#chana talks

[chanaleah]

> American Jew

Your opinion is less than worthless, burger muncher. Real Jews suffer every day from barbaric Arab animals attempting to breach into Israel while you get to sit in safety in your cozy suburb, while also going to bat for the Ukrainian Nazis and their Azov brigade. Take the word ‘Zionist’ out of your bio, now.

haha great try "burger muncher" lmao. i'm finding it really, really, hard to believe you're actually an israeli.

you do realize i got almost a carbon copy of this ask like 2 months ago, no? like, i'm not a goldfish. i have a short term memory.

antisemites will try to divide us, but it will never work

עם ישראל חי

[chanaleah]

such a lovely piece of artwork! and i've tried the knishes at yonah schimmel and they are amazing! plus they have plenty of options for me, a vegetarian.

Art about duolingo’s new Yiddish language course by Ilya Milstein

[shalom-iamcominghome]

The feminine jewish name trifecta: Chana, Chava, Chaya

[theolddivorcedzukka]

mutuals will do things like get you into parasocially liking two french men and think about them while listening to music

[ofpd]

purchased cough suppressant. yuck

[chanaleah]

If you want to be an ally to the Jewish people, you’d better be ready to fight the antisemitism faced by all Jews.

Zionist Jews. Anti- and non-Zionist Jews. Observant Jews. Secular Jews. Reform Jews. Conservative Jews. Orthodox Jews. Israeli Jews. Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic Jews. Mizrahi Jews. Beta Israeli Jews. Desi Jews. Convert Jews. White-passing Jews. Jews of color. Visibly-Jewish Jews. Queer Jews. Left-wing Jews. Right-wing Jews. Patrilineal Jews.

We are one people, and if you only fight antisemitism when it targets the Jews you like, you’re not actually an ally of the Jewish people.

[sweetestofchaos]

Stray Kids Getting Protective/Jealous over another guy

Warnings: Cursing, Jealous!SKZ, Protective!SKZ, SOL, Unsolicited Dick Pics, Creepy Men

Parings: SKZ x GN!Reader

a/n: requested by one of my anon besties. thank you for waiting, I hope you like it!

Chan

As the two of you walked around the food truck festival, Chris held your hand so that you wouldn’t be separated from him. There were a lot of people around and he knew that you could handle yourself, but he still wanted to avoid having you placed in any negative situation if he could help. You had found a truck that sold different types of corn on the cob and circled back to it. Chris stopped to tie his shoe while you went on a head to stand in line. When Chris finished tying his shoe he hurried over to the truck and saw that you were not there. He looked around and saw that you were talking to a group of guys who looked ready to fight.

He hurried over, his body tense and on one hundred in case he needed to protect you. Chris noticed that there was a small child hiding behind one of the guy’s legs. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Chris asked as he placed his hand on your lower back. The men all looked at Chris and you nodded your head.

“I”m good, babe. This little one was lost, and I helped her find her family.”

They men all nodded in agreement and the tightness in Chris’ body loosened. He smiled and kissed your temple, “That was very kind of you…is she okay?” Chris asked as he smiled down at the little girl.

Minho

A quick in and out of the pet store, that all it was supposed to be. Minho was running low on cat food and you tagged along just to get out of the house. You got distracted by the cat toys (like always) and Minho said that he would be right back with the cat food. When he returned, you were not where he left you. He searched around and saw that you were looking at the kittens for sale. Before Minho could call your name, a guy walked up to you and asked if you liked cats. You told him that you had three, but they weren’t babies anymore.

The guy pulled out his phone to show you pictures of his own cats and Minho was a little annoyed that you so happily started talking to some stranger when he was for sure lying about cats. That much was made clear when you jumped back away from the guy after seeing a picture that was definitely not a cat. Minho had had enough, and he walked over.

“I would leave if I was you. That camera in the corner has a perfect shot of your face and whatever was on your phone.” Minho glared at the guy as he stood next to you and placed his hand in yours.

The guy rushed out of the store and when the two of you went to pay, Minho made sure to inform the store employee of what had happened. The two of you had to file a report but Minho would file a thousand reports if it meant that you wouldn’t have to ever see that creep again.

