agudas-Achim received one of the emails, which read, "The bombs will blow up in a few hours. A lot of people will die. You all deserve to die."

On October 8 -- again, while Hamas was still in Israel -- Madrid’s main synagogue was defaced with graffiti that read “Free Palestine” next to a crossed-out Star of David.

And on October 7, an assailant in Rockland, NY fired a BB gun at two women entering a synagogue. Later in the month, a banner at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the area was vandalized with the words, “Fuckin kikes."

[jessicalprice]

christian universalism strikes again

(Reposted from Twitter)

So a rabbi I know came back from LA pretty jazzed about a Jewish addiction treatment facility there called Beit T'shuvah and so we talked about their approach and that got me curious about non-AA approaches to dealing with addiction which, my friends, was fascinating.

I’ll admit that almost everything I know about AA is more or less from The West Wing. I'm fortunate in that no one in my immediate family has dealt with substance abuse issues, and as far as I know, none of my close friends are alcoholics. My knowledge is pop culture knowledge.

But hearing about Beit T’shuvah was very interesting to me because:

I'd heard that a lot of people who aren't Christian have a hard time with AA because it's so Christian.

The difference in philosophy was subtle at first glance but actually paralleled a lot of the differences between Judaism and Christianity if you dug into it.

Anyway, I got curious about whether success rates were different for Christians vs. non-Christians and started googling. I didn't find much in the way of the data I was looking for, but I did find something a lot more disturbing, which is that the whole 12-step thing is not science-based. At all. For example:

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse compared the current current state of addiction treatment to medicine in the early 1900s, when there weren't a lot of standards for who could practice medicine. In order to be a substance abuse counselor in many states, you don't need much more than a GED or high school diploma.

A 2006 survey found "no experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or TSF approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems."

And I want to make clear here that I'm not saying AA is bad--clearly it's helped people. The problem is that it's touted as a universal approach, which is a problem when it's not based on any sort of actual science. 

AA claims that its success rates for people who "really try" are 75%. (And boy does that mirror gaslighting diet language.) But the most precise study out there that's NOT coming from AA (https://amazon.com/dp/B00FIMWI1O) put actual success rates at 5-8%. One of the major textbooks on treating addiction ranks it at 38th out of 48 on its list of effective treatments.

So just like most fad diets, it fails for almost everyone who tries it, and then blames the individual for its failure.

A glaring issue is that the 12 steps don't really acknowledge--or provide any guidance or structure for dealing with--other mental/emotional health issues. That’s a giant problem when people with substance abuse issues have higher than average rates of those issues. (Take a moment to consider how the victim-blaming approach of “if you didn’t succeed, it’s because you didn’t try hard enough” is going to intersect with someone’s major depression.)

Now, if 12-step programs were just one available treatment approach out of many, this wouldn’t be that big of an issue.

But 12% of AA members are there because of court orders. Our legal system is requiring people to undergo treatment that is: 

Christian-based

Not scientifically supported

A failure for the vast majority of people

I mean, here's a pretty comprehensive breakdown that talks about the lack of scientific support for it, alternative treatments (like those in Finland, and naltrexone), and the fundamentalist origins of AA. 

The founder was a member of the Oxford Group, an evangelical organization that taught that all human problems stemmed from fear and selfishness, and could be solved by turning your life over to divine providence, basically. Sound familiar? He based AA on those principles, and given that the only alternative was "drying out" in a sanatorium, and that AA members would show up at bedsides there and invite inpatients to meetings, it must have looked really enlightened to people. In 2022, it bears a queasy resemblance to evangelizing to people in prison, literally a captive audience. 

To be fair--to their credit--they were some of the first people out there saying alcoholism was a disease, and not a moral failing. But they didn’t treat it like a disease when it came to testing treatment options:

Mann also collaborated with a physiologist named E. M. Jellinek. Mann was eager to bolster the scientific claims behind AA, and Jellinek wanted to make a name for himself in the growing field of alcohol research. In 1946, Jellinek published the results of a survey mailed to 1,600 AA members. Only 158 were returned. Jellinek and Mann jettisoned 45 that had been improperly completed and another 15 filled out by women, whose responses were so unlike the men’s that they risked complicating the results. From this small sample—98 men—Jellinek drew sweeping conclusions about the “phases of alcoholism,” which included an unavoidable succession of binges that led to blackouts, “indefinable fears,” and hitting bottom. Though the paper was filled with caveats about its lack of scientific rigor, it became AA gospel.

And then Senator Harold Hughes, who was an AA member, got Congress to establish the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which promoted AA's beliefs, and sometimes suppressed research that conflicted with them:

In 1976, for instance, the Rand Corporation released a study of more than 2,000 men who had been patients at 44 different NIAAA-funded treatment centers. The report noted that 18 months after treatment, 22 percent of the men were drinking moderately. The authors concluded that it was possible for some alcohol-dependent men to return to controlled drinking. Researchers at the National Council on Alcoholism charged that the news would lead alcoholics to falsely believe they could drink safely. The NIAAA, which had funded the research, repudiated it. Rand repeated the study, this time looking over a four-year period. The results were similar.

The standard 28-day rehab stay, prescribed and insured:

Marvin D. Seppala, the chief medical officer at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Minnesota, one of the oldest inpatient rehab facilities in the country, described for me how 28 days became the norm: “In 1949, the founders found that it took about a week to get detoxed, another week to come around so [the patients] knew what they were up to, and after a couple of weeks they were doing well, and stable. That’s how it turned out to be 28 days. There’s no magic in it.”

The last sentence here (bolded for emphasis) is especially chilling. 

That may be heartening, but it’s not science. As the rehab industry began expanding in the 1970s, its profit motives dovetailed nicely with AA’s view that counseling could be delivered by people who had themselves struggled with addiction, rather than by highly trained (and highly paid) doctors and mental-health professionals. No other area of medicine or counseling makes such allowances.

