#l`chaim

[ha-bakbuk]

[stonedcoast]

Kosher Kush. L'chaim.

This week is Kosher Kush from AAA Pharms. L'chaim!

IndicaModerately High THC (22% – 26%)Flower While researching this week’s strain, Kosher Kush, I found myself falling down a rabbit hole (as I am wont to do) looking into the lineage. First passes on popular sites like Leafly.com indicated a mysterious origin, with phrases like “growers assume there is OG Kush in it’s lineage” and the like used in multiple sources. Frequently a bit of digging…

[giyrut-girlie]

i hope everyone is taking care of themselves today.

something i found helpful was to light a candle for a victim of oct7 and sit with his name - Chaim Benaim z"l

bring them home, ceasefire deal now

[wlwgif]

COBIE SMULDERS as Leigh Ostin ↳ The L Word | 2.12 "L-Chaim"

[ahaura]

Zachary Foster, Ph.d, historian of Palestine, has made a thread of a brief history of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from 1890 to present. [His newsletter: Palestine, in Your Inbox] Pasted below:

Yesterday, on October 24, 2023, Israel's plans to expel Gaza's Palestinian population to Sinai, Egypt were leaked. Not surprisingly, this plan has a decades long history and dates to at least 2004, if not earlier. (Source)

Between Oct 7, 2023-present, Israel has displaced ~1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza through its campaign of indiscriminate bombing. (Source)

In May 2023, 178 Palestinian Bedouins were forced out of Ein Samiya (West Bank) after Israel repeatedly demolished their homes, threatened to destroy their only school & after their grazing land was taken by settlement expansion & b/c of settler violence: [Link]

In July 2022, the 100-person community in Ras a-Tin (WB) was pushed after a Jewish settler outpost was established 2km away. Since then, members of the Palestinian community have suffered from verbal abuse, harassment, theft & vandalism of property. [Link]

Between Aug 2022- August 2023, the 88-person community in al-Qabun was pushed out by Israeli Jewish settler violence & assaults by the Israeli army. [Link]

In July 2020, Israel made 70 Palestinians homeless in Khirbet Humsa for the 6th time. Israeli forces loaded the residents' personal belongings and dropped them off 7 miles away. [Link]

In 2019, 2 groups of Palestinian families near the Taybeh junction were pushed out:

Between June 1967 - 2016, Israel revoked the residency status--and thus the right to live in Jerusalem (or anywhere else in Israel) -- of at least 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem in what amounts to "forcible transfers," according to @hrw. (Source)

Between 1968 -1971, Israel expelled 615 Gazan residents. Between, 1971-1988, Israel expelled another 90 Palestinains from Gaza. Source: Sara Roy, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development, p.110

In 1967, Israel expelled 250K-325K Palestinians, including from Imwas, Yalo, Bayt Nuba, Surit, Beit Awwa, Beit Mirsem, Shuyukh, Jiftlik, Agarith & Huseirat. (Source: one, two)

In 1948, Zionist forces expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. They also refused to allow ~750,000 Palestinians who were made refugees during the war back to their homes.

Source:

B/w 1891-1948, most Zionist leaders, inc. Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Israel Zangwill, Arthur Rupin, M. Smilansky, L. Motzkin, Yoseph Weitz, Chaim Weizmann, M. Usshishkin, D. Ben Gurion, Moshe Shertok, thought it would be required to expel the Palestinians: [Quote Tweet]

Here are some additional screenshots if the statements of Zionist leaders from 1890-1948. And you wonder why so many people think Zionism was such a problematic, dare I say, racist idea?

[matan4il]

One of the worst justifications for the Hamas massacre that I have seen is the idea that the Palestinians had been suffering for 75 years, and such a long period of suffering is what made them be so brutal towards the civilians in the Jewish state.

This ignores, of course, brutal massacres that happened way before decades had passed since Israel's Independence War (which the Arabs started and lost). One such massacre took place on March 17, 1954. Less than five years after the end of that war. The other day, we commemorated 70 years since it happened. In order to remember, one reporter interviewed a survivor.

The entire piece was too long for Tumblr even after I downgraded the vid quality, so I edited out parts that were less relevant to understanding the massacre, and the story of this one child survivor.