Changbin

He watched from his seat tucked away in a booth as guy after guy came up to you at the bar. You turned them all down, but this last guy wouldn’t leave you alone. Changbin rolled his eyes as the man made a big show of looking at his Rolex that was clearly fake. Having had enough, Changbin stood up and moved his way through the crowd over to the bar.

He came up beside you and interjected himself into the one sided conversation.

“Excuse me, would you like to dance? I can’t imagine this guy is any good at entertainment with how bored you look.”

You muffled your laugh behind your almost empty drink and nodded your head. You didn’t even bother to say anything to the man who was looking at Changbin in shock. Changbin winked at the man and grabbed your hand before he pulled you out onto the dance floor.

Han

When an unknown car pulled up in front of the cafe’, Jisung thought nothing of it. It wasn’t until the guy driving jumped out and jogged around to open the passenger seat that Jisung really paid attention. He thought it was really sweet and thoughtful that the man still went out of his way for whoever was in the car. The door opened and he saw a flash of a familiar coat that made him choke on his drink. He froze when he saw you get out of the car and wrap the man up tightly in a hug goodbye. You allowed for the man to squeeze you for far too long and Jisung wasn’t feeling the best anymore.

He couldn’t stop the anger and jealousy from clouding his mind. Just who did that guy think he was? Hugging you like that? If he didn’t have an image to uphold, Jisung would have been out front of the cafe demanding answers. However, he chose to wait and see what the relationship was between you and the other man. You pulled away from the guy and waved before you headed inside of the cafe. The man locked eyes with Jisung and gave him a two finger salute before he jumped back into the car and pulled off.

You found Jisung and saw the pout on his face. When you asked him what was wrong he clicked his tongue. “Who gave you a ride?”

“Huh?” You were taken back by the way Jisung’s voice shook, but answered his question anyway. “My cousin…I told you last night I was meeting with him this morning.”

Jisung felt stupid. He vaguely remembered you saying something about meeting up with someone named Em and stupidly he had assumed that it was a female.

“I thought Em was a girl.”

You laughed and shook your head. “Em is short for Emmett.”

Jisung’s cheeks heated up and he took a sip of his drink, “Oh..”

Felix

He was at the store with you to grab a few ingredients for a new recipe he wanted to try. The store was pretty crowded for a weekday but they were having a sale on the whole line of your favorite snacks, so Felix told you to grab a few without him. Some time had passed, and he went looking for you, only to find that some creep was trying to cope a feel in the madness.

“Hey!” Felix called out and the guy jumped back away from you when a few people looked back at his voice.

You smiled at Felix and when you saw the anger in his eyes you were confused.

“You wanna try that shit again you fucking pervert!?” Felix was seeing red as he glared at the man beside you. By now more than a few people had turned around to see what was going on and Felix kept going as the man tried to look around.

“I’m talking to you mate!” Felix stormed over and pulled you to his side. “You tried to touch them!”

People were whispering and the guy hurried off when someone suggested calling the cops. You hugged Felix tightly and snuggled into his chest.

“What would I do without you?”

Hyunjin

The two of you went to an art class together, it was a couple’s class that was supposed to make you appreciate your partner more. Hyunjin loved you and he appreciated you all the more, but he wanted to show you in a new way. Honestly, he wished he would have read the fine print on what the class was about. He thought he would be painting you but instead he was forced to watch some fucking creep paint you.

He knew that everyone here was supposed to be in a relationship, but he could tell right away that the one couple was faking it. Hyunjin watched as the man stood from his easel and walked around it to get closer to you. Hyunjin couldn’t see what the man said but the way your body tensed he knew he had to step in. He politely excused himself from the young woman in front of him, pushed hair from his face and walked over to your side. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders and glared at the guy.

“I’m sure your partner wouldn’t be comfortable with how you are hitting on another person,” Hyunjin stated loudly to gain a few eyes. “I know I’m not.” Hyunjin looked down at you and lightly gripped your chin between his thumb and index finger. “Are you babe?”

You shook your head and leaned into Hyunjin’s side, “No, I’m not.”

