#jewish stuff that is also fandom stuff

[sidleyparkhermit]

for the character ask meme: kickin' it old school with Beverly Katz, 6, 12, 21, 24?

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I think she and Zeller are both very secular -- Bev in keeping with her general upbringing, and Zeller in reaction against his -- and neither of them takes Jewish holidays off from work unless they have family things. One time, though, she opted to fast for Yom Kippur when it was supposed to be a pretty easy day at work, and it was not an easy day at work at all, and it took a little while for Zeller, who was not fasting, to realize why Bev was increasingly distracted and hangry, and he went down to the FBI cafeteria and pestered them until he got a single bulk-bag cinnamon stick in a little disposable dixie cup, and he took it back up to the BAU and tried to quietly leave it next to her but she was so zoned out he had to draw her attention to it. Once she clocked what it was she was deeply touched and she took a sniff and then got on her phone to look up how to say the blessing you’re supposed to say when you smell some spices on Yom Kippur and took another, slower sniff, and she felt her mind clear and her hunger ease a little, and she returned to her long day of work. And the split second that it was nautical twilight Zeller showed back up with the other thing he got from the cafeteria which was a bag of huge cinnamon rolls, which they ate right there at her desk, and technically it was the first time they ever hung out outside of working hours, and she felt buoyed by a great feeling of gratitude and for some reason so did he.

[sophiejanefostersilver]

I read a few hcs about knox, meeks and todd being Jewish

I say, let the three of them be. It can be awesome. I totally dont say that cause im Jewish.

[alaskan-wallflower]

how come nearly every popular artist on here makes kyle’s nose cover up 99.99% of his face? like…you can literally see in post covid his nose isn’t as big as the fanarts make it out to be. plus sheila says he’s got her nose and her nose isn’t that big. i just hate that a lot of fanart involves kyle with such a big nose. i feel like the sole reason for that is because he’s jewish, but i kinda don’t wanna assume? even though i’m fairly confident that’s the reason.

look at his nose. it’s not that big. and i doubt in his teenage years it would magically grow and then shrink. that’s not how it works. i’m so tired of seeing the ‘oH hEs AgEd uP’ excuse. This is canon.

even sheila like

her nose isn’t that big!

it’s just so annoying to see popular artists draw stan, cartman and kenny with normal noses and then they draw kyle looking like a plague doctor. and then when anyone points it out the artists claims they’re being mean like…no?

also whenever a fan artist draws his nose the way it’s drawn in pc it’s suddenly offensive. like i dunno, i can’t speak on this, im not jewish, but i feel like drawing a jewish character with a significantly larger nose than his peers would be more offensive than giving him an equal sized nose in comparison to the rest of his friends.

[bougiebutchbitch]

wow I've sure blocked or unfollowed a lot of people I used to really like and respect over their absolutely abominable opinions recently

[halloweencatsart]

Updated references for my ocs Erica and Ana!

Erica is a conspiracy theorist/paranormal investigator and Ana is her best friend who has magical true sight.

[badolmen]

Me: I know lots of fic authors say they love people who long comment on every chapter but when I do it I feel bad especially if the author is the kind to reply to comments but none of my comments have replies - not to mention on WIP fics it feels borderline manipulative because yes I’m commenting to tell the author what I liked but I have the secondary motivation of wanting more chapters so I’m basically evil -

*email notification*

nevermind I think I’m getting a good grade in fic reader something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve

[batri-jopa]

❄️Happy Holidays my dear Mutuals!❄️

[tap a pic for better view👇]

May you have all the possible holy-jolly and comfy & cozy!

May there be dear friends visiting, joyfull colourful lights twinkling, bells jingling and all the possible good vibes all around!

May all your cold dark winter nights be brighten with a light of hope, may air be filled with scent of your favorite hot beverage, may your thoughts be travelling with a great story book, eyes be enchanted with beautiful ornaments and body be relaxed and comforted under a nice warm blanket!

May also every single day of the upcoming new year be filled with as much of the purring-wagging-chirping-humming happiness as it gets!❤

And may nobody ever be rejected, forgotten or left behind🫂

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Been thinking about why the argument that OFMD is inherently a bad show because it's based on historical slaveowners so often feels disingenuous to me as a person of color.