Translator's notes:

-> Chaim'keh is the affectionate diminutive for Chaim, Mira'leh is the same for Miri.

-> In another interview, Miri shared that the reason her dad was taking them to Eilat, was because he wanted them to move to Israel's most southern city, meaning he felt Chana and the kids should see it.

-> This is the Ma'ale Akrabim road, you can see how serpentine it is, and the bus was driving uphill, explaining why it had to slow down so much that it became a perfect target for the terrorists.

-> 'Confirmation of killing' is a military term, referring to any situation where after shots have been fired at someone, the shooter comes closer and shoots (or wounds) again, from a much smaller distance, to make sure the victim is indeed dead, and not just wounded.

-> Chaim was shot in the head point blank, but somehow he technically survived. However, he was left in a coma for the next 32 years, before passing away and becoming the final murdered victim of this massacre.

-> Excluding Chaim, but including Miri, 5 people survived the Ma'ale Akrabim massacre.

-> Ha'Shomer Ha'Tzair (Hebrew for: the young guardian) is the first Zionist youth movement, established in 1913. It's also a socialist one.

-> A chuppah is a canopy under which Jewish couples get married.

-> Sayeret Matkal is an elite Israeli unit, whose most well known operation is the 1976 IDF rescue of Israeli and Jewish hostages (all the non-Jewish hostages were released, other than the French air crew of the hijacked Air France airplane, because the Captain refused to leave the Israeli and Jewish hostages on their own. The kidnappers were 2 German terrorists and 2 Arab ones who were members of a Palestinian terrorist organization. The Israeli and Jewish hostages were held in an airport in Entebbe, capital of Uganda, that the terrorists believed the IDF couldn't reach, since the distance was greater than Israel's airplanes could fly to and back, and passed over enemy territory. Several movies have been made about the operation, including an Israeli one, which was nominated for an Oscar, for best foreign film, in 1977).

-> Z"l is the English transcription of the Hebrew abbreviation ז"ל, which stands for may his/her/their memory be a blessing.

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

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Jewish Song of the Day Archive

Because we all know tumblr's search function and tags are useless! Will update with links as posts are added.

Original post/Ground rules

Olam Chesed Yibaneh - Matt Dubb

The Narrow Bridge - Nefesh Mountain

Yedid Nefesh - Josh Warshawsky

Eliyahu Hanavi - Matt Dubb

Modeh Ani - Tzemed Yeled

Piaseczna Niggun - Derech Achim

Karvah - Eitan Katz feat. Zusha

Tu Bishvat - Batya Levine

Adama ve Shamayim - ???

One Day - Koolulam

Sound of Silence [Yiddish] - Chaim Shlomo Mayesz

Bellida - LALA Tamar

Give Me One Prayer - Shmuel

Orayta - Victoria Hanna

Ani Maamin - Devorah Schwartz

Acheinu - Hadar

Park Ave Niggun - Joey Weisenberg

Am Yisrael Chai - (several :D)

Shir Shel Yom Rishon: Psalm 24 - Gad Elbaz

Shir Shel Yom Sheni: Psalm 48 - Ribi David Kadoch, z"l

Shir Shel Yom Shlishi: Psalm 82 - Tor Marquis

Shir Shel Yom Revii: Psalm 94 - multiple artists & Psalm 95 - Josh Warshawsky

Shir Shel Yom Chamishi: Psalm 81 - A.K.A. Pella

Shir Shel Yom Shishi: Psalm 93 - Josh Warshawsky

Nigun of the Month: Adar I - Nava Tehila

Lo Yisa Goy - Melita Doostan & Octopretzel

Modah Ani - Lahakat Hallel

Arbeter Froyen - Daniel Kahn

Ribono Shel Olam - Simcha Leiner

Tefilat Haderech - Marni Loffman

Avram Avinu - Arleen Ramirez and The Ladino Music Project; Kuando el Rey Nimrod - Farya Faraji (bonus additional version of Avram Avinu)