There is no mandatory national certification exam for addiction counselors. The 2012 Columbia University report on addiction medicine found that only six states required alcohol- and substance-abuse counselors to have at least a bachelor’s degree and that only one state, Vermont, required a master’s degree. Fourteen states had no license requirements whatsoever—not even a GED or an introductory training course was necessary—and yet counselors are often called on by the judicial system and medical boards to give expert opinions on their clients’ prospects for recovery.

And, again, the idea that this is the One True And Only Way to deal with alcohol abuse leads to medical professionals ignoring research and treatment options that could be helping people. They are, in essence, taking all this completely on faith. 

There has been some progress: the Hazelden center began prescribing naltrexone and acamprosate to patients in 2003. But this makes Hazelden a pioneer among rehab centers. “Everyone has a bias,” Marvin Seppala, the chief medical officer, told me. “I honestly thought AA was the only way anyone could ever get sober, but I learned that I was wrong.”

Stephanie O’Malley, a clinical researcher in psychiatry at Yale who has studied the use of naltrexone and other drugs for alcohol-use disorder for more than two decades, says naltrexone’s limited use is “baffling.”

“There was never any campaign for this medication that said, ‘Ask your doctor,’ ” she says. “There was never any attempt to reach consumers.” Few doctors accepted that it was possible to treat alcohol-use disorder with a pill. And now that naltrexone is available in an inexpensive generic form, pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to promote it.

I'm not saying that AA is bad. I'm saying its hegemony is bad. It clearly is effective for some people--a minority of people. But it's not for the majority of people, and that's a problem when it's being prescribed by courts (and doctors) as if it's a one-size-fits-all approach.

It’s not an accident that a Christian approach to treating addiction presents itself as the One True Way For All Humankind, insists that courts and doctors privilege it, demands that people take its effectiveness on faith, and blames anyone for whom it doesn’t work for not believing/trying hard enough.

Hegemony is a problem. 

(Photo credit: Pixabay)

[olderthannetfic]

Being a trans man and not being an anti is also isolating, which is part of why I think trans guys gravitate towards either being an anti or reposting anti posts. If you're not an anti, you get booted from discord servers, blocked on social media at best or sent misgendering rape threats, death threats and suicide bait by other trans men at worst, and now that I'm in college I've found IRL that not being an anti makes a lot of people in queer spaces available to the average college student incredibly uncomfortable. So you have to either be entirely alone - which is very difficult when you're young, queer, and just coming into your own identity - or you have to be around it a lot without saying a word. Agreeing with it at first wouldn't even be necessary. You just have to not say anything against it, and then you'll be able to be around other people.

It doesn't help that most trans men who get sucked into anti circles are teens at the time. There's 501 proposed anti-LGBT laws right now, not counting everything that has passed, the majority of it anti-trans. If you're a teenage boy seeing all this transphobia on the rise, you're going to feel powerless. Bullying people like antis do makes you feel power over at least a few people. Being told you can consume your way into being a good person via media intake makes you feel like you have power and control over at least that.

I was sucked in incrementally because I wasn't exposed to the more violent antis who fantasized about murder and hurting people for writing fiction, I met my only friend - who was an anti - after my dad had beaten me for coming out as trans, and I was sixteen. I got out when I was eighteen because once I went to live with my mom, a psychologist, she gently corrected me when I would say things that aren't based in fact. She pointed out how upset these people were making me. She taught me how to fact-check claims and look into the veracity of claims.

And when I tried to convey to my friends that no, what they were saying wasn't supported, they turned on me. Including the only person who had been there for me when I was hatecrimed, who had reached out to me specifically because she met me what day. I lost every friend I had in roughly 30 hours.

If I hadn't had a really great mom, a very intelligent rabbi who's well-versed in psychology and is a former lawyer who saw the "fiction made me do it" excuse used to defend heinous crimes and doesn't buy it, and an older half-sister who lived through people calling her a psycho lesbian because she's a lesbian who played D&D, listened to metal and dressed Goth in small-town Montana in the 80's/90's, I would have probably killed myself. Having those three people who accepted me and did not accept this extremist rhetoric kept me sane and repaired my self-esteem enough to keep me going.

But a lot of people don't have three adults who are intelligent, supportive, and know better than to fall for this faux-psychology. A lot of people don't even have one. Often, they have unsupportive people who also believe firmly in the faux-psychology of "if you watch a thing you'll do that thing IRL". So there's not only no one hauling them out of this, it's getting reinforced.

Being a non-anti who is a trans man gets me a lot of shit from a lot of people online and offline. (As other anons have mentioned during the ace discourse, online talking points come up on college campuses and in real life, because the internet is not an alternate dimension, it is something being used by the people around you who exist in the same physical space as you.)

A reality that I don't think people want to discuss is that trans men, just like all other people of all other genders, suffer a lot of psychological distress if they're put in a position where they have no support. I sure as fuck wasn't happy being in a position where I went from having tons of online friends, discord servers I could hang out in and fandoms I associated with good vibes to none of that, plus harassment, plus massive misgendering.

It's a lot less awful of an existence to be a trans man and an anti when you're young and need community and support than it is to not be an anti and be isolated. And humans gravitate towards the least awful option 99% of the time.

--

Yuuup.

Having some kind of real support network, usually offline but at the very least not randos you met a day ago on discord, is vital and is the difference between not only whether you rot in a pit of antidom forever but in stemming the massive flood of trans teen suicides. The overall queer rates aren't great, but the specifically trans rates... they're bad. They're so, so bad.

