#judaism stuff

[fromgoy2joy]

My friend was just telling me about how he was the head of the Jewish Student Union at his high school. And I was nodding along until I remembered-

“Josh- didn’t you go to a school where there was no other Jews??”

He then very grudgingly admitted he was both the president, student body and only member of the JSU. All because he wanted to find a way to complain about all the bullshit that was happening.

[hindahoney]

Because I'm only seeing other Jews posting about this, non-Jews I need you to be aware that for the past month or two there has been a wave of bomb threats and swattings at synagogues all across the US. They usually do it when services are being livestreamed. I haven't seen a single non-Jew talking about this. High holidays are coming up in a few weeks, which is when most attacks happen against our communities. We're worried, and we need people to know what's happening to us.

[kosher-toasty]

Honestly what pisses me off about the Wikipedia "can't say they're Jewish" thing is how insidiously one-sided it is.

Take, for example, these three famous Jews: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kirk Douglas, and Danny Kaye. Excerpts from their Wikipedia pages are below.

Notice: "of Jewish ancestry," "embraced his Jewish heritage," "born... to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants." Jewish, but not directly Jewish.

Compare now to right wing bigots Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer, and Jacob Wohl. See if you can spot it.

"Is Jewish." "Is Jewish." "Is Jewish."

Why are the worst of us proudly labeled as Jews but the best of us begrudgingly associated with Jews, Wikipedia? What agenda do you have?

[koshercosplay]

alrighty folks buckle up for the fifth year of menorabilia ratings! I've scoured the internet (and my eyeballs) so get ready for the best and worst chanukah merchandise of the year

okay first I just need to get these fuckin gnomes out of the way. ideally permanently. this guy's hat has so much going on I don't know where to begin. the menorah? not kosher. also wrong. the dreidels? certainly have,,, something written on them. everyone knows reindeer love chanukah, the lighting fires holiday. 5/10 at least it's got SOMEWHAT of a cuteness factor

turning old CDs into fake sufganiyot is certainly creative bc that's the only explanation for those monstrosities that I'll accept. please don't spin your spontaneous combustion menorahs on top of your dreidels. it won't bring the next season any faster. 4/10 I'll put up with a lot if you're offering to pay for my netflix account

they are Setting That Torah On Fire. is that why there's an oil jug next to a candle menorah. 6/10 the פ instead of a ש‎ on the dreidel is because the miracle is just the torah not bursting into flames

this really puts the messy in messianic. it's got the wrong amount of branches. why is the shamash just two stacked cups. the cross looks like an airplane. oh god it also has the jesus fish. -76162802492/10 never knew a single image could contain so much No.

some of these menorahs are kosher and some are not which really spices things up. what a fun little game of I spy for me. I enjoy the addition of various happy animals celebrating chanukah but were the santa hats really necessary? 7/10 that bottom dreidel has two נ‎s. none dreidel with left coins.

I can acknowledge that it's an attempt to jewish-ize a christmas thing but tinsel is, unfortunately, occasionally, pretty. weird choice to have all the menorahs have נ‎s but sure. what's that? those are dreidels? wrong. take a look at the helpful next image of this item.

do you see it yet? here let me help.

clearly those are menorahs. we light them on fire and spin them as fast as we can. first one to die loses. 5/10 google is your friend

move over fiddler on the roof chassidim with bottle balancing skills, here come some cats with impressive candle dexterity. this may not be a kosher menorah but their TAILS are the BRANCHES. 7/10 I am easily won over by the presence of cats okay

canon jewish representation, a spinning dreidel, a kosher menorah, some chocolate gelt, and they're eating fresh latkes. I needed these yesterday. 10/10 rugrats my beloved never lets me down

(previous years 1, 2, 3, 4)

[fuzzytheduck]

I think a lot of Americans have a hard time grasping the idea of Jewish indigeneity because they dont know where their own ancestors came from. Maybe they'll have vague ideas like German, Italian, or Irish, but what they know has very little bearing on their day-to-day lives. They don't dress any different, they don't speak the language their great grandparents spoke, they don't hold regular ceremonies and rituals that harken back to the old days.

The idea of an ethnic group maintaining a constant identity over thousands of years is patently absurd to them. "You're telling me you're still mourning something the ancient Romans did? That's ridiculous! Clearly you've fallen for modern Israeli propaganda, otherwise you're deliberately arguing in bad faith in order to justify land theft and genocide!"

It's very frustrating, because when I say these things I do not say them in bad faith. My friend once said "it's a very American thing not to understand large timescales", and I think she was right on the money. The process of American assimilation has cut peoples ties to their ancestors to such a degree that they can no longer comprehend a continuous identity spanning millennia.

So I'm going to say this in the clearest language I can:

There is a genuine, historically provable, continuous connection from ancient Israelites to modern Jews. By the laws and customs of those ancient Israelites I am one of them. Let me reiterate. I am an Israelite, a Hebrew, like from the Bible, and the fact that my identity has been so mythologized and talked about as if it's a thing of the past will never change that.