Miriam Haneviah - Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz

Borei Olam - Dovid Gabay

Yigdal - Our Siddur

Old Time Medley - Nefesh Mountain

Halev Sheli - Ishay Ribo

Ein Od Milvado - Avraham Fried & Tomer Adaddi

Dror Yikra - Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz

Evening Prayer - Ezra Furman

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai - Matt Dubb

Ivri Anochi - Benny Friedman

Hana Mash Hu Al Yamin - A-WA

Lo Nirga - Avihai Hollender

Yismechu - Batya Levine

V'Shamru Nigun - Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz

Omed ba'Shaar - Lahakat Hallel

Milemala - Chaim Shlomo Mayesz

Machar - Mordechai Shapiro

Bashana Haba'ah - Melita and Isaac

Ante Abate - U-da/Yehuda Pardo

We Rise - Batya Levine

Lecha Dodi - Nava Tehila (two versions)

Vurka - Avrum Mordche

Mincha - Mendel Roth

Hashem Melech - Gad Elbaz & Nissim Black

Adon Olam - Kedmah

Guf Venshama - Yaakov Shwekey

Hakol Mishamayim - Mordechai Shapiro

Ana Bekoach - Lahakat Hallel

Ashrei - Pri Eitz Hadar/R' Shefa Gold

Va'ani Ashir Uzecha - Josh Warshawsky

[girlactionfigure]

This is the remarkable story of Yonatan Chaim zt”l Yonatan, was born and raised in Hilton, New York. He was born as Jonathan Dean Jr, into a traditional Catholic family, after much searching, he found Judaism and converted, after studying the Holocaust in college, in 2020 decided to move to Israel, a few years later he joined the IDF, he wanted to fight for his people and his homeland and on December 8th was killed fighting in south Gaza. Last week he was laid to rest in Rochester, Upstate New York. May his memory be a blessing. יהיה זכרו ברוך, הי״ד

jonnydaniels

[jewish-microwave-laser]

On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly voted, 72 to 35, with 32 abstentions, to declare Zionism a form of racism. The resolution, initiated by Arab nations and endorsed by the Soviet and Muslim blocs, was the culminating moment of the growing Arab success, impelled by the oil boycott, to isolate Israel. Sitting in solemn assembly, the UN in effect declared that, of all the world's national movements, only Zionism—whose factions ranged from Marxist to capitalist, expansionist to conciliatory, clericalist to ultrasecular—was by its very nature evil. The state of the Jews, the Israeli political philosopher J. L. Talmon noted bitterly, had become the Jew of the states.

Addressing the General Assembly, Israel's UN ambassador, Chaim Herzog, noted that the resolution had been passed on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the Nazi pogrom that in effect began the Holocaust. The attempt to destroy the Jews, said Herzog, was always preceded by the attempt to delegitimize them. Then he ripped up a copy of the resolution.

For all Herzog's resoluteness, the secular Zionism he represented was mortally threatened by the UN resolution. Zionism had promised to cure anti-Semitism by demythologizing the Jews, transforming them into a nation like all other nations. The reason for anti-Semitism, wrote one nineteenth-century Zionist theoretician, was that the Jews, a disembodied people without a land, were "haunting" the nations; anti-Semitism, he concluded, was a fear of ghosts. Give the Jews a state—a flag and postage stamps and marching bands—and they would become concretized, demystified. Normal. Zionism had been the Jews' last desperate strategy for collective acceptance among the nations. And now that strategy had failed. Zionism had been turned against itself: the very means for freeing the Jews from the ghetto had become the pretext for their renewed ghettoization.

in "Part Three: Atonement (1973–1982)" from Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi, pp. 296–297

[nicejewishcharactershowdown]

Z"L, Chaim Topol.

[mae-the-wiz]

"People of the Book: cannon, authority, meaning" by moshe halbertal

"a histroy of the jews" by paul johnson

"sefer ha-hinnukh" by unknown

"guide for the perplexed" by maimonides

"laws of repentance" by maimonides

"the kuzari" by judah halevs

"sleep, death, and rebirth" by zvi ish-shalom

"this is real and you are completely unprepared" rabbi alan lew

"halakhah: the rabbinic idea of law" by chaim

"whats divine about divine law" by christine l. hayes

"antijudaism: the western tradition" by david nirenberg

"judaism in practice" by lawrence fine

"perceptions of jewish histroy" by amos funkenstein

"zakhar: jewish history and jewish memory" by yosef hayim yerushalmi

[kitwallace]

An aperiodic tiling discovery

Much excitement last week with the publication by David Smith, Joseph Myers, Craig Kaplan and Chaim Goodman-Strauss of their discovery of a single tile which tiles aperiodically. Not only that but it does not need any supplementary rules, as Penrose's dart/kite pair do, to ensure aperiodicity. Christian Lawson-Perfect wrote about the story in aPeriodical. Later: There is now an excellent online talk by Craig and Chaim on the discovery and its proof hosted by the National Museum of Mathematics in New York.