[giyrut-girlie]

(queer) jews in my phone i need help/love

this is a long ass post im so sorry lmfao, im putting it in under the cut to save you all but also if people have head space pls read <3

on friday night, i found myself the last of the shabbat guests (who weren't staying the night) at the Rabbi's house. i had asked my housemate to pick me up at 10:30, but everyone else left before 10.

the kids and rabbi's wife had gone to bed, so it was me, the Rabbi, and two older frum guys who stay over shabbat most weeks to be closer to shul.

for some context, earlier in the evening one of these guys had asked another dinner guest (a med student who I'm good friends with, she's a year or two younger than me) whether trans issues came up in her study. the two of us youngins made brief "help me" eye contact and she answered saying that yes, they did cover trans issues given that as a doctor she will, at some point or another, treat trans patients. the subject was changed, but the room was a bit tense.

so: 10pm, i'm sitting at the table, a little tipsy from all the wine, just hanging out until my ride comes.

the rabbi says "hey ella, i have a question for you now that everyone else (by which he means the not-so-frum people) is gone." and i Just Knew what he was about to ask.

i won't go into extreme detail about the actual conversation, but to sum it up: I was asked my opinion on trans folk, i said that i am supportive and do in fact believe trans people about their identities and was Shut All The Way Down. if i cited statistics i was told that actually they'd seen the opposite, if i tried to explain a study i was familiar with, i was told that they didn't think that was true. i actually don't know how i stayed calm, bc my mind and body were telling me that i was Unsafe basically the entire time (thanks anxiety disorder really did me a solid there /s).

eventually 10:30 rolled around and i had a get out of jail free to skip the rest of that fuck awful conversation, and my housemate was very nice to listen to my debriefing. while talking to her i came to the realisation that one of the main factors in the disagreement was that the rabbi didn't actually value the wisdom of any cultures/teachings/histories outside of judaism. if I talked about sistergirls of the torres strait, or māhū of hawai'i, that was dismissed essentially as goyische nonsense.

this whole conversation has been a Fucking Downer for my mental health. i actually broke shabbat (beyond my usual one melacha to be in the clear and sneaky housemate taxi service) that night bc my thoughts were racing too much to sleep without putting on some comfort media.

but beyond the mental health stuff (though probably actually very related) i've found myself really struggling with judaism since friday night. having my rabbi, who has been helping me through conversion, and who i have really valued as a teacher, and the only two other frum people in the community be so overtly transphobic all at once has really taken me for a spin. like, my rabbi is a lubavitcher, i knew that he was going to be fairly conservative about some stuff, but he literally told me that he only uses the correct pronouns for one of our community members as a "personal favour", and essentially told me that she was good evidence against trans acceptance bc nothing she could ever do would ever make her not a man (and you better believe this involved a lot of comments about her appearance)

to put the icing on the cake, when i dropped off his kids today (i nanny for them once a week), he handed me a book that upon research is basically the jk rowling talking point bible. he said to me that it was a really good book for me to read and that it might help fight some of the "mob mentality" (interesting term for scientific consensus but okay)

(also i had actually looked up my own citations from the discussion later and found myself to be very much correct in my recitation of statistics, but you better believe i wasn't petty enough to forward them on)

ANYWAY if anyone is still reading i'm fucking bummed and super anxious about interacting with my community, my conversion, finding the balance between really truly wanting to pursue an orthodox lifestyle and also being queer myself etc etc

i live in a really small jewish community and can't really leave until i finish my degree in 2026, so i can't exactly just find a more accepting rabbi or shul.

anyone have any advice, or just some solidarity for feeling shitty in this space? love u jews in my phone xx

[dragoneyes618]

Pogrom is one of four words that antisemitism has given to the contemporary vocabulary - the others are genocide, the attempt to kill an entire people; Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million Jews between 1939 and 1945; and ghetto, the name given to the enclosed areas in many European cities where Jews were forced to live until the twentieth century, and during the Holocaust.

While technically, the word "pogrom" refers to three waves of attacks against the Jews of Russia (in 1881-1884, 1903-1906, and 1918-1920), today the term is used to refer to any antisemitic attack.

The Russian pogroms radically affected Jewish life. American Jews, many of whose ancestors come from Russia, are very likely living here because of the pogroms. In 1881, when the pogroms began, more than half of world Jewry lived under Russian rule. However, the violent attacks quickly prompoted waves of Jews to flee the country, with most going to the United States. Twenty years later, during a second wave of pogroms, the number of Jewish immigrants in 1905-1906 alone exceeded 200,000.

The pogroms also caused a major upsurge in Jewish support for Zionism. The First Aliyah (wave of immigration to Palestine) came in response to the 1881 Russian pogroms, and the Second Aliyah in reaction to the ones that began in 1903. In 1989-1990, rumors of impending pogroms caused an immediate and enormous upsurge in Soviet-Jewish emigration to Israel.

In addition to the killings and looting, the most disquieting feature of the pogroms was the support they received from the Russian government. In the aftermath of six hundred pogroms that took place between 1903 and 1906, it was revealed that the pamphlets calling for the attacks had been printed on the press of the czar's secret police. My grandfather Nissen Telushkin, the rabbi of the small shtetl of Dukor, told me that Russian Jews used to wish for a corrupt police chief because he could be bribed to stop a pogrom. It was the "idealistic" police chief whom the Jews dreaded because when the order to make a pogrom was issued he could not be bribed. 

What was a pogrom like? Shocking eyewitness testimony was given by Sholem Schwartzbard. I offer it hesitantly The description is so sickening that images from it have on occasion haunted my nights. Schwartzbard himself was a survivor of the pogroms of 1918-1920, which occurred during the brief interval when the Ukraine was an independent republic under the rule of Simon Petlura. After the Soviets defeated the Ukrainian forces, Petlura escaped to Paris, where Schwartzbard assassinated him in 1926. After a three-week trial, in which Schwartzbard offered evidence of what Petlura, his troops, and the Ukrainian masses had done to the Jews, a French court acquitted him. This excerpt reveals the nature of a pogrom:

"At the end of August [1919], when I was in Kiev, Petlura's advance guard entered. They murdered all the Jews they met on their way. In the center of Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya Street, I saw the corpse of a young man stretched out on the pavement and, her head on his dead body, a woman lamenting for her one and only son. Hoodlums shouted obscenities, mocking her despair. One sermonized: "This is good. We'll show you, damned Jews, we'll slaughter you all."