HUGE disclaimer up front: if you don't wanna fuck with the show because of that premise right out the gate, that's 100% valid and I completely get that. I'm not talking about that. What I'm specifically talking about is White fandom people in particular who argue that OFMD must be "problematic" because of this, especially when they say this as some kind of virtue-signalling trying to win points in fandom wars, stuff like that.

My big thing is that the resemblance the characters in OFMD have to their real-world namesakes begins and ends with having the same name. The show feels more to me like it's playing with the vague myths around these names, not the people themselves. Can you make an argument that they should have come up with original characters instead? Sure, but let's be honest, even people who study the irl counterparts have very little knowledge of their actual lives, and the average person has all but none. To add to that, this show has absolutely zero interest in historical accuracy; the moment they cast a Jewish-Polynesian man as Blackbeard that became obvious. No one is saying the real-life Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were good people, least of all the show itself; the point is that OFMD's versions are basically original characters already.

It always feels like an incredibly disingenuous claim to parallel the show to Hamilton, because Hamilton both did care about historical accuracy and also brought up the slave trade. Hamilton is uncomfortable for so many poc because it writes poc into the story of otherwise very faithfully portrayed racists, colonizers, and slaveowners and just handwaves the racism. In OFMD, racism exists, but the stance is always explicitly anti-racist and anti-colonialist in a way that is just so fun to see (whom among us has not wished to skin a racist with a snail fork?).

The other thing that sticks for me is...there's an appropriate amount of slavery I want to see in my romcoms, and that amount is none. I am so sick of historical fiction where Black characters are only there for trauma porn about the horrors of the slave trade. You can make a legitimate argument that OFMD is handwavey about the slave trade, but I'd argue that including discussion of the slave trade is something that should be done with such incredible care that it would leave us with a show that can't really be a comedy at all anymore. OFMD's characters of color are allowed to be nuanced, complex characters with their own emotions, and it's incredibly refreshing to see, and I'd much rather have that than yet another historical fiction show where the only characters of color are only there to make White audiences feel virtuous about how sad they feel for them.

In conclusion, I guess: every yt person who makes this argument to win points in a fandom war owes me and every other fan of color a million dollars

[awritersrejections]

fucking exhausted with this shit, and wholeheartedly agree with @athingofvikings but also it'd be great to have sources for the numbers on that map—any chance you could provide them? I haven't been able to find it online

Seems like a good time to remind people that the phrase "from the river to the sea" - while apparently popular on this hellsite, is basically a call for the total eradication of not just the Israeli state (and by that I don't mean the government, I mean EVERYTHING) but of every Jew in that area.

SO. If I see it on your blog? Bye. I do not trust you to have anything even remotely approaching a nuanced take to this fucking tragedy.

[seulszn]

Listen I love TLOU and the fandom very much but a lot of people (not calling anybody out) need a reality check and need to grow up. I wanna say my two cents on things that bother me in this fandom.

1. Boycotting for Palestine

I have seen multiple times on multiple occasions where people would sit on their phone and complain about why writers are “flooding the tags with this boycotting bullshit” and honestly all I have to say is your super childish you can’t take a hour or a week out of your day to raise awareness on a important topic that is affecting millions of people? Your so horny so down bad for pixelated characters that you don’t care about the innocent children, women and men that are dying in Palestine? The boycotting isn’t gonna stop just because you want your needs filled, the boycotting isn’t going to stop because you think it needs to, it’s not gonna stop until Palestine is free. And if you wanna read things that bad then read nobody is stoping you but a take into ignition that if a writer is spreading awareness then don’t be ignorant and say stupid shit

2. Less Sex and more angst or other genres.

Listen I love Abby and Ellie just like everyone else and I read a lot of smut about them but does that all y’all see when y’all look at them? As sex objects? Like I’m not saying that you should stop writing smut for those characters but write other things to that don’t involve smut, like angst I see a lot of people under that tag say how they wish writers would as write other things that isn’t just smut and majority of the time when they say that they get hated for it. It lowkey gets boring reading fanfics where the whole plot is smut, smut, smut. And again I’m not saying to stop writing smut but please for the love of whatever you believe in write other genres.