The shape was discovered by David Smith, a hobbyist geometer. There is a wealth of research in David's blog, which starts with the declaration "I am not a mathematician but I do like shapes, interesting symmetry, polyhedra, tessellations and geometric patterns. " Skimming though it, one can see the deep exporation of shapes which makes his discovery seem almost inevitable. I plan to read more of his blog for inspiration. Well done ye, David!

The mathematical work of proving that the tile is aperiodic is a masterful exercise, clearly explained. A truly inspiring collaboration between a tinkerer, acedemic mathematicians and computer scientists.

OpenSCAD

Naturally I had a look at this with my OpenSCAD tiling tools.

tl:dr: A customizer on Thingiverse.allows both kinds of tiles in normal or mirror forms and all intermediate tiles to be printed or laser-cut.

I began by defining the perimeter as a sequence of sides each defined by side length and interior angle taken from the diagram, where we see up of 16 right triangular segments ( 8 kites) of adjacent hexagons. In this formulation, r is the long side of the triangle, a and b the other sides.

function hat_peri(r) = // r is the radius of the base hexagon // returns perimeter as a sequence of [side length,internal angle]    let (a = r * sin(60), b = r*cos(60) )    [[b,180],[b,120],[b,270],[a,120],[a,90],[b,120],[b,270],[a,120],     [a,90],[b,240],[b,90],[a,240],[a,90],[b,120]];

The first two sides form a straight line but for the purposes of tiling are distinct edges.

The perimeter is converted to a sequence of points using turtle-like geometry:

function peri_to_points(peri,pos=[0,0],dir=0,i=0) =     i == len(peri)       ? [pos]       : let(side = peri[i])         let (distance = side[0])         let (newpos = pos + distance* [cos(dir), sin(dir)])         let (angle = side[1])         let (newdir = dir + (180 - angle))         concat([pos],peri_to_points(peri,newpos,newdir,i+1))      ;

Tiling with this shape requires the use of the mirror image of the base tile:

function reverse(l) = [for (i=[1:len(l)]) l[len(l)-i]];

function mirror_peri(q) = let(p=reverse(q)) [for (i=[0:len(p)-1]) [p[ (i - 1 + len(p) ) %len(p)].x,p[i].y] ];

[This is a bit of a pity. Penrose's tiles are symmetric so the question doesnt arise but the search continues for a monotiling which does not require the use of reflections.]

My library of OpenSCAD functions supports the creation of tilings by defining a sequence of edge-to-edge placements. ATM this list is created manually. Each line specifies the alignment of one of the base tiles and edge to a tile and edge in the assembly.

hat_assembly_6 = [ [[0,0]] ,[[0,0],[0,1]] ,[[0,5],[0,2]] ,[[0,3],[0,4]] ,[[0,13],[0,6]] ,[[1,1],[0,9]] ,[[0,7],[0,12]] ];

module hat_tile_6(d) { p = hat_peri (10,d); t=peri_to_points(p); m=peri_to_points(mirror(p)); unit=group_tiles([t,m],hat_assembly_6); fill_tiles(unit,["red","green","blue","yellow","pink","black","coral"]); }

Parametric tiles

More amazingly still, this tile turns out to be one of a family of aperiodic tiles, which in the limit are simple periodic tiles. They are beautifully animated here. The parametric perimeter description enables all members of this family to be constructed:

function hat_peri_family(r,d) = // r is the radius of the base hexagon

// d is the angle which varies from 0 to 90 // returns perimeter as a sequence of [side,internal angle] let (a = r * sin(d), b = r * cos(d) ) [[b,180],[b,120],[b,270],[a,120],[a,90],[b,120],[b,270],[a,120], [a,90],[b,240],[b,90],[a,240],[a,90],[b,120]]);

At the limits , the tiles tesselate:

d=0 (nicknamed the comet)

d=45

d=90 (nicknamed the chevron)