[Elsewhere} they forced unfortunates to eat their excrement. They shoveled earth over them and buried them alive. Nor did they spare the dead...In Tripole on the Dnieper, Petlura's birthplace, after the fifth pogrom, forty-seven corpses of the old, the sick, and the children were left lying in the street, and no living soul remained after them. Dogs began to pick at the bodies, and pigs to nibble. Finally, a Gentile who used to work for Jews, out of pity dug a grave and buried them. The Haidamacks [Ukrainian soldiers] learned of it and for that they murdered him...."

All of the events described above occurred in the twentieth century.

- Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pages 258-259

[jhscdood]

i woke up in a Bad Headspace today and imma use by blog to vent about it like it's livejournal circa 2004.

tw for discussion of medical stuff

- I hate xmas. I'm jewish but my dad is not and the pressure to have An Perfect Xmas every year and the disappointment every year just grosses me out now. Not even going to talk about american xtian hegemony but there's some of that in there too.

- Today i began to suspect that the awesome new migraine med that actually stops my weather-induced migraines might also be interfering with the efficiacy of my prediabetes meds. or maybe im wrong and im Just That Fucking Exhausted.

- Spouse spent all last week recovering from a severe medication allergy and hives on 70% of his body. and steroids Do Not Agree with him so it was just. a wild time. terrifying af. stood over him with an EpiPen basically the entire time.

- 3 days before The Hives, i scratched my cornea while pruning bushes and that right there is a pain i do not ever want to revisit. had to go to the optometrist and get The Goo.

- 2 days before Cornea i had my first Botox For Migraine treatment. 31 injections to the face, neck and shoulders. it stung but it was over in like 4 minutes. takes 3 sessions to start kicking in. sessions are 12 weeks apart. so i guess we'll find out in August if it's working.

- day before Botox i had an ENT appointment and he stuck a camera up my nose and then diagnosed me with a weird vocal cord paralysis thing so now i have to go back to speech therapy for the first time in 26 years.

- Week before that, saw my neurologist and she diagnosed me with a weird intermittent lazy eye / motion lag thingamawhatsis so now i have to go to an ophthalmologist AND vision therapy.

- That week I also saw my PCP and explained to her about the intermittent abdominal pain I've been having since like 2021. She took me seriously!!! Which is good!!! But now i am scheduled for baby's first colonoscopy. And i have to keep a food journal, which i HATE because food is STUPID.

- All of the above all happened this month btw. December 1-23.

- My final appt in November was yet another ultrasound of my former left tit because there is an oil cyst at the site of my top surgery and they are VERY SURE it is a benign oil cyst but the rules require them to poke it every few months for 2-3 years.

- Before that I had a 48 hour ambulatory EEG which was the itchiest i have ever been in my LIFE. That same week our basement stairs collapsed and a contractor had to come rebuild them (up! to! code!). That same week i also went to the dentist to get my crown fitted.

- I think my MIL was in the hospital that same week, too. so that's a thing that's been going on the whole time since then.

- I spent most of October deathly ill with food poisoning thst was originally misdiagnosed as viral. I ended up with a CT scan and colitis. and, eventually, cipro. it was the sickest i have ever been in my adult life. i would rather have mono again. i fantasized about those cholera beds with the hole in the center so you didnt have to get up to have your horrid dysentery. nightmare.

- The day before that hit i had ONE golden day where i felt good and had energy. we went to temple and i got glomped by about 10 different people. my 80 year old bestie kept finding me to hug me again. Rabbi hugged me super hard.

- Before that was a root canal, and before that was a tooth infection that took 2 rounds of antibiotics to kill, and before that was the original cavity filling that started it all. the dentist kindly comped me the $172 for the filling against the $3,800 bill for the root canal + crown.

- Before that? IDEK man. I have lost track. Somewhere in there i got diagnosed with insulin resistance which explained my HORRENDOUSLY TERRIBLE fatigue and cloudiness and waking up starving every 3 hours. The meds they gave me changed that literally overnight. it was a miracle. which is why im freaking out about the new migraine med possibly counteracting that. i spent the entirety of last summer in a fog. several of my very good friends visited and all i could do was nap on them. i couldnt go anywhere or do anything. it was a nightmare. i don't want to go back to that. but also i don't want to have a migraine every time the wind blows. but i would rather have a migraine 50% of the time than be back to that fatigue fogged state 100% of the time. nope nope nope.

- and amongst all of this, still having the seizures. they were going down for a while but the last week or so has been 1-2 per day. so. another checkmark in the "gee do you think you're stressed?" column.

- it is going on 10pm and I'm tired so i very likely have accidentally omitted several other things. to be fair to me, there's Quite A Bit to remember.

- so if youre wondering why i havent updated my latest fic, its partly bc i am TIRED and partly bc if i gave jason even a third of the health bullshit i have dealt with the past few months, it would absolutely defy belief. TWO kinds of eye problems AND a speech problem AND food poisoning AND dentistry?? surely no one in the world has to deal with that much!

sigh. anyway. thanks for listening. i promise i am stressed out of my GOURD but, shockingly, have not slid into any sort of depressive space. mostly im just annoyed. i spent today watching dinosaur documentaries and reorganizing my craft supplies.

tomorrow will be better. today just sucked.

[sappho-shalom]

conversion update!

so first of i just want to thank everyone for being so kind and supportive on my last post, it means so much! most of my experience with blogging on tumblr was like talking into a void so it’s really so cool to see so many people reach out to me and to be so helpful!

an update to the last post, i did manage to finish the first 5 chapters and complete the sort of “study guide” my rabbi sent to me, so now i’m onto the next 5! i told him about my concerns with this particular book (and my struggles when it comes to reading in general) and he completely understood and assured me that the rest of the book really picks up and will be less “technical” if that makes sense. so far he’s absolutely right, it goes into more detail about things that i don’t already know (i think the biggest issue with the first 5 chapters was just having to read about a lot of stuff i was already aware of since i had been researching judaism for a bit at this point) and just seems easier to read.

my rabbi didn’t tell me to or anything but i am starting to ease myself into observing shabbos, i try not to go out and i put my phone and computer away on friday night which really helps me read and study! so far i’ve already finished a full chapter ^-^

another big thing, he gave me a siddur and recommended i do 2 blessings every morning! i’m not sure about the names or anything but they’re about the soul and body g-d gave to me! we read through them together and it was a really touching and powerful experience, especially as i struggle with my own self esteem and body image problems :]

i have a feeling that i will start going to friday night services soon which i’m really excited for! in the meantime, next week i’m planning on making challah and having a friend over for shabbos !

i think my number one concern right now is just my social anxiety, i love meeting with my rabbi and talking about things but i just have a really hard time with the actual talking part 😭 i fear that it makes me seem unenthusiastic or nervous about the conversion process when in reality i am super excited!!!

anyways that’s all i can think of right now, thanks again!