3. Black inclusivity

As a black writer and a black person TLOU tag isn’t inclusive enough. I know you must be thinking “Why are we speaking about this again?” Because I’m honestly so tired of how uninclusive the fandom is like I said before Ellie dates WOC if you don’t know what WOC is it’s Women Of Color all of Ellie’s girlfriends where WOC now I’m not saying you can’t write for Ellie as a white person and I’m not saying that never did all I am saying is once again all of Ellie’s girlfriend where POC

Riley was a Black African American who Dated Ellie

Cat the girl who wasn’t mentioned alot but is in the game is Asian American who also dated Ellie

Dina is a Jewish (Mexican, Middle Eastern ) American who dated Ellie

Also yes we know when the reader is white coded so don’t try a put that you don’t mention when race mentioned cause you do and we can tell when you do “She’s Petite and cute with her long blonde hair” or whatever you bitches be saying we know when you guys aren’t inclusive the whole point of fanfiction writing is to be inclusive is to make sure that readers can see themself in your xreader so if your putting all these “white things and then labeling your story as “the readers race is not mentioned” or that OC stuff that y’all do then just label the story as a white reader or a OC reader

4. Futa, trans and masc

Now here I’m gonna discuss two or three things starting off with Futa and Trans. Now I don’t know when “Futa” or “Trans” Ellie and Abby came from but a lot of you readers need to understand and learn the difference between the two because they are both very different things.

Futanari: is the Japanese word for hermaphroditism, which is also used in a broader sense for androgyny. Beyond Japan, the term has come to be used to describe a commonly pornographic genre of eroge, manga, and anime, which includes characters that show primary sexual characteristics from both females and males. In today's language, it refers almost exclusively to characters who have an overall feminine body, but have both female and male primary genitalia (although a scrotum is not always present, while breasts, a penis, and a vulva are). The term is also often abbreviated as futa(s), which is also used as a generalized term for the works themselves.

Transgender (often shortened to trans) is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (trans men and trans women), it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.

Mind you I am not transgender I am nonbinary but I see a lot of transgender people speak up about how offensive it is to write a character as Transgender but it’s not really transgender but a Futanari remember a Futa is a character who is assigned a gender at birth but just has extra sexual parts like a penis.

Now another thing that bothers me is how y’all Masculinize Masc Lesbians as if they still aren’t women themselves like every time I read a fanfic with Ellie or Abby or even Vi and Sevika from Arcane you guys like to ignore they fact that they are also women themselves like it’s not gonna kill you to give those characters feminine compliments there shouldn’t be a reason why your calling these women “handsome” or other Masculine compliments and also a lot of Masculine women where makeup it’s not just a feminine woman thing. Masc Lesbians are women they aren’t men so stop treating them as if they are men and ignoring the fact that they are women

5. the Innocent childish reader gotta stop.

They title says enough I don’t think I need to say too much but a lot of y’all get innocent and corruption mixed up but a corruption kink is When you find the idea of "corrupting" someone, mostly in a sexual way, like taking virginities or introducing people to stuff like bdsm etc. It's the idea of having someone "pure" do "bad" things under your influence. And innocent is not corrupted or tainted with evil or unpleasant emotion; sinless; pure. not guilty of a particular crime; blameless. (From the dictionary)

Y’all need to understand yes not everyone knows what sex is but everyone knows what a vagina is what a penis is, what a orgasm is and what sex is but they may not knows what happens when you have sex so making the reader what y’all call innocent isn’t innocent it’s honestly to me perverted cause the only one who would say something like “my cunny feels weird 🥺” or that “what is sex 🥺” is a child. Children don’t know what sex is children don’t know what pleasure or orgasms is and when y’all say “the reader is a Bimbo” is also funny cause Bimbos know what sex is as well yes they may be stupid but they aren’t slow so before you make a innocent reader please think “am I making my reader act like a child or am I gonna make her really innocent like how regular grown ass adults act?” so don't get not knowing and "innocent" mixed up

6. The stories where they have sex inside a church also gotta stop

Now I’m not a Christian but these stories are honestly really bad and are Blasphemy a lot of people have come out and said that they don’t like the fact that people are writing stories about church in a sexual way like their shouldn’t be any reason why your characters are fucking inside a church, that’s like stomping on someone’s dead grave. You guys do shit like this and then wonder why Christian’s don’t like us. Religion isn’t something to be sexualized it’s not something to be playing with either this idc how much you hate Christianity you can be a Atheist, or Catholic or Jewish but please for the love of whatever you believe in don’t sexualize people’s religion.