Seungmin

It wasn’t like him to get jealous. He trusted you and he knew that you didn’t have eyes for anyone else. However, that didn’t stop Seungmin from clenching his jaw when he walked into your workplace with lunch in his hands only to see some guy sitting on the edge of the counter you were behind. Seungmin watched as the man made up some excuse to try and touch you and when you stepped out of the guy’s reach, Seungmin made his presence known. He cleared his throat and called your name which made the guy step away from you slightly.

You saw Seungmin and ran over to him, throwing your arm around his chest while he hugged you back, his hands wrapped around your waist while he raised an eyebrow at the guy staring. He smirked as he kissed your temple and laced your hands together, “Come on, let’s have lunch.”

I.N

He should have known better than to leave you at the gym alone. He was only gone for a moment to refill your water bottle and when he came back to the dumb bells there was some guy standing in your space. You looked more than uncomfortable to say the least and the guy didn’t seem to care. Jeongin tightened his hold on the water bottles and walked right past the guy with his arm outstretched.

“Here, babe,” He smiled at you and kissed your cheek before he pretended to notice the guy behind him that was glaring. “Oh? Did you make a lil friend while I was away?”

You laughed at the way Jeongin called the man lil, it was a habit of yours that he picked up to insult people. The guy looked ready to swing and Jeongin clicked his tongue, “You’re in the way…”

[whilereadingandwalking]

As always, my favorites of the year list was beset by last minute changes, doubts, and decisions, especially because this year I forced myself into a top 10!

Second photo is my honorable mentions...I literally already have regrets! Ask me anything about these top choices—I'm happy to share my reviews, thoughts, and more!

My Top Ten of 2023:

Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu tr. Seidensticker

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Ace by Angela Chen

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez tr. McDowell

Honorable mentions:

Now Go: On Grief and Studio Ghibli by Karl Thomas Smith

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami tr. Gabriel

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

When the Hibiscus Falls by M. Evelina Galang

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Bleed: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care by Tracey Lindeman

Never a City So Real by Alex Kotlowitz

The Crown Ain't Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib

Sons of Darkness (Jan ’24) by Gourav Mohanty

The End of August by Yū Miri tr. Giles

(Unpictured): Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

(Unpictured): The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter

[chanaleah]

Or they do put a hole but then they don’t boil it. Like no that’s a healthy donut, not a bagel.

Absolutely disgraceful that people are calling regular boiled and baked bread rolls "bagels", the whole point of a bagel is not just that it's boiled and then baked, but also that it has a *hole* in it so it can easily be sold from a pole. It literally means "ring". It can't be a bagel if it's not a ring. If it doesn't have a hole, it's not a bagel. "Oh but if there's a hole, the filling will fall out". Shut up that's part of the experience, if you don't want that experience, you don't want a bagel.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Today is the 80th day of the war. It's been 80 days since Israelis all learned that we're not safe from Palestinian terrorists even in our own homes. It's been 80 days since most Jews worldwide have come under attack, of one type or another, following the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It's been 80 days since over 100 Israeli hostages have slept in their own beds. It's been 80 days of having to explain that we didn't start or want this war. It's been 80 days of looking at our loved ones, and knowing that on Oct 7, it could have been them. It's been 80 days of knowing that we'll have to keep losing Israelis, and mourning our people, if we want to rid the world (Israelis and Palestinians alike) of the threat of Hamas.

And indeed, two more Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday, while no less than 14 fuenrals for young soldiers, most of them around 19 or 20 years old, were held all across the country. One of the funerals had to be held low key, with almost no attendance, because the kibbutz this young soldier, Gal Hershko, belongs to is in the north, and the community members are evacuated, due to Hezbollah rockets being fired at the area. It would be too risky for them to be at that cemetery. The eulogies for Gal were held at a gym, close to where the evacuated members of the community are staying.

Israel is letting into Gaza 80,000 vaccines for children, to help with the health situation there.

The Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya has experienced a serious issue with its computers system since yesterday, it's possibly another cyber attack, like the unsuccessful one on the Ziv Hospital (the one that's now known to have been carried out jointly by Hezbollah and Iran). The GMC has had to shut down its computers, and has initiated a special protocol that exists for such situations, saying no medical service has so far been stopped. Let's hope that this is resolved quickly, and doesn't end up costing any human life.

