#non jews feel free to respond and reblog

[koshercosplay]

[anonymousdandelion]

You are more than welcome to share your reasons for responding the way you did, whatever they are, and I hope that you will if you feel comfortable doing so!

(Please note, however, that this is not a post for political discourse, whatever your perspective. And it is most definitely not a post for political discourse from non-Jews.)

(Also, this hopefully goes without saying — but if you're not Jewish, while you are welcome to reblog if you would like to share the poll with Jewish followers, please refrain from voting! Thank you for your patience and respect.)

[perfectlyvalid49]

Hi, Australian Jew here.

Sending this anonymously because I'm not openly Jewish on Tumblr, however I am considering doing so in the short-term.

I'm sorry to bother you but I wanted to ask you a few questions, if you're open to it (feel free to ignore this if so). Just so you know, I'm asking the same questions of the Jewish bloggers I follow who post regularly - both those who blog about the current Israel/Palestine situation, and those who identify as Jewish but post mainly fandom/other content.

Do you or have you receive/d abuse for being Jewish, or for your stance on the war? If so, how often? How do you respond to any hateful messages? Do you post them publicly or answer them privately? How much would you say your mental health is/has been affected by any messages, or by the content you see on your feed? Have you developed any strategies for handling social media during this time?

Thank you for reading. :-)

Hi Anon,

I’m happy to answer your questions, and I hope that what I say is helpful to you. I’d actually be curious to read a compilation of the answers you get, if you’d be willing to share.

Do you/have you received abuse for being Jewish or for my stance on the war? Yes.

If so, how often? Frankly, not very often at all. I think it’s because I’m a really small blog and my followers seem to be mostly Jewish or Jew positive? Like I only have about 120 followers, and 2/3s of them have shown up in the last six months, which is when I started reblogging a lot about the war, so I’m assuming that’s what they’re all here for. Of posts I’ve made, most don’t get very many notes. I have one that’s over 1000, and another that’s at about 400, and those are huge numbers for me, so I think I’m mostly left alone because no one knows I exist.

Those two posts did get shared enough that some antisemites showed up and we argued a bit in the reblogs. Those folks were pretty abusive, and I have had one person send me hate directly in my inbox. I also know I’ve been blocked by some people. Most of them I don’t care about because I don’t know about it, but a few people that I was following have blocked me for having such hot takes as “JVP is non-representative of Jews and is often antisemitic in their advocacy” and “Al Jazeera is a biased news source, you can't take everything they say at face value” That’s been pretty frustrating.

I will say that I’ve also gotten some random Jew love on tumblr. People showing up in my messages or inbox with kind words or cute pictures to try to improve my day. And to be honest, it really works. I love it when it happens.

How do you respond to hateful messages? With open contempt.

Do you post them publicly or privately? Publicly. I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to say something, you need to be willing to stand behind it. There is no hiding in my inbox. If you’re going to be hateful I’m going to put you on blast.

How much would you say your mental health is/has been affected by any messages, or by the content you see on your feed? By messages, or arguments that I’ve gotten into? I’d say the effect on my mental health has been minimal. But, to be clear, I’m a terrible person who likes fighting online. I would do it more if I had more free time. When I see people being antisemitic, I know that I can’t do a lot about it, but I can give them a really frustrating online experience. I know it’s not right, but if you show up on my post being antisemitic, I will absolutely let my inner troll out and not feel bad at all.

I will also say that I was bullied mercilessly in middle school for years, and that when I said I'd seen meaner twelve year olds in the post I linked to above, I meant it. Between the bullying and the therapy I went through to get over the bullying, it takes a LOT more than a stranger I don't care about being mean on the internet to hurt my feelings.

As for what I see on my feed – yeah, I think that’s had a negative impact on my overall mental health. It’s incredibly difficult to see news articles posted every day about terrible things happening to my people and to get the sense that very few people actually care. The sense of being betrayed by the leftist community as a whole – watching as they abandon their supposed ideals in order to engage in rampant Judenhass is deeply upsetting to me. I’m a millennial, and there were enough Holocaust survivors in the community in which I was raised that it definitely has had an impact and when I see this stuff now, I can’t help but think of their warnings from when I was a kid. It’s…stressful.

Have you developed any strategies for handling social media during this time? I think the important stuff is the same as always – know when to block and know when to log off. I’ve unfollowed a lot of people since October. Some of them for being wildly antisemitic, and some because they were starting to be antisemitic, and I just didn’t want to watch it progress, so I left preemptively. That’s also been frustrating, as across platforms I’ve left behind people I’ve been following for years and I miss the things I’ve followed them for, but I also know that I’m not welcome in their spaces, and what they offer isn’t worth staying for.

Anyway, I hope this helps. And if you do decide to become openly Jewish on Tumblr and someone starts giving you a hard time over it, let me know. You can block them, and I’ll go harass them for fun.

[all-your-favs-are-jews]

First of all, I am not mocking anyone with religious trauma at all. If you looked at my most recent reblog of the post which actually has me elaborate on a post I said I made at midnight, I said that I know and am close with people with religious trauma, specifically Protestant and Catholic Church trauma. I think that religious trauma is a valid thing and should not be taken lightly. The problem is when they use their trauma to attack others which is never okay.