[ne0n-garbage-angel]

Clarification on a common misconception about Israel.

(pasted from my reboot of an antisemite’s post because this needs to be said)

Israel is by definition NOT an ethnostate.

The definition of ethnostate is:

"a sovereign state of which citizenship is restricted to members of a particular racial or ethnic group."

As of 2022, the religious population makeup of Israel is:

"Jewish 73.5%, Muslim 18.1%, Christian 1.9%, Druze 1.6%, other 4.9%"

Clearly, citizenship and residency is not denied based on religion. How about race?

"73.2% (about 7,208,000 people) are Jews. 21.1% (around 2,080,000 people) are Israeli citizens classified as Arab, some identifying as Palestinian, and including Druze, Circassians, all other Muslims, Christian Arabs, Armenians (which Israel considers "Arab") An additional 5.7% (roughly 554,000 people) are classified as "others". (various ethnic/racial backgrounds.)

A quick google search shows that while Jews are the majority, many people of different races reside in Israel. White Christians are the majority in America and many European countries, and yet I have never heard them called ethnostates. Is this only because Jews are the majority? Hmmmm....

In contrast, Gaza WOULD fit the definition of an ethnostate. It has specific ethnic requirements not only to gain citizenship, but also to even enter the territory legally.

[tboyemo]

Tapping the "your support and solidarity and care for Jews and Romani people and BIPOC should be more powerful than your hatred of nazis" sign so fucking hard rn.

Bcs u should support Jews and Romani people and BIPOC more than u hate nazis and some of u it is very clear that u couldn't give a shite about Jews and romani or BIPOC. You hate nazis but you've forgotten nazis aren't just generalised bigots or bad people and they have an ideology which targets "undesirables" and people who ate racially seen as inferior or less than. Only part of combating white supremacy and fascism is hating nazis and a lot of it is helping communities effected by white supremacy and fascism and listening to and understanding us.

[david-goldrock]

Would you keep me in your closet?

When they tell you that we're the murderers of Christ, blasphemous heretics, who poison the wells and eat christian babies, would you still keep me in your closet?

When they tell you we're of an infirior race, that our presence destroys culture, that we backstabbed your country, that having kids with us will leave them with the same flaws, that we are inherently and unchanginly evil, and that killing us is a mercy, would you still keep me in your closet?

When they tell you we're overlords of a secret society, secret cosmopolitiains of the deep state, controlling the media and the economy for our benefit, leaching on the work of good, hard working people, would you still keep me in your closet?

When they tell you we're white supremacists, fanatic nationals, colonizers, explotators, slave owners, oppressors, occupiers, starving, ethnically cleansing, genociding, harvesting organs off of Arab children...

Today, when they knock on your door and ask politely if you happen to hide me in your house or basement, whatever they may call me, whatever excuse they came with

Would you keep me safe in your closet?

[frownyalfred]

Martha was not an observant Jew at the time of Bruce’s birth, as evidenced by the use of “Thomas” as Bruce’s middle name and the high likelihood that, if she were canonically Jewish via retcon, she would be Ashkenazi. in this essay I will —

[iliothermia]

They're all done!! In my hands! and on my head Everything for shipping will be here on the 10th, so that's when I'll be releasing them! Thought it might be nice to see them on a person. Thank you to everyone who motivated me to make more this year. I was really nervous about making them again after my experience last time.. I feel very happy with them this year. :)

[fromgoy2joy]

I love being involved with Jewish life on campus because I got to miss class once for “religious reasons” and the religious reason was that I went to this sick Purim drag show.

[thosefaroffconstellations]

I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking about accepting Orthodox Jews recently. And while I’m very happy that we’re getting some positive attention for once. I’ve noticed a lot of peoples arguments for why Orthodox (they really mean modern orthodox) Jews are cool is that they’re “not like ultra-orthodox Jews”. So here’s your reminder that if you don’t accept Jews you consider “too orthodox” then you don’t accept Orthodox Jews period.

Internalized antisemitism isn’t a cute look babes.

[brightshaw-shipper]

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Idk about anyone else, but I fucking hate the "random white ashekenazi orthodox man as symbol of judaism/chanukah." Orthodox Jews are real people, not symbols or caricatures, and treating them as symbols perpetuates the myth they're somehow "more Jewish" than the many other types of Jews who don't look and dress like that.

This random dude is not a Jewish cultural figure on par with Santa Claus. It would be like showing catholic/protestant solidarity by showing the Pope holding hands with some random Minnsota grandma in a "Jesus Saves" sweatshirt.

Who should you put holding hands with Santa on your Chrismukah card? No one. Don't do that shit.

[fuzzytheduck]

I don't know what Ashkenazi needs to hear this but the old country sucked and the shtetl isn't your homeland.