That’s all I can think of at the moment if I think of more I’ll of course make a part two to this but don’t take anything I said here to heart it’s just my blunt honest opinion on things in this fandom and if I get hate for this 🤷🏾‍♀️

[meayefet]

Here's another thing I feel like we need to talk about regarding the current war between Israel and Hamas. Minor as it may be, I've been losing my mind over this.

As a person who grew up in the early 2010s, I grew up mostly on the internet and fandom culture, and have written quite a lot of fanficition in my early teens.

Something I've realized this past week is that people are seeing Palestine as a fandom. And not only does it belittle the actual problem, it dehumanizes Palestinians and Israelis alike and allows the rewriting of facts and truths as if it were an AU fanfic.

After realizing that I jokingly told a friend that I wouldn't be surprised to see RPF about the events of October 7th. I had in mind something like slash fiction of Hamas members, but today I found out people are writing fanfiction about A HOSTAGE AND HER CAPTOR.

I also found out it didn't happen in a vaccum - apparently tiktok is exploding with this stuff, saying Maya Regev - the hostage in question - had "left her heart in Gaza", because she smiled and said "shukran, bye" to her captors.

In case you have forgotten - Maya Regev was SHOT IN THE LEG AND TAKEN HOSTAGE INTO GAZA along with her brother, who was released FOUR DAYS AFTER HER. She was released with a shattered leg and without her brother - but if she smiled, her captors must have treated her so well, amirite? (Even though there are already plenty of horror stories from Hamas captivity, and children came back pale and whispering with their heads full of lice.)

Even in the early 2010s there was a debate whether RPF is legit or not (and at 26 I can safely say it's a no from me), but in this case it's even worse. These are not public figures we are talking about. This isn't One Direction or The Beatles. The Hamas terrorists are, well, terrorists, and Maya Regev is a private person made public because she was TAKEN HOSTAGE INTO GAZA. Writing a FANFIC about actual people who were actually injured during October 7th is beyond sickening, and it's probably the most immoral thing you can do on social media for the Palestinian cause (and if you guys claim to be on the side of morality you might want to be consistent).

Another thing that's driving me crazy is the difference between Israelis and Non-Israelis who grew up on the same things at the same time. my friends and I learned a lot about justice, critical thinking, and the power of art and creativity on the internet. I met a lot of my online friends in socialist youth movements and rallies, and many of them later became my classmates in Bezalel - BECAUSE we applied what we had learned into our adult life.

Non Israelis who grew up on the same platforms as I did who took part in the same fandoms, read the same fanfiction works, learned the same truths of social justice and the power of art- are now viewing the conflict as a fandom. You're either a fan or you're wrong - there is no middle. No room for critical thinking, for "Palestinians have every right to self-determination and an independent state BUT Hamas who actively prevents them said rights has comitted crimes against humanity on 7.10 and must be held accountable", or for "the occupation must end BUT the Jewish people are indigenous to the region" - there is only room for "by all means" and "from the river to the sea". It doesn't matter if they don't know which river and what sea - because if the conflict is a fandom, then they can write an AU to deal with every truth that doesn't settle with their narrative, and rewrite reality to fit their next fanfic.

[is-the-fire-real]

Whither the pro-Pals a year from now?

I feel that "fandom as politics" most adequately covers the behavior of pro-Palestinians on Tumblr, and being an Old Hand At Fandom, this gives me some impressions on what the future holds. I know this is a matter of great concern for those of us on Tumblr who are their favorite targets.

My estimates are not scientific, and are based on experience in seeing the rise and fall of many fandoms. I am not psychic and make no guarantees.