[hallelujahonmytongue]

I finally went to meeting for worship after meaning to for months but never actually going, and it was so nice! I am so out of practice at sitting in silence so my brain was going a mile a minute for most of it but G-d still managed to speak to me. I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I’ll never believe in G-d again, because that’s where I thought I’d end up since after I last lost my faith (which was over a year ago now) and it hurt so badly that I promised myself I’d never open myself up to that pain again. But I heard the still, small voice asking if that’s how one should go about love? Shutting oneself off to it for fear of pain? I wouldn’t think that about any other kind of love. As soon as I thought that I got all the classic feelings I get when I sense G-d’s presence. Which was nice. I’m still so burned from a year ago that I’m really, really scared of starting to pray again which makes me realise quite how horrible that time was. But I’m getting more open to stuff now. I should talk to the rabbi, anyway.

I was thinking about how I can reconcile the pain and suffering in the world with a G-d that I would want to pray to. I basically came to the conclusion that when G-d created the universe, they basically set the conditions for the laws of physics and they created the Earth such that there would be no pain or suffering. But like the midrash (I think it’s a midrash, might just be someone’s idea) that G-d took a breath in and in that space the world was created, when G-d moved out of the way so that humans could live, the perfect creation shattered like a clay pot. It’s the work of humans to fix the pottery, like tikun olam. The world is not meant to be this way, and we can fix it through human actions. When I pray to G-d I’m not praying that They will intervene in the world directly, because that’s not what They do. I’m praying so I have hope that things can be better and so that I will be spurred to action to make that better world. I forget which nun said it, but I don’t pray so that G-d will change the world for me, I pray so that G-d will change me for the world.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I’m going to send emails out soon to finally try to find a willing rabbi to guide me in the conversion process. I’ve said I wanted to convert in December but was thinking about it even before then (that’s just when I told people). But I’m worried about not being Jewish enough. Like I want to convert ‘orthodox’ Sephardic, which ik is kind of redundant bc most sephardic ppl just say sephardic and aren’t rlly divided into orthodox, conservative, reform either due to historical reason, but like what if I turn out being not so orthodox after? Like I love the idea of being observant, but I know that I’m not someone to wear modest dress 24/7 (rn I only wear shorts like a handful of times of year but I’ll also wear leggings, and tights pants or v neck shirts that show cleavage). And I’m not a virgin and don’t really want to be celibate. Idk I just feel like if I go through the process of converting and being observant, I will be expectant to be fully observant and idk if that’s an expectation I can’t hold. Are there any other ppl that converted only to become ‘less’ observant after? And idk observance is a personal things, but many ppl will still look at you as less observant if you don’t follow every interpretation they do

I want to preface this by saying I hope you are able to find a rabbi who you feel safe to discuss this with. Oftentimes, you'll find that they themselves can empathize with you, even if they themselves are born jews. Jewish identity for all is complex. I also hope that, in answering this further, you might find comfort and know that you are worthy of converting.

I am in a mixed Ashki and Sephardi conservative shul, and my sponsoring rabbi is himself not conservative (I'm in a unique position). When he and when other rabbis ask about observance goals, I have noticed it is so they can anticipate how they can best help you. I myself want to be a 'typical' conservative jewish man, so I find some level of empathy with you! It's hard! And you're in what can feel like a raw and vulnerable space, one where judaism feels just out of reach, something you want or need. Trust me when I say I absolutely get it.

I felt the exact same as you before I joined my shul and later again when I found my rabbi. I worried about the fact that I didn't know how to daven, when to bow, the fact that the siddur is transliterated differently than what we say. It was overwhelming! But then... my community privileged me and truly put such an astounding effort in supporting my journey. It is by no means over, but they treat me the same as any other jew in the congregation. I'd feel weird if I pulled by phone out during shabbos because they hold me in the same light as them. All of this is to say that it is just as likely that you will find a community with whom you feel embraces you through this entire wonderful journey. It is entirely possible to marry your goals with judaism - it has been done before. How could a culture, a religion, a people have survived millenniums without someone like you having made a similar journey and made it as a jew? There will always be people like you, like me, who have made this journey and made it work for them, with others who loved them as a comrade, lover, friend, and confidant.

And when it comes to a varying of practice once you are jewish? It is only natural if that happens. A conversion is not an ever-lasting contract to stay stagnant in your practice - it is, essentially, formalizing that you are part of this people. I have been following plenty of jews who have converted and who have both become more observant and less observant. In fact, a ruling about this which has truly comforted me is from Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, a Sephardi chief rabbi who made a ruling about this:

You are human, and there are 613 mitzvot. Hardly any of us consistently follow them all - especially when many require the temple! We can only expect you to do your best, to live jewishly under your terms and readiness! It takes some of us years to work up to certain observances, and that is regardless of jewish status. It would be unfair to expect you to take on more than you are ready for, regardless of if you have immersed yet or not. Heck, I only feel comfortable observing a select amount of mitzvot because I want to understand all of them before doing them. I want my soul to yearn for an aspect of observance, because my personal goal is to fall hopelessly and madly in love with jewish life, judaism, and this wonderful people. I want to emphasize that we all come at judaism with a unique, interesting, and worthy background. Yours is no exception.