Ukrainian-born Israeli gymnast, Olympic gold medalist and world champion Artem Dolgopyat has decided to auction the world championship gold medal that he won on Oct 7, and donate the money to the Israelis from the communities which were massacred on that day. Winning this medal was his stated dream after taking gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But when asked about this, he replied, ""What is the status of a world champion worth if my country hurts? The state of Israel comes first for me."

This is CCTV footage, showing a fragment of a rocket that hit an Israeli supermarket, after it was successfully intercepted by Iron Dome (for all the people who think Israel should just be okay with rockets being fired at it, because we have this defense system):

What I also find interesting is that this was shared by al-Arabiya, a Saudi news channel. One of the theories about the timing of Hamas' massacre, is that it was meant to provoke an Israeli reaction so fierce, that the Arab world would have to take a stand against Israel, and the possibility of peace talks between the Israelis and Saudis would come to an end. If that was the intention, al-Arabiya posting footage that explains to the Arab world, the Israeli POV, is an indication that maybe those peace talks still have a chance.

This is 30 years old Israel Chana.

On the morning of Oct 7, he was coming back from celebrating his 30th birthday with his family, friends, ad the girlfriend he told his mom he wanted to propose to. After the rocket attacks started, the terrorists got to his neighborhood. Israel worked as a security guard. He grabbed his pistol, 15 bullets, and went out to fight the terrorists. He saved his neighborhood, but was killed himself.

May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[x-reader-theater]

Hey hey hey!!! So you want more asks then, be not afraid dear author, here I am once again.

Today I am not feeling the angst, might i interest you in a Soap x italian!male reader, where they are obviously enamored with each other but they are both hot headed so every interaction they have is a screaming match in gaelic and italian.

I don't really know where i was going with this prompt but i hope you can find it interesting! Keep up the good work!!

pairing: John "Soap" MacTavish x Male!Reader

word count: 338

warnings: He/Him pronouns are not used, but it is heavily implied the reader is male. Also there's talk about having sex but the story ends before anything explicit happens.

a/n: i am so sorry this isn't be best. i don't know if this is what you wanted, but this is what you're gonna get. also, i don't know scottish or italian accents well enough to really write out their dialects in dialogue, so I apologize for my half assed attempt. also i used google translate so that's why the italian and gealic are bad. i hope you still like it though. my requests are open and you can find my request rules here.

“You are too fucking reckless!” you scream at Soap as the two of you storm out of the Helo. “You have a real fucking problem with authority!”

“I doon have a problem with authority when they doon treat me like a fuckin’ child!” Soap yells back. You try to speed up to lock him out of the showers, but he keeps up on your heels, always so much faster than you. “Tha thu cho feargach, tha mi dìreach airson do dhùnadh suas!”

“Sì? Vuoi farmi tacere? Come? Utilizzerai la tua stessa bocca per farlo?” you mutter back, and you swear you hear Soap’s steps stutter, before he’s back to his overly confident self.

“Is dòcha nach cleachd mi mo bheul, ach rudeigin eile,” Soap says, and now it’s your turn to stumble.

Luckily, you’re at the door to the showers, and so you stumble through the door. Luckily, you and Soap got back late enough, there’s no one else in the showers as you move to your lockers. You both undress in silence, stuffing your dirty fatigues into your locker and grabbing clean ones.

“La tua bocca è troppo bella per dire cose così sporche,” you whisper close to Soap’s ear, before walking towards the showers.

You get yours turned on when you’re slammed into the wall, a familiar body pressed against yours, already aroused. He spins you around, and Soap kisses you, hard, bruising, all teeth.

“I’ve wanted to do this all fuckin’ mission,” Soap growls into your mouth.

You slap his ass loudly, the sound not hidden by the spray of the ice-cold water on the dirty tile, though your words are. “Guess you’re not as impulsive as I thought you were.” Soap kisses you again, just as hard, and you say in between breaths, “Se non mi scopi adesso, giuro su Dio, non ricambierò mai più il favore.”

Soap chuckles and spins you around, pinning you to the wall again, and he whispers in your ear, “Ge bith dè a chanas tu, a ghràidh.”