The Old Guard: The smallest contingent of pro-Palestinian activists will be permanently, irrevocably radicalized by propaganda, and they will not go back. Truthfully, there is nowhere for them to go. They have burned all of their online goodwill invested in this fandom, and as the rest fall away, they will rage at their own allies, burning those bridges as well. These people are just as hateful and insufferable IRL as they are online, so they will know nobody who isn't also pro-Pal. They will remain behind in the fandom. When it later repopularizes as Tumblr rediscovers the fandom due to future content being released in the form of another war, the Old Guard will snark and brag about how they carried the torch while everybody else abandoned the fandom of The Great Cause. The Old Guard will constitute the BNFs of the pro-Pal fandom and their closest friends, at most 10% of the current fandom.

The Fond Recollectors: A lack of new, shiny, emotionally-evocative content for the pro-Pal fandom will drop it, the same as how many fandom members abandon a fandom once it is cancelled or after endless delays for new material. These folks will not think of their time in the pro-Pal fandom as wasted. They will look back on this time of trauma, war, and upheaval as one of the most exhilarating and joyful times of their lives. They will generally act as though they weren't part of the fandom, but when they find people who used to be in the fandom, it will be like finding somebody who shares a fandom you used to adore. They will whisper, with smirking conspiratorialism, of how one time they got a Jewish--uh, Zionist--person to deactivate their Tumblr account. They will confess among one another how many times they sent "kys" messages to Zionists, and giggle. It will be like ex-Johnlockers lol'ing among themselves about having stalked the actors IRL. If the fandom gets new content in the form of a war, then the Fond Recollectors will rejoin with glee. They will accept the Old Guard's hostility ("Where were you all this time?") as their just punishment. Otherwise, Fond Recollectors will be mid-grade antisemitic in whatever new political or media fandoms they join. They will constitute roughly 30% of the current pro-Pal fandom, and will mostly be composed of folks who post extremely prolifically but are not currently BNFs.

The Shamefaced Ex-Fans: Whether we like it or not, most folks get caught up in a fandom cycle due to hype from friends and socmed pressure. This creates a peak of interest which is followed by burnout. A person in this category engaged constantly and thoughtlessly with pro-Palestinian fandom content for hours every day, yet never engaged with purpose or by creating transformative works. Once the fandom fails to produce enough new content, they will look around, dazed, and wonder what the hell they even liked about it in the first place. Now out of the hype cycle, Ex-Fans will be able to look more critically at their behavior. They will not recognize their Jew-hate, but they will recognize the silliness of a lot of their behavior. "Gosh, I can't believe I thought reblogging on Tumblr would end a war" will take the place of phrases like "... would make that ship become canon" in their lexicon. They will look back at this time with embarrassment; again, not because they understand the harm they have done, but because they understand it's "cringe" to care about stuff that's not pluperfect and doesn't achieve the stated goal. They will be the least apparently-antisemitic and the most likely to make friends with Jewish people online, because they will change their names and will not admit what they were doing during the Hamas/Israel war. If the pro-Pal fandom gets new content in the future--again, in the form of a new war--the Ex-Fans will primarily fall silent. They will be overwhelmed by shame (not guilt, and not responsibility). They will not rejoin unless dragged into it, but they will not speak out to support Jewish people. They will constitute roughly 60% of the current fandom.

These are bleak estimates, because a newly revitalized pro-Pal fandom will not need the Shamefaced Ex-Fans. The core of the fandom, the Old Guard and the Fond Recollectors, will do what all passionate cores of fandoms do in these situations: recruit. And while most of these recruits are destined to become Ex-Fans in the far future, many will join the other two categories, being partially or permanently radicalized into a movement of antisemitism.

In a sense, what we are seeing is what Tumblr would have been like if Moffat had said "Johnlock will never be canon, and it's all because of the Jews".

[torchflies]

Hi TG Fandom! 

Another day of me focusing on that TGM quote: “…no wife, no kids, nobody to mourn you when you burn in.” And it got me thinking… first of all, there’s no way that Bradley should have been saying any of that from his glass house, but also, if he did have those things then there’s no way he wouldn’t have been reunited with his family way earlier. Right?

The minute Bradley understands the feeling of never wanting your child to be hurt, to be in danger, and the feeling of doing what you know is best for your kid even though it makes them hate you? He instantly forgives Mav. He has to, because he would have wanted to do the exact same thing for a little girl in pink footie pajamas or a baby boy sleeping in his bassinet. He is Mav’s kid. 