I hope that, maybe, you got something out of this rambling. You are worth it to convert if you have decided this is your desire, want, or need. I for one welcome you here, and hope that our paths continue to cross. Please don't hesitate to talk anytime - judaism is a communal practice. It is not something you can wholly do alone.

[gnothi-seayton]

I’ve been catching up on the “culturally Christian” discourse. I’m a bit disappointed that the most active posts are atheists going, “How dare you call me Christian?” instead of taking the opportunity to interrogate some aspects of themselves that are not as de-Christianized as they’d assume. I spent a large part of my youth trying to find those blind spots and I’m a second generation non-Christian.

But this points to what I see as one of the corner stones of Christian culture: emphasis of belief over practice. It started with Paul’s epistles where he introduced the centrality of faith. Jesus spoke of faith in the gospels, but not nearly as much as exhortations about how to live a moral life. Next, the Council of Nicaea established its creed, a series of “we believe…” statements that Christians still recite every week. Nicaea and every subsequent Council has laid down further obligatory sets of beliefs and anathematized anyone who refused to toe the party line. Christian states have made heresy a crime. Conversion became a prerogative. Many were killed because they refused to submit.

This emphasis on belief got cranked up to 11 in the Reformation. Where Catholicism teaches the importance of faith and works, Calvin taught sola fide, salvation by faith alone. Modern philosophy started around the same time and was self-consciously a merely intellectual exercise, unlike ancient philosophy. So when major breaks with Christianity came on the scene, it shouldn’t be a surprise they defined themselves with terms like “atheism” and “skepticism.” Their emphasis was also on (lack of) belief. Atheists evangelize their beliefs and are quick to ridicule any one for wrongthink. Politics are much the same, especially here on Tumblr.

Now contrast that with Judaism and Islam and other religions where relatively more emphasis is placed on correct practice than correct belief. There are certain doctrinal red lines, of course, but it doesn’t come up as often as the importance of prayer ritual (think of phylacteries or salat) or following certain behavioral rules (dietary restrictions, wearing certain clothing). Christian chauvinism tends to look down upon halakah and shariah as being backward or “medieval”. From an orthopraxy perspective, the Christian emphasis on highly specific doctrine might seem like a weird fixation.

I think it’s no coincidence that the Ethical Society was founded by a man who had once trained to become a rabbi. His organization focused on secular congregations and public outreach. Many of the culturally Christian atheists of the time were more interested in publishing tracts or debating Christian ministers.

So to think that even though you come from a Christian culture and perhaps were even raised actively in a church, that simply switching out one belief for another will radically transform who you are and how you interact with the world is incredibly naive. Start by looking at the ways in which you privilege belief over action in your life.

[nijjhar]

John 14v21-26:- Corruption by the Messianic Jews. Jesus set us FREE as M... John 14v21-26:- Corruption by the Messianic Jews. Jesus set us FREE as Mary Magdalene was of the 7 demons of Menorah. Co commandments from Christ Jesus. https://youtu.be/j8eQZzkUKOg Anti-Christ Popes and their stooges call themselves "Fathers" when we have One Father of our souls Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. Holy Gospel of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc., delivered by the First Anointed Christ, which in Punjabi we call Satguru Jesus of the highest living God Elohim that dwells within His Most beautiful living Temple of God created by the demiurge Potter, the Lord of the Nature Yahweh, Brahma, Khudah, etc. and it is called Harmandir or “Emmanuel” according to Saint John 14,21-26. Jesus said to his twice-born Labourers that he had employed in the Royal Vineyard of our Supernatural Father of our souls and not the once-born spiritually blind disciples of the Rabbis, a corruption by the Messianic Jews: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me; a corruption. Jesus came to set us FREE and not to bind us. Whoever loves me philosophically called “Philia Love” will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him in “His Word”.” Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, yet the word you hear is not mine called “InshJesus” but that of the Father called InshAllah who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy spirit, common sense that the illiterate people use, the Gentile uses that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you." Youtube channel - Truthsoldier I served in the satanic Iraq war. I openly am shamed for that and I asked for forgiveness for taking part in that war. I actually had my awakening while over in Iraq. My eyes were opened to the injustice of that war. The Iraqi people loved Saddam; they had whole stories with nothing but Saddam’s face on everything. Since then I have been speaking out against the US and ISRAEL on my Youtube channel. Here is my contribution:- Holy spirit, common sense, shatters the fetters of the dead letters, the Holy Books. If we have One God, our Supernatural Father of our souls, then there should be one Faith. In Christianity, Jesus said One Fold called the Church of God headed by One Shepherd, our Bridegroom Christ Jesus/Christ = Satguru Nanak Dev Ji, the Second coming of Jesus. Solid Proof; this Golden Temple is of the same size as the Holiest of Holy that used to be in Jerusalem and its Curtain held the Secrets of the Oral Torah = His Word was rendered from the Top, the Temple High Priests, to the Bottom, the village Rabbis off you go – Luke 16v16; Law and Prophets were till John and thus, everyone makes a direct approach to God through His Word = Logo = SATGUR PARSAD. So, these hireling Dog-Collared Priests and Mullahs, cannot give your account to God as the Rabbis used to give at Passover. So, they are "ANTICHRISTS" that have a following of the spiritually blind Super Bastard Fanatic Devils - John 8v44 -, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, Christian, Muslim, etc. Outwardly, and not spiritually inwardly. These spiritual selves Hindu, Jew and Christian, are never born like Christ, the Title and they never die but the tribal selves Judah, Levi, Jatt, Tarkhan, etc. were born and they will die. Thus, Jesus was born and Jesus died on the Cross and rose on the Third Day and NOT CHRIST, THE TITLE. Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf Greatest Blasphemers and Killers Blair and Bush being considered by Anti-Christ Bishops for Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize should rather go to Assange and the Iraqi Journalist who threw both his shoes at the hypocrite Bush in Iraq. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qHdTpTXHvE&list=PL0C8AFaJhsWz7HtQEhV91eAKugUw73PW1 Christ Jesus was killed by the Temple High Priest Hypocrite/Blasphemer against the Holy Spirit and so are these Bush and Blair who at the backing of Jewish people in the USA destroyed one country after the other starting with the cradle of Humanity Iraq, the Land of the forefather of the Chosen People who are no more faithful to Abraham but has become sons of the Highest Satan Al-Djmar Al-Aksa. Blair and Bush’s blasphemies against Holy Spirit https://youtu.be/0WBYOmpDuCs American Jews are today – http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/GrimReaper.htm Destroying one country after the other, so that the scripture is fulfilled. Also, do not forget the partition of India and how the dirty hearted-British divided the homeland Punjab of the brave Jatt tribal soldiers who fought in the two World Wars for the British. Trinity:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