All the tiles inbetween are aperiodic:

The Turtle

David also discovered a second tile he called the turtle. Defined as a perimeter, this also has 14 sides and is a family of tiles:

function turtle_peri(r,d) = // r is the radius of the base hexagon // returns perimeter as a sequence of [side,internal angle] let (a = r * sin(d), b = r * cos(d) ) [[a,240],[a,90],[b,240],[b,90],[a,120],[a,180],[a,120],[a,270],[b,120],[b,90],[a,120],[a,270],[b,120],[b,90]];

d=60

The periodic endpoints d=0 and d=90 are the same as for the hat.

This is a small section of a tiling in David's blog:

No mirroed tiles in this example.

turtle_assembly_6 = [ [[0,0]] ,[[0,12],[0,13]] ,[[0,13],[0,2]] ,[[0,5],[0,6]] ,[[0,4],[0,7]] ,[[0,5],[0,10]] ,[[0,10],[0,11]] ];

To do

I'd like to add a couple of the suggested decorations.

A big task is to automate the tile placement to construct an assembly. Craig's software does this so I dont expect it to be easy! The approach I'd like to explore (perhaps it's the obvious appraoch?) is to start with the perimeter description of the base tile and extend this as each tile is added. The next tile can be placed by matching a subsequence of the tile perimeter to a subsequence of the expanding perimeter. Bit complicated to ensure that such a match will result in a fit especially with concave shapes.

Further

Veritasium has a nice youtube on the background to aperiodic tiling

Jaap Scherphuis created the PolyForm Puzzle software which was used by David in his explorations.

[yokyopeli]

Emma (Sonya Salomaa) The L Word 2x12 L-Chaim (2005) 2/ 2

[psychologeek]

[this had been in my drafts for over a week, and I keep finding things I want to add, so I just let it go]

I'd like to add -

OP, what do you think Zionism IS?

bc I'm just tired of those lies:

Zionism is "stealing property", and all the jews in Israel are thieves:

TLDR: Jewish people always lived in Eretz Yisrael. Just like other people, some had land from where they lived (old yishuv) and others bought it from other people.

Zionists who moved to Israel bought land in full money, sometimes more than its actual worth. The selling of lands was partly affected by the moving to cities process that Arabs from villages moved to.

Can we, please, stop calling old antisemitic tropes? Thanks.

Jewish history and Eretz Yisrael

JEWS ALWAYS LIVED HERE. There are constant evidence of Hebrew/Israeli¹ people in the area since 12th century BCE FOR THE LEAST. There was a lead tablet from 3,300 years ago found in Mt. Eyval in the Samaria area whith There are Jewish people who can trace their heritage for centuries. Unfortunately, there are also many jews who died here. From the Romans to the Arabs to Crusaders to just general pogroms - part of the reason the Jewish population was smaller than the Muslim ones, was that we are always killed (or flee for our lives). A tale as old as bible. Look up "Hebron massacre" and "Zfad massacre"

(a quick wiki search would ask you to choose which one)

and that's only the clear things from modern era.

Some mentions of Hebron:

In the Byzantine period, when a church was built over the Cave of the Patriarchs, the authorities allowed the Jews to pray in one part of it. A synagogue was established near the entrance to the Cave, but it was converted into a church after the Crusader conquest, and the Jews were driven out.

In 1517, in the final phases of the Ottoman-Mamluk War, following the Mamluk defeat of the Turks, the Jews of Hebron were violently attacked and their property was looted. Those who survived fled to Beirut.

The massacre in 1929

¹I use Hebrew/Isralites here, as that's how they were called. In Merneptah Stele, dated 1208 BCE, refers to "ysr��ꜣr" (aka Israel - they didn't have was no "L" sign, so r was used in transcript. Sort of like using english "kh/ch" for Spanish "j"), with sign it refers to "people", not a city.

~

Jewish people always immigrated to Israel as well. Before the holocaust, the biggest wave of immigration was The Spanish and Portuguese refugees in 1492. But people always moved in (and out).

(sidenote: this part applies pre-1882, and the Othman's order that Jewish people are not allowed to immigrate to the reign anymore. As you can see, this only applied to jews. But I guess it's not discrimination if it's jews.