[chanaleah]

exactly! people also need to understand the difference between a nation state and an ethnostate.

a nation state is a state that is based on the culture of a certain ethnic group, however all people are welcome.

an ethnostate is a nation state that only gives citizenship and rights to people of the ethnic group on which the state is based.

so Israel is a nation state, like many other countries - France, Germany, Mexico, and pretty much any other European, African, or Latin American country - as it is based on Jewish culture. However, Israel isn't an ethnostate because you don't have to be Jewish to be a citizen of Israel. In fact, ~20% of Israel's population is Arab, and while they face discrimination, Israeli Arabs have the exact same rights as Israeli Jews.

i will say this over and over and over again, calling Israel an "ethnostate" LITERALLY comes from the KKK and neo-nazi propaganda. every single one of you "as a Jew"s, it's fine if your anti or non Zionist but PLEASE LEARN WHAT WORDS MEAN and stop spreading antisemitic dog whistles about your own people!!!

100%

I think people really need to understand that internalized antisemitism exists.

I stand for all jews being valid and real jews, regardless of their opinion on Zionism.

However that doesn't mean that misinformation and internalized antisemitism just isn't going to be called out.

[thatliminal-wanderer]

Cecil Palmer (Welcome to Night Vale) ID Pack

Requested by 🎉🤩 anon

Names

Abel, Ain, Ambili, Ambrose, Axis, Balendu, Benito, Bilen, Buck, Cain, Chakshu, Chana, Chandak, Chital, Collin, Coues, Darby, Diya, Dyani, Fawn, Gazelle, Ghazala, Harina, Hart, Herschel, Himanshu, Indu, Iris, Jace, Kamaria, Key, Kurangi, Larkspur, Lillith, Lochan, Mahnoor, Mauve, Mayank, Mriganayani, Mrigank, Mrignaini, Mulberry, Nayana, Nell, Nilan, Nilava, Ofer, Oisin, Olimpik, Qamar, Rebecca, Roe, Roscoe, Sambar, Sarang, Selene, Shashank, Shika, Sika, Silas, Stag, Tungesh, Veronica, Vidula, Yamir

Pronouns

ant/antler/antlers, buzz/buzzes, crescent/crescents, dark/darks, deer/deers, deity/deities, eld/eldritch/eldritchs, eye/eyes, fawn/fawns, gaze/gazes, god/gods, hoof/hooves, host/hosts, indigo/indigos, insomnia/insomnias, lav/lavender/lavenders, lilac/lilacs, moon/moons, night/nights, ob/observe/observes, odd/odds, pur/purple/purples, radio/radios, report/reports, show/shows, speak/speaks, spot/spots, stag/stags, strange/stranges, talk/talks, ��/🌄s, 🌒/🌒s, 🌘/🌘s, 🌙/🌙s, 🌵/🌵s, 🎙️/🎙️s, 🏜️/🏜️s, 🐈‍⬛/🐈‍⬛s, 👀/👀s, 👁️/👁️s, 💜/💜s, 📻/📻s, 🔮/🔮s, 🕧/🕧s, 🗣️/🗣️s, 🦌/🦌s

Titles

A Purple Hued Deer, The All Seeing Eye, The Cat Lover, The Desert Brought Up Deity, The Host Older Than Time, The Moonlit Deer, The Nightly Radio Host, The One True Reporter, The One Who Runs The Show, The One With a Purple Hued Life, The Radio Show Host, The Town’s Saving Grace, [prn] Who’s In Love With Science, [prn] With Deer-like Qualities

Genders

Cecipalfosic, Collideeric, Crescentmoonlightic, Cryptidmasc, Floradeeric, Horaugic, Humornoxic, Killyourdoublgender, Liminalspacestalgic, Lunitwivieri/Solsteseric, Moonboylexic, Moonshipic, Mostlyvoidpartiallystarric, Notlove, Ultraveyelian, Valeience, Vintaudio, Viodeergender, WTNVcastic

Other mogai

Aldeerantler, Aldercervocryptic, Aldereyeweird, Alderliminal, Alderpolyoptic, Assigned Eldritch At Birth/AEldAB, Eldrigodperspesque/Eldrihorrorperspesque, Eldrivesil, Inviblackligheyes, Invifrozendoe, Moonstelic, Weirdcoreaestelic

[jewishdainix]

i know nothing about Les mis, how is it canon to the shaperaverse?

