#don’t touch me or my ethnoreligion

[the-one-eyed-seer]

“Love and light” this “spending time with family” that. Chanukah is about stomping on people who encroach on your boundaries. Wishing everyone a very don’t touch me Chanukah

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

I’m so fucking tired of goyim ignoring antisemitism. They ignore everything until something so extreme happens, like the recent shooting. How about you start caring about us BEFORE WE FUCKING DIE. Just fucking LISTEN for ONCE when we say we’re angry or scared or sad about the injustices we as a people have faced OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I don’t know one single Jewish person who hasnt been touched by antisemitism. I’ve been called a kike more times than I can count. I went to elementary school with a boy who told me he wished Hitler had won the war. I was shouted at and threatened by a stranger for wearing a Magen David. My grandpa has had to respond to bomb threats at our synagogue. My grandma had to switch roommates in college because her roommate was violently antisemitic. My fucking Jewish PRESCHOOL had to have ARMED GUARDS to keep people from fucking MURDERING PRESCHOOL AGED JEWISH CHILDREN. I thought all preschools had armed guards until I was like 12. Just fucking LISTEN when we say things. Here, I’ll give you a list of things you NEED to listen to us about.

Holocaust deniers are violent antisemites, no exceptions. They are dangerous and do not deserve a platform to speak.

Jewish people cannot be nazis, no matter how much you disagree with them. Ben Shapiro is a piece of transphobic racist shit, but he’s not and will never be a Nazi.

Trump and many people in his cabinet have repeatedly used antisemitic dog whistles, most recently calling himself a nationalist.

We. Are not. All. White. Stop being dicks to Jewish people of color.

And we’re not all ashkenazi!!! Google is your friend if you don’t know what that means.

Don’t do that “Nazi puncher” bullshit if you don’t actively uplift and defend Jewish people. Punching nazis is a great thing but you need to uplift and support jews at the same time.

Stop pinning Israeli war crimes on random Jewish people. And stop demanding we tell you our opinions on Israel before you treat us with basic human decency.

GOY IS NOT A SLUR

Judaism is an ETHNORELIGION. I am both religiously AND ethnically Jewish. It’s not that hard to understand.

Stop tone policing us

Just fucking listen when we speak

[phoukanamedpookie]

Mishpacha at the Cookout

A while back, I expressed weariness about discussing being Black and Jewish in the context of strife or hardship. I’ve been yearning to discuss Jewishness as a Black experience and/or Blackness as a Jewish experience, some of which I get into on this post. Since it’s unlikely that somebody else will take those first steps, I guess it’s up to me to be the Nachshon in this scenario and jump right in.

This is just my own attempt to more fully express my Blackness within my Jewishness.

When he was still alive, my uncle would host a cookout once every summer. The whole family, plus close friends of the family, would get together at his house, eat a bunch of fried/grilled food, dance to soul music, funk and R&B, and played cards and dominoes until we wore ourselves out and had to go home.

The thing about the cookout is that it wasn’t just a chance to hang around outside and eat while being devoured by mosquitos. It was a way for all the generations of our family to keep in touch with each other. For several family members I was close to--among them my aunt, my grandfather and my uncle--the last time I saw them alive was at the annual cookout.

If you’re not Black and have had the privilege of attending a cookout like this, one of the first things you’ll realize is that in Black cultures, the idea of family is quite...expansive. I’m willing to bet money that every Black family from the South has at least two or three aunt, uncles and/or cousins that nobody knows how they’re related to the rest of the family. You know how, in Black Lightning, Anissa and Jennifer call that old white dude Uncle Gambi? That shit’s not unusual in Black families. It’s just more noticeable when the person is not Black.

Which brings me to how I relate to Am Yisrael. I know that the thing I’m “supposed” to say is that Judaism is an ethnoreligion, which means that a person can be Jewish by religion or by ethnicity, but truth be told, I don’t relate to my Jewishness or other Jewish people that way. Such terms don’t really do justice to the qualitative nature of that relationship, so when others insist on those terms or impose them on me, it’s deeply uncomfortable.

I relate to the Jewish people as kin, from Abraham on down. In that vein, I did a little exercise where I gave Jewish figures names according to familial relationships. 

The Patriarchs became Papa Abraham, Papa Isaac and Papa Jacob.

The Matriarchs became Mama or Nana Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah.

The sons of Jacob became Uncle Joe, Uncle Ben (yes, it’s kind of a joke), Uncle Jude, Uncle Levi, and so on. Dinah became Aunt Dinah.

Miriam became Aunt Miriam. Aaron became Uncle Aaron.

Moses became Uncle Moses, but given how humble he was, he prefers to be called Moe.

The prophets are named as cousins, so there’s Cousin Elijah (or just Eli), Cousin Jeremiah, Cousin Samuel, etc.

Anyone called “[Name] the Elder” gets called Big [Name]. Anyone called “[Name] the Younger” gets called Lil’ [Name]. Example: Big Hillel (or Big H) and Lil’ Hillel (or Lil’ H).

Sages and rabbis are named Brother and Sister. Examples: Brother Shammai, Brother Akiva, Sister Bruriah.

Shifting my perspective this way, centering Blackness, made things click in a way they didn’t before. We always talk about how Jewish tradition is about dialogue and relationships, but I can’t talk to Moshe Rabbeinu. He’s too big, too distant. I can talk to Uncle Moe. The prophet Elijah is just a mythical figure in a story, but my cousin Eli might actually show up at the seder one day. Rabbi [Take Your Pick] is some jerk always trying to tell me what to do who believes he has the right because he’s a man and men make the rules, so screw him and the patriarchal horse he rode in on. Brother [Take Your Pick] is just a man shaped by his life experiences who means well but gets a little overbearing. Sometimes this means that I just nod my head and smile and go about my business. Sometimes that means telling him that he should’ve just stayed over there and ate his food.

Thinking of the cookout even more, I got to thinking about holidays and how they can be perfect times for outdoor get-togethers. Sukkot would be a shoe-in, as would Pesach. As a matter of fact, most holidays could be a cookout, with the exception of holidays when it’s too cold and/or wet to be outside. Even on fast days, when it’s time to break the fast, there could be a cookout.