Fast Forward, the British Mandate in 1916: 1920, brits seperate their area and call the area eastern to the Jordan River "Transjordan". Jews are from now on prohibited from living or buying property in that area.

But again, it's not discrimination if it's jews.)

And people always bought or rented homes. Just like in Germany, or Morroco.

In Hebron, for example:

"Rabbi Chaim Yeshua Bejio, then the head of the city's Sephardic and Portuguese community acquired various plots of land in Hebron. In 1807, he bought a 5-dunam plot, where the wholesale vegetable market of Hebron is located today. In May 1811, he bought 800 dunams of land from the Hebronite Tamimi family. This area included today's Tel Rumeida (Biblical Hebron) and the Tomb of Jesse. Rabbi Bejio paid for the land out of his own pocket and transferred ownership to the community."

(from Wikipedia, source: Ish-Shalom, M. מסעי נוצרים לארץ ישראל. p. 177.)

P. 139:

[id: screenshot of a scan, the words "Hebron" are marked in yellow. /end id]

translate:

"... As we know, Hebron was the first of "Eretz Yisrael's boxes", and in fact "Kupat Havron" was founded in 1729 by the community in Berlin, but from the traveler's records it turns out it already existed at the year 1711/2, and probably beforehand. Richard Fokuk [1738] mentions the Christians has stopped visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpelah) for they have killed a Muslim..."

The Halutzim were focused on creating farming communities.

The lands were bought by donations money, either from rich people (like Rothschild) or from the general public (Kakal ngo). All this is irrelevant today, as those lands (~85%) are all owned by the government as public lands.

I also find it really funny that you basically described 1929. But for some reason, I never heard a word about the need to restore the Jewish communities in Hebron Gaza city. Or any mention of those, honestly.

OP:

As I understand, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, the Black community in USA was created at about 1850s?

Africa is a continent. Black people were taken from

Black people where stolen and enslaved from multiple places, from different communities. On one ship there could have been dozens of different languages and cultures.

Jews, Yehudim, are named about where we came from: Yehuda (Judea), and were named after the last surviving kingdom (out of 3): Mamlechet Yehudah (Kingdom of Judea). This included the land of the Tribes of Yhudah+Binyamin, and some Ephraim+Dan iirc?

(Map of the tribes' area+the Joined Kingdom of Israel:)

The 2-Kingdoms, 9/10th century BCE

This is map of before the First Exile.

(If you look it up, you'll see there had been a major event of return to Zion at 539 BCE.)

~

Heritage (being Jewish, being Black)

I mention this because it is important.

please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but-

Africa is a continent.

Black people were taken from different communities and heritages. There is no "African identity" as there isn't "European identity". As far as I understand - Black people in the Caribbean or in Delwar developed different communities and traditions.

Is there a single Black heritage? Did you grow up, hearing about The Homeland, in which your ancestors were taken from, but one day you will return to?

Because here's the difference -

We do. Jews have prayer 3 times a day. In every time, we talk about Jerusalem and the longing to go back Home, to our Homeland. Everytime we eat bread, we mention Jerusalem as we say after-food blessings.

People in Ethiopia and Yemen and Germany and Russia celebrate the same holidays, on the same time - we have a holiday in Tishrey (September/October) in which we stay out in small huts for 7 days. In the 8th day, we start praying for rain.

In Russia and Germany, it is fall/winter. It's cold, and there's snow. In Ethiopia, it's spring.

Where do you think this holiday came from?

Speaking of Ethiopia - last week was the holiday of Sigd. A unique holiday that was celebrated by the Jewish community of Ethiopia. The main event of this holiday was coming together, going up on a the mountain, and restore the contract with G-d. Then, praying for Yerusalem (Jerusalem), and for the day this exile will be over. Praying to go back home.

One of my great-grandfathers, who lived in Germany in the 19th century, used to answer some Hilchatic questions with "well, in Eretz Yisrael we do X, but here, in the Gola (exile), we do Y".

My great-grandfather, that came from Yemen in 1949, told my grandfather that there were places in Yemen where they didn't grew wheat, and it was very expensive - so they only said "Hamotzi" (pray on bread) once a year - during passover. Because you need to eat Matza during the sedder.