[loliwrites]

Ok so -- per the Friday night sleepover prompts, I'm going to tell you about my crush. BC I have like.. 3.

guy numero uno: Looks vaguely like Gustaf, DOM with a capital D. VERY much speaks my language sexually but I'm a little intimidated to meet him in person.

guy numero dos: Dog dad (to a Bully breed ANGEL), new in town, Jewish, and my kind of handsome (tall, thick, bearded, sweet smile, V nice hands,. vaguely nerdy). VERY promising. I'm not Jewish, but I've always felt inexplicably connected to the religion even though I typically eschew most modern religions but there's a lot to it that I feel drawn to and respect. And then I found out there's a whole belief about how Jewish converts are believed to be reincarnated souls of formerly Jewish people who are coming home to their people and it felt like "whoa"

guy numero tres: Cat dad (but she's V cute.. excellent whiskers, seems to be the boss of him in the best way). Lives in the same city as my two best friends. Goofy & seems to be a hardworker, very nice green eyes.

So anyway, I'm basically a giggly teenaged girl every time my phone goes off.

Charlie, yesssssss! I love all of this for you. Literally beaming with pride over here 🖤🖤

Perhaps guy numero tres is the most attainable, BUT may I present to you, my top runner, Jewish boy numero dos.

And you’re right! Converts to Judaism are seen as more holy than people who are born Jewish because the process of converting is made so difficult. Traditionally, people seeking to convert will be turned away from a rabbi 3 times before being allowed to begin the process. That’s ‘cuz we’re a tribe and unlike practically all other religions, we don’t actively search out new members. You’ll never find a Jew knocking on your door to try and get you to convert.

Perhaps I’m a little biased being Jew-ish (I’m about as secular as you can get while still identifying), but Judaism on the whole tends to be one of the most tolerant religions. Sure we’ve got our own wonky stories and rules. But on the whole, Judaism supports same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, even in the most conservative groups. People in the non-binary community have found comfort in Judaism’s idea of b’tzelem elohim which says every human is made in the image of God, just as they are, perfect. And what I love most is the Torah only says to love your neighbor once. In the whole text. But it tells you to love and protect a stranger thirty-six times.

Edit: Wanted to add that even the most super Orthodox community supports women’s health and rights. They support abortion if the woman’s life is endangered and sometimes require it if that’s the case. As well as “health” not only being interpreted as physical & reproductive health, but mental health included.

Anywho, that’s my soapbox. Oh, and wish the Jews in your life, Shabbat Shalom tonight. And may you all have a peaceful and restful weekend.

[yhwhrulz]

Worthy Brief - September 20, 2024

Prepare to be married!

Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and we will give glory to Him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.

The last and most intimate metaphor for Messiah's relationship with us is as Bridegroom to Bride. For some, the Lord's intention to marry will be the most significant and wondrous purpose in all of Creation. The preparation for the wedding will be the most meticulous and profound of all historical processes, orchestrated by His Holy Spirit in cooperation with every devoted and expectant saint who ever lived.

Ancient wedding customs provide insight illustrating our preparation for the divine wedding ahead. In ancient times, acquiring a bride involved a transaction; a bride-price and a dowry were set and agreed upon in the betrothal of a young couple. Following this agreement, the bridegroom returned to His Father's house to build a domicile for his expectant bride while she anticipated her husband's return by preparing her wedding garments.

In parallel, our betrothal to our holy Lord, the beginning of our preparation for marriage, required the offering of His cleansing blood on our behalf. And before returning to his Father's house following his death and resurrection, Yeshua told his disciples, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." [John 14:2-3]

It is clear that Yeshua expected his followers to understand the parallel to betrothal and marriage customs within their own culture and to apply that understanding to their own relationship with him. This applies to us as well. Anticipating our Bridegroom's return will awaken a deep excitement stimulating an intense desire to be prepared for him.

Your love for your Bridegroom will be expressed in your desire to be like him. That preparation is the work of the Holy Spirit within you, cleansing and transforming you through faith, good works, obedience, and prayer, the "fabric" of your wedding garment. Your joyful anticipation of his soon return will inspire the abiding, which prepares you for the heavenly announcement you've waited for all your life.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Obadiah and Elianna (Missouri) (Baltimore, Maryland)

Editor's Note: Feel free to share any of our content from Worthy, including Devotions, News articles, and more, on your social platforms. You have full permission to copy and repost anything we produce.

Editor's Note: During this war, we have been live blogging throughout the day -- sometimes minute by minute on our Telegram channel. - https://t.me/worthywatch/ Be sure to check it out!

Editor's Note: Dear friends — we are now booking in the following states. Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida! If you know Rabbis, Pastors or Leaders who might be interested in powerful Israeli style Hebrew/English worship and a refreshing word from Worthy News about what’s going on in the land, please let us know how to connect with them and we will do our best to get you on our schedule! You can send an email to george [ @ ] worthyministries.com for more information.

[umichenginabroad]

Week 13: Frühli-cking Around

Ciao all,

This week was filled with festivities topping off the semester before finals kicked in. I’ve got a TON of work to do over the next few weeks, my assignments are detailed in the “Finals Season” section below. The other sections are more lighthearted and fun! Skip around as you wish, thanks for reading!

Surprise :)

This weekend, my favorite person in the world (and best friend) Miss Lydia Kim surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. She knew I’d been a bit stressed and just felt like treating me. Gosh, I love her! I’ll be honest, our friendship is probably the best thing to come out of this program.