I saw this in the evening and was like "no im too tired to answer this" so now that it is a normal hour for using my brain (3 in the morning) I shall try to provide an explenation!

Basically. The way themes and characters work in les mis is EXACTLY how they work in the Shaperaverse minus the meta worldbuilding.

The narration of the book itself feels like its own character (it isnt said explicitly but that character is probably the author- victor hugo, much like how paul shapera himself also cannonically exists within the shaperaverse) and said narrator has a personality and famously goes on tangents.

There are also characters that seem to be aware of the existance of a narrative and CONTROL IT within the book. It is something the fandom talks about a lot and its never explained in les mis with worldbuilding, its just there, but it functions the same way posthumams in the shaperaverse do.

This goes for themes that connect characterd - the character of fantine and the characters of enjolras famously share perallels and their arcs complete eachother! Several people in the fandom have said that they would like to see versions of the musical where both are played by the same actor, and my friend chana @ofpd literally made a post that goes "enjolrad appeared as a 17 year old revolutionary the day fantine died". There is an understanding in the fandom that those characters are connected to eachother in the same way reincarnations in the shaperaverse are conmected to eachother, but there isn't the worldbuilding of the shaperaverse to make it "canon".

(I actually wrote a fic about enjolras being a reincarnation of fantine with the help of @underwhelming-universe . And we basically had to just write in the worldbuilding parts, because the characters were already perfectly set up by victor hugo to have the reveal! It fits so neatly its actually insane. )

There is even a character who gets their worldview shattered, and jumps off into the siene, which is very rmeinicent of flowering of posthumans like david adams.

The themes work exactly the same, minus the in-work worldbuilding, and fans keep talking about how characters work in a way that is literally JUST the shaperaverse without the worldbuilding.

And if you take the worldbuilding of the shaperaverse and apply it to les mis, it fits perfectly.

[mariacallous]

CHICAGO (JTA) — Earlier this month, 40 people gathered in Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood to design a sukkah.

But they hadn’t come together only to build a hut for the upcoming Jewish festival of Sukkot, which begins on Friday evening and revolves around Jews erecting and dwelling in temporary structures for a week.

For this interfaith, intergenerational group, constructing the impermanent space was a step forward in what they hope is an enduring relationship between a Jewish community on Chicago’s North Side and a Black-led church on the West Side.

“Interfaith, interracial, cross-city, cross-neighborhood relationship building does not happen overnight,” said Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann of Mishkan Chicago, the Jewish prayer community partnering on the project. “It’s taken over a year for us to get together three times, four times. This sustained effort of people to continue to build relationships takes a long time.”

The sukkah project is part of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, which was launched last year and aims to build connections between the predominantly Black West Side community of Lawndale and the city’s Jewish community, which was once centered in that neighborhood. As part of the festival, which will take place in Lawndale from Oct. 1-15, architects partner with local neighborhood organizations to build the sukkahs, which are repurposed as permanent structures following the festival.

This year, six organizations are building sukkahs, which will later become sites ranging from a pavilion for meditation or a tool library. Mishkan is the only synagogue participating in the festival, and it is building its sukkah in collaboration with the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, a legal services initiative founded by the Lawndale Christian Community Church.

Through building the sukkah, which will later serve as a memorial to 41 victims of gun violence who were part of the legal center, the communities hope to reckon both with present tragedy and historical pain.

The sukkah’s design will address the departure of Jews from Lawndale during the postwar “white flight” era, when white residents left newly integrated urban neighborhoods en masse for the suburbs. Lawndale once had 60 synagogues and 75,000 Jewish residents. By the mid-1950s, only 500 were left.

“It’s a sad, hard, important-to-reckon-with piece of Jewish history in Chicago,” said Heydemann, who delivered a sermon on that topic to the church on a Sunday last year. That Sunday was also Tisha B’Av, the Jewish fast day that commemorates the destruction of the ancient Holy Temples in Jerusalem.

“There are people from the congregation who remember when Jews and Black people both lived in the neighborhood before Jews moved out of the neighborhood, and that was a powerful conversation,” said Diana Collymore, a deacon who has been active in Lawndale Christian Community Church since 2014. “That’s one of the strongest pieces that stayed with people. There were people from Mishkan who remembered what street the grandpa or mom or dad grew up on here.”