No offense because I’m sure you mean well but never compare Christianity to Judaism. Do not say that at all. The comparisons are actually super surface level and jewish people do not like to be compared due to how little Christianity takes from Judaism. I do not see my Gd as the same one that is mentioned in the Christian context as they are basically two different beings in the nitty gritty. And honestly, if you are a goy do not try to talk over Jewish voices and imply you know my religion better than I or any other Jewish person does. The Torah is not the entire body of text that Judaism draws upon. It is referred to as the Pentateuch because it is only the first five books of the tanakh, which also includes the Nevi'im and the Ketuvim. It is not the same as Christianity because we DONT BELIEVE IN BLIND OBEDIENCE IF YOU READ THE NOTES THEN YOU WOULD SEE TONS OF OTHER JEWS AGREE WITH ME BLIND OBEDIENCE IS DISCOURAGED IN JUDAISM.

It’s not just me who is saying this. In my notes is a ton of formerly Christian atheists who agree that they used to be the kind of person I mentioned in my post and then they grew. I also have people from other non Christian backgrounds who say that they also regularly encounter this kind of atheist. And they are sick of it.

A year ago I created a survey about religion for a college class and got nearly 300 responses. Two of my questions were “Is questioning the existence of your diety(ies) heretical or healthy” and “Do you feel like you are free to argue about the rules of a religious text?” An overwhelming majority of the “heretical” and “No” answers came from my Christian and formerly Christian respondees. The respondents ranged from Christians to Jews to Muslims to Hindus to pagans and Jainists and more. The religious trauma involving the most common critiques of all religions came from Christians and those of formerly Christian backgrounds.

I’m not saying that no one from any other background can have anti-theist views or can’t have religious trauma or can’t abuse their kids. I’ve talked to another person who disagreed with my post and they quite politely informed me about anti-theist former Muslims.

Im saying that former Christian atheists are the ones who are the loudest and have the most borderline racist takes on the subject because they have the most platform and the most blind privilege, regardless of if their experience was positive or not. A Jewish person Will live their entire life as a jew, even if they stop going to shul. A Muslim will still be seen as a Muslim even after they leave. A Christian can stop believing and they will still have an inherent Christian privilege which they won’t recognize. A privilege which they use to platform themselves above non Christian voices and blindly criticize not just religion but the cultures and community that form around them. Nuns cover their hair in the same way that orthodox and Muslim women do, but nuns are seen in a positive light while these other women are seen as oppressive.

Christian atheism gets under my skin because it removes all agency from non-Christian religions. It’s white saviorism with a new coat of paint. It denies that people who come from a non Christian background have any intelligence to choose whether or not we want to believe in a higher power or want to associate with our communities. You saying I might have a “puppet masters hand up my ass” implies that I don’t have the intelligence to examine my religion in a non critical light. I do! I have plenty to kvetch about the community! And guess what! I’m not the only one! Hell I’ve heard more than one rabbi engage in open debate about the practices of the community. And unlike “cults” which you so graciously compare all religions to we don’t get shunned! Wow!

Speaking of cults let’s examine the tactics cults use. I have never been “love bombed” by any synagogue or local Jewish community. In fact! JEWISH PEOPLE ARE TOLD NOT TO TRY AND EVANGELIZE TO GOYIM. When I was younger I attended church with friends as a requirement of spending the night. There I was! A little jewish kid with uninformed ideals in the “lions den”. Perfect target for cult indoctrination. Nope. No love bombing. Just weird looks and a long uninterrupted nap. Then there’s terror tactics. I don’t believe I’m going to hell. I don’t believe non Jewish people go to hell. I was never on my knees begging Gd for forgiveness. I never felt isolated from the rest of the community that wasn’t jewish. My parents never cared that I had Muslim friends and Christian or Mormon friends. My Jewish community center would regularly have the YMCA join us for intermural sports competitions and activities. Also we accept converts! Even if we don’t actively convert anyone we still accept those who earnestly wish to be a part of the community in.

Tl;dr you proved my point entirely with your response.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while but from a Jewish perspective-

Culturally Christian non-religious people/atheists are some of the most obnoxious motherfuckers you will ever meet.

They will take their religious trauma and apply it to every religion that isn’t Christianity like they’re all the same thing in a different color and font. Culturally/formerly Christian atheists will deadass be like “Actually all organized religions are bad because [insert some aspect that applies to Christianity only]”

No Kyle. I do not feel like I have to “blindly listen to what I’m told from an ancient book”. A big part of the religion is literally about having conversation with the holy text. Not every religion is your southern Baptist church you attended until you were 17.

(Obviously this doesn’t apply to guys who just Doesn’t believe in any god and is chill about it before I get any “But I don’t”s in my notes.)

[aerialsquid]

Are you still planning on replying to that golem post? I was curious to hear your thoughts. If not, no worries!

This came right around C2E2 so I was too strung out to attend to it--after further thought, especially given that the original poster doesn't want it reblogged further, I don't think I'll go back and address it. The other issue is that it was less facts/cultural knowledge and more imperatives/declarations. If you're not this you shouldn't do that, if you do this you're problematic, etc. That's not really something I can respond to with more than my own opinion.You can certainly feel free to ask me any specific questions you might be wondering about!...Jew isn't a slur, though. Goy also isn't a slur. in the sense that "cis het" or "white people" aren't slurs when used by people not of those groups. The term itself just refers to non-Jews, but if we're referencing gentiles as an entire group there's a good chance it's because a portion of them have done something idiotic just now.