We have songs from ריה"ל (Rihal), that was born in Toledo (modern-day spain)in 1075, and was a philosopher, poet, and Rabbi. One of his most famous poets, in Hebrew, is לבי במזרח. "My heart is in the east, and I'm at the end of wast" (apparently there's eng. Wiki to that!)

He died in 1141, in Eretz Yisrael.

~

Now, as we established that through the ages "going back Home" had been a major desire:

What is Zionism, according to you? You said you find it "audacious". Cool. What is it, then?

I find many people who say "Zionism is racist" tend to have a very biased view of WHAT it is and what it actually means.

As a black person I actually find the logic of many Zionists to be audacious.

My people were sold and kidnapped. We were enslaved for hundreds of years. We had the most despicable things happen to us. I’m sure you may relate, we were put into breeding camps, they used our parts to make clothes and furniture, allegedly they ate us, they tortured us, etc.

There is more than enough proof I am indigenous to Africa hell I found and reconnected with the family one of my ancestors was taken from. I am very lucky.

At no point have I ever thought about going to West Africa and taking the land back, stealing property, imprisoning, and murdering people who’ve lived there for centuries and still live there today. Even though there’s a possibility that they’ve participated in the selling of at least one of my ancestors.

Just because I can trace my heritage there doesn’t suddenly mean I have a claim on the land. I have heard so many Zionist say they belong there more than Palestinians, that there claim on the land is stronger. Maybe it’s not all of them but it is enough to be concerning.

Also bring up Liberia if you want. We didn’t ask for that.

This is a fair critique and it brings up one of the most important aspects of Zionism, and of all Jewish life in the modern era and from now on: that Zionism was always morally RIGHT, but it did not have to be morally NECESSARY.

For decades there was a raging, controversial, legitimately two-sided intracommunity debate over Zionism, like nothing you see among Jews today, memorably portrayed in Chaim Potok's novel "The Chosen" (and subsequent film version). The Reform Jewish Movement, our largest denomination, was governed by an explicitly anti-Zionist platform for over 50 years..... until they changed their minds in 1937. The Jewish people always trace their heritage to Eretz Yisrael, always could claim a rightful place there - but things should never have been allowed to get bad enough, fast enough, that in the truest sense their only choice was to create a state of Israel or die.

As early as 1920, Hitler said his goal was total extermination of the Jews. Nobody cared. America sealed its gates to Jewish immigrants in 1924. Germany began visibly prepping for genocide around 1935, again nobody cared. At Evian 1938 - "the great betrayal" - pretty much every powerful state in the world acknowledged that the Jews were about to be wiped out, and knowing that, refused to allow refugees to enter (except for the Dominican Republic, the mensches). England bowed to Arab terrorism and sealed off immigration to Mandate Palestine - which was a violation of international law under the League of Nations but, again, nobody cared. Nobody, not one single country, fought to protect the Jews or to help them escape. The Allies couldn't be bothered to bomb the tracks into Auschwitz, but they would heroically sink refugee ships. After the war, 250,000 Jews lingered miserably in displaced persons camps for YEARS, with not one single country being willing to admit them, and in nearly all cases there being nothing to return to anyway. There were still Jews kept in Dachau, guarded by Germans, until 1951.

From a 1945 report to Truman: "Many Jewish displaced persons … are living under guard behind barbed-wire fences … including some of the most notorious concentration camps … had no clothing other than their concentration camp garb…. Most of them have been separated three, four or five years and they cannot understand why the liberators should not have undertaken immediately the organized effort to re-unite family groups…. Many of the buildings … are clearly unfit for winter…. [Author contrasted these conditions with the relative normal life led by the nearby German populations and wondered at the contrast] ...We appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them except that we do not exterminate them. They are in concentration camps in large numbers under our military guard instead of S.S. troops. One is led to wonder whether the German people, seeing this, are not supposing that we are following or at least condoning Nazi policy...."

Those who attempted to return to their former communities were routinely murdered (seen at the end of "Maus"). There was a massacre of Holocaust survivors in Kiev, Ukraine in September 1945, another in Kielce, Poland in July 1946.

The Jews saw Palestine as their only hope, because it was. And when they saw their enemies there were led by actual red-handed Nazi war criminals, and heard that the stakes were once again their total genocide? Well, that's when you fight.... damn hard... to build the state and the military that will, FOR ONCE, protect you.