Also, I like the idea of Bradley building this whole little family and losing his wife tragically (having their second child?) and the nuclear fallout that leads him to finally calling his family. 

I want them to come to Brooklyn and meet a Bradley who is changed in a way that only loss and war can do. 

A Bradley who is a pilot, a father of two, a pillar in his Jewish community (yes, because it’s my writing and I can do what I want) and the son-in-law of a Rabbi. A Bradley who is quiet, reserved and broken the same way Mav was when he lost Goose. A Bradley who has kept his fathers and the flyboys in his life through so many means, just in their absence. His children know who they are. Bradley converted and joined this massive Jewish community because even though he wasn’t involved in most of Ice’s traditions growing up, it still felt like home. His children love motorcycles, planes and volleyball. 

Give me a Bradley who grew up. A Bradley who regrets how he acted, one who is still angry but has the emotional maturity to understand the why, beyond his mother never wanted him to fly. 

I need Mav to see himself in a grieving Bradley, holding the hand of a little girl who looks just like his Baby Goose and a baby boy who looks like the daughter-in-law he will never know. 

I need Slider (because this is Slicemav, babeyyy) to cry while holding those babies in his big strong arms, assuring them and his son that there is life after all this pain. 

And I need Ice, to look at this little boy he raised that is now a fighter pilot, a proud Jewish man and realize that he’s done the thing he never thought he would be able to do. L’dor v’dor, from generation to generation — he loved Ice so much that instead of taking Abraham and Sarah as his parents during his conversion, he took Ice’s Hebrew name. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I like kidfics, Jewish stuff, Slicemav and angst 😘

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for not wanting the zine I'm in to be explicitly pro-palestine / wibta for therefore not promoting the zine?

the actual problem is a lot more nuanced than that so don't judge just based on that 😭

I'm in a free fandom zine, and we've been working on it since january 2023. it's been a huge labor of love for me (I contributed three pieces!) despite me being less into the fandom recently. our zine is about to be published on social media for ppl to download for free, which is exciting! but the head mod told the group chat that due to the recent conflict with israel/palestine, they wanted to include a message in the promotional post stating that the zine was always intended to be free, and if ppl want to support us they can donate to humanitarian aid for palestine instead.

here's my stance on the israel/palestine conflict: I think it's complicated. obviously I don't support israel's government, but I also don't support things palestine has done. I think both sides are losing a lot of innocent people, and I want to be compassionate to both palestine and innocent israelis/jewish ppl who are experiencing very real grief rn. first of all, I hear abt the conflict so much in real life, I would like to not also have to think about it on my silly fandom app for the one hour I'm on here a day. but on top of that, I don't want to make my social media explicitly support only one side or another, because I think that takes away a lot of nuance from the issue.

anyways, most ppl in the zine chat said that message was a great idea. I personally didn't want to have that message on the main promotion post that I was planning to reblog a lot on my tumblr. so I asked if they could include that message in a separate faq post instead of the main post, and I explained my reasoning (basically that I didn't want to trigger my or other's anxieties about real world conflicts) and one other person agreed with me.

the zine mod said they understood but since it was just a one paragraph message, they wanted to include it anyway. atp I realized nothing I said would change their mind, so I just didn't respond. I get that it's not my zine and they can run it however they want, but it just sucks that now the zine I'm in is being connected to real world stuff that I didn't want to have to connect to my fandom safe space.

anyways, so now the zine is about to come out, and I don't want to reblog the promotional post or advertise it on my blog. when a month passes I'll post my piece (per what the mod has allowed us to do) but I don't plan on promoting the zine anymore. so my question is: was I TA for asking the mod to not include the pro-palestine message in the promo post, and WIBTA for not promoting the zine at all?

reasons I think I'm TA: this is literally not my zine, and I shouldn't be telling the mod what I want the zine to support or not. also it would be shitty of me to just outright not support the zine

reasons I think I'm NTA/NAH: I think my concern is valid, and I can do whatever I want forever

What are these acronyms?