Pesach, Abroad!

This week I celebrated Passover along with some of my Jewish friends here in Prague. Brandon and I signed up for a Seder at the Prague Chabad to kick off the holiday. It was extremely expensive ($70 per person) which I found ridiculous, but we paid it anyway because we felt a strong need to go to at least one seder this Pesach holiday. 

We opted for the English service over Hebrew so we could both follow along, and we ended up getting sat at a table with 3 other Michigan students and the parents of one of the students! It took ~5 minutes to make a connection with the parents - the Dad’s brother is my cousin’s girlfriend’s Dad. Classic Jewish geography. For those who don’t know, the Seder calls for the drinking of 4 cups of wine, so our table got pretty chatty relatively quickly. And, one of the Rabbis started handing out shots of their homemade vodka, so we surely had a lot of fun. We actually ended up leaving early because it was a long service, at the idea of the parents, who treated us to drinks and food at the guys’ favorite bar afterwards! Overall, it was definitely a night to remember, Brandon can attest. I usually go to one of my friend’s houses in Michigan to celebrate the Jewish Holidays at school, so it felt good to connect with other Jewish people around this time of the year.

The rest of the week I kept Kosher for Passover loosely, by consciously avoiding non-kosher ingredients. However, there wasn’t really much I could buy that was certifiably kosher because Prague is so secular, so I just had to use my best judgment. This made it more difficult than usual to keep Passover this year, that’s for sure.

Finals Season

This week we were informed of a ridiculous amount of work we had due over the next 2 weeks. I’ve listed all of the assignments below, by subject, so you all have an idea of our workload.

Communications in the Tech Sector:

Reflective Development Paper #3 (2-3 page paper on interpersonal/professional/social development abroad)

10-minute Individual Lesson (recorded presentation over zoom)

Final Executive Summary (informational catalog detailing our challenge project background, objectives, contributions, and results; this assignment has been a work-in-progress throughout the semester)

Challenge Project Infographic (required new addition to the executive summary)

Final Reflective Development Paper (fortunately, our professor Gray is the GOAT and changed this paper to just submitted our updated resume and a cover letter for review) 

Leadership Development in the Tech Sector:

Leadership Development Plan (Independent reflections on in-class activities and our challenge project experience, an additional 1200 word paper on personal development abroad)

Pitch Presentation (10 minute group presentation pitching a venture of your choice)

Challenge Project Final Deliverables and Presentation Panel (Final SEO strategy for the company; 10-15 minute group presentation to client)

Tech Ethics & Public Policy

Group presentation (10-15 minute group presentation performing a risk assessment on a chosen technology)

Group research report (~20 page report detailing the promises, perils, risks, and current/future regulations on the technology)

Individual reflection (2 page reflection on takeaways, group work experience, and contributions)

Architecture & Design in Prague

Final research paper (3-4 page report on a architectural site of choice)

Essential Czech

Travelers journal (3-4 entries per week of key insights about life abroad; my blogs definitely will come in handy for this one!)

Database Management Systems

In-class final exam

Wish me luck in completing all of this… rip.

Munich

This weekend, Alisha, Mihika, Lydia, and I went to Munich to celebrate Springfest!!! We took the early bird FlixBus again this weekend, but it was 6 hours instead of the dreadful 8 it took to get to Budapest last week. Springfest in Munich is a slightly smaller Oktoberfest, resembling an American county fair with rides and food trucks serving up everything from classic Bavarian pretzels to international street food. There’s also a maze of tents, some more traditional than others, but each bumping with folk music, clinking steins, and locals dressed in lederhosen-clad swinging to oompah bands! I wasn’t expecting so many people to be dressed up, I honestly thought it would distinguish us as foreigners from the local population if we were to rent outfits, but I was wrong… literally everyone was wearing them! We met a lot of Germans our age while mingling within the tent and also while waiting in line for the tents, which took like 3 hours too long. Although we didn’t dress up in dirndls, the traditional dress worn by women, we definitely got a unique, authentic German experience at the fest.

We also found time to wander around the city of Munich, and found it to be pretty modern with booming outdoor markets and shopping centers. I made sure to try the different types of wursts from the street vendors and other traditional foods like a full, slow-roasted chicken! 

We also toured an aristocratic palace in the heart of the city, but we pretended we were 15&under and didn't get ID'd to get free admission. Score! Pretty much everything inside was a replica though due to WWII bombings, so it was kind of underwhelming.

There were a couple Bachelor parties too while we were there, which made for some funny interactions. One of the guys literally tried to get us to spank the *bent over* groom with a branch… umm no thank you! We laughed but afterwards decided that Springfest would actually be such an ideal setting for a bachelor party for many reasons, especially the plentiful beer! It’s a super festive atmosphere, hosting numerous live bands and dance floors, and is typically much less crowded than Oktoberfest. I’ll definitely be keeping it on my radar for the future!

Now for some ins and outs:

Ins

Lederhosen: All the locals (and many tourists) were dressed in traditional clothing for Springfest, it was awesome! And, the Bavarians are not offended by tourists wearing lederhosen, just make sure to buy the real thing, e.g. go to Angermaier.

First Seder Abroad! I was excited and a bit nervous to celebrate Passover abroad due to the state of the world right now, but it felt nice to be a part of a Jewish community after being away from home for so long.

Outs

Academics: All of my classes seem to be piling work on us over the next few weeks as the end of the semester approaches, which is extremely overwhelming. We don’t typically get any class time to work on them, and I’m not going to have much free time to do homework when my family comes to visit next week. Going to have to lock in.

Wipe(outs): Crowds of people watched as people river surfed at a park in Munich. Lots of falls but it was cool to watch the group take turns jumping in and even coach the newbies.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s blog, I’m looking forward to catching you all next week!

Mach's gut (German for “do well” or “take care”),

Reese Liebman

Computer Science and Engineering

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) CS Tech Career Accelerator in Prague, Czechia