You talk about "At no point in my life have I considered claiming a part of Africa and fighting the people who I find there". Well - what if it was extremely obviously that or death?

A popular saying among Jews: "Israel was not created because there was a Holocaust. The Holocaust was created because there was no Israel." It's true - but it should not have been necessary to have an Israel to prevent the Holocaust. The rest of the world should have done that, and they didn't so much fail in preventing it as much as they succeeded in enabling it. You are correct to say that African-Americans did not ask for Liberia. The concept was made up by white people to try to get blacks out of America (though it gained popularity with black people after "milestones" of new cruelty such as the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and I believe Marcus Garvey is well-liked to this day). Well, Jews did not ask to have no government in the world grant us equality or defend us from genocide. We did not ask to have no choice. And we do not ask for our response to the latest attempted genocide to be condemned by the same nations that enabled the last several.

Today about 90% of Jews are Zionists. Not just out of the everlasting moral principle, but because of the life-or-death reality that when we needed ANY OTHER OPTION TO WORK, NOTHING DID. And since then, there has been even clearer demonstration of the tenuousness of Jewish survival and the depths of inhuman hatred we face from our enemies, as the 3,000-year-old Mizrahi Jewish civilization was successfully uprooted and purged from dozens of countries (which had already been oppressing and massacring them long before Zionism) as collective racial revenge against Israel. The mere fact that that was logistically possible - that it could be done, quickly and repeatedly - speaks worlds about the normalized culture of eliminationism surrounding us. What do you really think are the chances that African-Americans could be altogether physically purged from the USA or some of its states? Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea finished their Jews within the last 5 years.

As "critics of Israel" have made it extremely clear that all Jews worldwide remain legitimate targets, that all "colonizers" (unquestionably including Americans like me) "deserve it" ("it" to include infanticide, rape, kidnapping, and mass murder), and as America visibly decays into algorithmic racist authoritarianism and climatic desperation.... you should not expect that 90% to change.

[countrymusicandcher]

Wade Hemsworth (right) with Kate & Anna McGarrigle, ?, Chaim Tannebaum and Dane Lanken (L-R), ca 1980s. At the forefront what looks like Kate's daughter Martha.

[zebydeb]

Avid Reader is the memoir of Robert Gottlieb, who was a New York publishing bigwig in the second half of the twentieth century. Obviously he read huge numbers of new books as they were coming out. And then as now, so much stuff was published that a lot of good books were quickly forgotten after their moment in the sun.

I’ve been keeping a list of novels that Gottlieb enthuses about but I had never heard of (or the author is famous for one book and he’s raving about a different one). He has really wide-ranging tastes, so this list has a little bit of everything. Sometimes he doesn’t even mention the genre, just how good the book was.

It will probably take me years to get round to all these, if ever.

If anyone’s looking for a reading project, may I present to you: The Avid Reader incomplete list of neglected novels

Niccolo Tucci, Before My Time (autobiographical novel by a writer who left fascist Italy - praised by Dorothy Parker)

Sybille Bedford, A Legacy (about German aristocrats - Nancy Mitford loved this one)

Rona Jaffe, The Best of Everything (young women juggling career and life in 50s New York, sounds a bit like a pre-women’s-lib Sex and the City)

Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Spinster (autobiographical novel by a New Zealand teacher trying to make school better for her Maori pupils)

Mordecai Richler, Barney’s Version

Bruce Jay Friedman, Stern

Jetta Carleton, The Moonflower Vine (an American farming family with a secret)

Robert Crichton, The Secret of Santa Vittoria (villagers try to outwit Nazis in WWII)

Chaim Potok, The Chosen (two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn)

Charles Portis, True Grit (source novel for the Western film)

John Cheever, Bullet Park (“dark and obscure”)

Lisa Alther, Kinflicks

Ross Macdonald (crime writer, no specific title was mentioned)

William Wharton, Birdy

Dorothy Dunnett, British writer of historical fiction, The Game of Kings (start of a series) or King Hereafter (standalone)

Joseph Heller, Something Happened

L G Buchheim, The Boat (translated from German, source novel for the film Das Boot)

Tom Tryon, The Other (psychological horror)

Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise

Evan Connell, Mr Bridge