[alaskan-wallflower]

yall forget the broflovskis are a normal fucking family who happens to be jewish like you guys realize that’s like saying that americans can only eat mcdonald’s big macs and fries with coke and a mcflurry right

i just had to take a break from a fic because during a dinner scene at kyle’s house the author described the food as “something jewish” i cannot with yall sometimes

.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

So you want to write about a Jewish Ed Teach - a quick guide to writing a Jewish man of color, by a Jewish moc

Given Taika Waititi is Jewish, I am always so happy when I see fanfic authors writing about Ed being Jewish! We need more Jewish poc rep and I'm always happy to see it. That being said, I've also seen a lot of misunderstandings, so I wanted to to write up a few quick guidelines.

Disclaimer: I'm just one Jew with an opinion, and this is based on my own experiences! I'd love if other Jews, especially other Jews of color, in the fandom would like to chime in with their thoughts as well!

It is possible to be a Jewish athiest! Judaism is membership in a people, and belief in g-d is not required (and, in my community, it's even considered a very personal question!). Some of the most observant Jews I know are athiests; belief in g-d and level of Jewish observance are not directly correlated. Cannot overstate how common it is for Jews to not believe in g-d or go back and forth on the question.

On that note, there are different levels of Jewish observance. Every individual is different, but in general there's Orthodox (very strict), and then, way on the other side, there's Reform and Conservative (Conservative does not equal politically Conservative). Conservative and Reform are very similar, except the Conservative movement tends to be more observant of traditional Jewish law and uses a lot more Hebrew. If you live in an area without a lot of Jews (like where I live!), it's very common for Reform and Conservative movements to have a lot of overlap and collaborate on a lot of stuff together.

Not every Jew keeps Kosher, or keeps Kosher to the same level of strictness.

Synagogue services are not like Christian services, especially outside of holiday services. Ordinary Saturday morning services are often more like a group conversation as we try to work new meaning out of the Torah. The B'Nei Mitzvah, the big ceremony that marks a kid being old enough to participate fully in Jewish life, is more like "baby's first thesis defense" than anything else! There have literally been pauses in services I've attended before as someone ran to the temple library to check their sources.

Not all Jews speak Hebrew. Some Jews might not know any, some might be able to stumble through the more important prayers, some might be able to sight-read okay, some might only know religious words but not modern words, some might be fluent! Just about any level of proficiency is believable.

Ed's got a lot of tattoos! Tattoos are a big traditional Jewish no-no, but (again!) different movements and different Jews have their own opinions. I know a Conservative tattoo artist! It's not something that other Jews would comment on (unless they're just assholes) and it wouldn't make anyone kick him out of synagogue services (no joke, I read that in a fic once).

Hannukah is not the only (or even the most important) Jewish holiday; it's just the one most non-Jews know about. The two biggest holidays are Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. I think Ed's favorite holidays would be Purim (you get to wear costumes and put on plays!) and Passover (retelling of a story along with a big meal!).

Depending on the area and the Jewish demographic, Jews of color can sometimes feel uncomfortable in our own community, especially when other Jews automatically assume we must be converts. While this is a real issue, it is not something I want to read authors who aren't themselves Jews of color write about because it is a deeply inter-Jewish issue.

Depending on the community you grow up in, religious trauma isn't as common with queer Jews as it is with queer Christians. The Reform movement has been advocating for queer Jews since the 1960s (you read that right, yes). I'm not saying there are no queer Jews who have religious trauma, I'm just saing it's a lot less common, and I have always felt immediately accepted as queer in Jewish spaces.

The inverse is not true. Queer spaces are not always accepting of Jews (or of people of color, a double whammy!).

A few stereotypes to avoid: Jews are often stereotyped as being greedy and corrupt. Jewish kids are bullied by Christian kids because "we killed Jesus," when I was ten I had another kid ask to "see my horns." Always avoid comparing Ed directly to animals, especially rodents.

If you're a non-Jew looking to write about a Jewish Ed, I recommend doing some research. MyJewishLearning is a great website that's very accessible.

Every Jew interacts with our Judaism differently, so if you're writing a Jewish Ed, please take a moment to think about what it means for him! Membership in a community? Calming traditions that remind him of home, family, and community? A point of pride - we're a resilient lot! Even just a note in his background that he's not as connected to as he might like to be?