The communities are collaborating with two firms: Architecture for Public Benefit and Trent Fredrickson Architecture, whose architects also hope to honor that shared history and create something that is responsive to the community’s needs, backgrounds and experiences.

“One of the community members was talking about this old Jewish restaurant that now doesn’t exist anymore and whenever she would go there she would feel welcome and at home,” said Chana Haouzi, the founder of Architecture for Public Benefit. “We just spoke of feeling invited and like that you could stay as long as you like.”

The relationship between Mishkan and Lawndale Christian began when Heydemann and the church’s lead pastor, Jonathan Brooks, who is also known as Pastah J, participated in a program for early-career clergy at the University of Chicago Divinity School. They have spoken to each other’s congregations and hope for the sukkah-building process to bring their members closer together.

Members are already finding commonalities between the two congregations.

“The Jewish community that came here from Europe, they were driven here from trauma and harm, and the African-American community that came from the South in the Great Migration, they too were fleeing trauma,” Collymore said. “And both have faith and they believe in a God, and their faith brought them and encouraged them and directed them and kept them and settled them in this space.”

One way the communities are connecting and confronting the past is through shared scripture. The group designing the sukkah found meaning in a well-known passage from Ecclesiastes, which is read in synagogue on Sukkot and relates how there is a time and a season for everything under the sun.

The two groups studied the passage, interpreting and analyzing the Hebrew and translated versions. Its text will later be emblazoned on the sukkah’s walls in Hebrew script, transliterated Hebrew and English.

“There’s appreciation around that Ecclesiastes passage,” Collymore said. “Having scripture out of both of our faiths, and especially the kind of passage so appropriate for the way things have changed here, I think this is a catalyst for more deeper conversations.”

The sukkah will have three main walls, which will feature shelves lined with vessels that contain artifacts contributed by the community to share stories and create moments of connection. At one gathering, participants painted and decorated rocks with designs and messages inspired by the passage from Ecclesiastes.

“We’ve documented a lot of the discussion, and I think ultimately it was this idea of understanding how these two communities work together and seeing the points of commonality and the focus on loving and caring for each other and putting people first and also God,” Haouzi said. “It’s really that idea that ends up being manifested in the design itself.”

In addition, Mishkan members have participated in a walking tour of the church’s community spaces and initiatives. In addition to the health center and the legal aid center, the church has a fitness center, a café with a roof deck, an organic farm, a recovery center for men who were recently incarcerated or are in recovery, and other community programs.

“It’s important for predominantly white Jewish people who have been told that they’re not safe in parts of Chicago that don’t look white and Jewish, even if these parts of Chicago used to be their grandparents’ homes, to just come there and see that this neighborhood has incredibly interesting, dynamic people who live here and projects they’re taking on,” Heydemann said. “There’s an incredible amount of [the] neighborhood investing in itself and, beyond the neighborhood, outside people looking and saying, ‘How can we be part of that?’”

When the sukkah design festival opens, the church and Mishkan will host a shared prayer service for the community. They also hope the sukkah provides a space for both shared meals and independent reflection.

“Not only will it be a physical manifestation of this collaboration between both groups but it will also invite other people to join and to host both communities to continue building on their collaboration,” Haouzi said.

Heydemann says her community’s partnership with Lawndale Christian Legal Center has led to members becoming regular monthly donors to the center and reading books that speak to its work. When the sukkah becomes a memorial to victims of gun violence, it will stand in a memorial garden whose design is being led by the legal center.

Heydemann says she hopes that when Jews come to the Sukkah Design Festival, they will feel motivated to do something “to try to reverse the decades of disinvestment.”

“I would hope that Jews across Chicago come to the festival and feel a sense of reawakened connection to this neighborhood, whether or not they have family who ever lived here,” she said. “I would also hope that Jewish people would see the sukkot and understand their own tradition, Judaism, is this beautiful, dynamic, interesting platform for relationship building across traditions.”

[chanaleah]

it’s not even creative. Europeans were calling us devils in the 13th century ce. “Satanyahu” like we haven’t heard that one before.

yeah it would be great if other jews started to realize none of this is about netanyahu. if a peacenik was in office, they'd get the same exact treatment.