#safe space for jews

[my-jewish-life]

Now it's finally up and live!

Welcome to my Jewish Discord Server, Tikkun Olam! Me and a friend wanted to create a safe space for Jewish people after October 7th. After a while we finally were able to create it. Some things are still being worked on but feel free to join^^

[shalom-iamcominghome]

"We need more diverse queer representation!"

You cannot even handle queer jews.

[indecisiveavocado]

every single time i try

me: i should stop hanging out in such jewish places, especially online. let's see. *opens door* right wing: we hate you because you support queer rights left wing, sharpening knife: we hate you because you don't trust us not to kill us the first chance we get, just because we have for 2,300 years. 'centrists': back up one sec, what's a pogrom, who is this kid kfir, and what do you mean antisemitism didn't start and end with hitler? me: *closes door* nope, staying on jumblr.

[storm-of-feathers]

Fellow jews I would like a hug

[autistic-katara]

goyim try to criticise israel w/o calling jews nazis challenge! (impossible) part 273620

[deathbutwithfuzzyanimals]

Takes that I would never say to my grandparents but Israel is actively making lives worse for Jews everywhere, including in Israel.

[baroque-hashem]

"We're very proud of our immigrant past, and our own family's immigrant heritage. At the same time, the U.S. is a nation of xenophobia and always has been."

--Michele Waslin, from the article

[official-oshun]

i think the thing that's hardest for jewish people who are trying to leave old ideas behind and become anti-zionist is that non-jewish ideas of anti-zionism generally range anywhere from enacting a ceasefire + putting a leftwing government in control of israel, to ending the occupation, to establishing an arab state with a jewish minority, to kicking out / killing / celebrating the deaths of israelis in order to dissolve the state "by any means necessary" (even if those jews were forced out of their previous homes in europe + the swana region and can't return easily nor want to).

it's like... what does anti-zionist even mean when you're look at the future? can we be anti-zionist and want to preserve israeli lives? im asking this genuinely and in 100% good faith. i really do want to hear your opinion.

ur right. ur 100% right, so many times leftist will be so antisemetic but "progressive" so they can't even see they are calling for jewish death. lots of jews in isreal had no homes to return to after ww2. factories, houses, farms, etc were occupied (stolen) or reduced to ash. having a safe space for jews is very important to me, especially considering how few there are of us compared to say muslims or christians. we deserve a safe and free space but israel is not providing that. in my dream world israel still exists, thought much smaller and it is a legitimate safe heaven for jews of all races. it is pushed back to its original boarders, or smaller, as designated by the UN and previous land that had been conquered is given back with monetary reparations given to the people of palestien, not only by israel but by the western countries that allowed this to happen. in my dream world it is a leftwing government that doesn't require military training for all adult civilians. in my dream world isreali people, regardless of if they are jewish or not, can feel safe and can activly cross boarders with their neighbors in a mostly friendly way. no country is ever going to best friends with all its neighbors, but i wish desperately for israel to demilitarize itself and help it's neighbor palestien flourish. there is money in our blood and each war time strife brings in major that most israeli's and no palestienans will ever see. it might be too idealistic but my anti-zionism is shrinking israel, funding palestien, and creating two nation states with friendly relations who can support themselves primarily. and for the record i don't support celebrating israeli civilian deaths, especially those who haven't even done heir military training. active soldiers I will celebrate accordingly to how they behaved (some missing / dead soldiers have posted and supported actual genocide so idgaf). but most soldiers I mainly will just ignore. there is no honor in dying like this, there is no honor in dying in war. this is my short answer (my long answer would require me exaplaining how western countries have helped spark this conflict even more so and how I think a lot of them namely the english and USAmerica owe palestien way more than the israeli government does.)

[ourcaptainisabelle]

What I find depressing is how black and white everyone wants this to be. Israel is doing horrible things, but its because HAMAS WANTS TO WIPE ALL JEWS OF THE PLANET. Palatinians are being bombed, starved and left stranded without resources, and Hamas has stockpiles of weapons, fuel, and food, in tunnels under hospitals and schools, specifically so they stay safe, and anytime Israel does bomb, they can just throw all the blame on them

"Oh the media being biased/silent on Gaza is a conspiracy theory"

I am a literal journalist and this is what happened when I pitched an article to a magazine I write for:

We covered conflict before. We denounced PMs' positions as wrong before. But this is where the editor balks - anything that makes it look even vaguely like we might, possibly, support Gaza. Even if the article itself would not have been an opinion piece, but a news feature about events on the ground.

We have free press, baby! But avoid the matter entirely if you can. It's delicate and depressing, why would you talk about it? Don't rock the boat. Be quiet. You don't need to go there.

Self-censorship is alive and well.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I absolutely adore how safe I feel in my offline (and, to an extent, online) jewish spaces. What I don't adore is why I only really feel safe in those spaces (jew hatred is so vapid)

[gaelic-symphony]

You know, when Trump won in 2016, I was terrified, but I also felt like no matter how bad the government got, I would be safe and supported and welcomed by the broad coalition of left-leaning anti-Trump organizations and groups: feminist groups, queer community spaces, immigrant rights groups, abortion funds, environmental advocates, gun control advocates, etc. I thought the people in the loose alliance of leftists, liberals, and moderates who were outraged by Trump’s administration and the actions of Republicans were my allies and would stand up for me as a member of a vulnerable minority.

I don’t feel that way anymore. I’ve spent the past year watching leftists and “progressives” cheer on Islamist groups who call for the death of my people. I’ve watched groups who focused on specific issues of domestic policy completely unrelated to foreign wars embrace Palestine as an omnicause, forcing antizionism into spaces that have nothing to do with Israel and making them progressively more hostile to Jews.

This time, I feel very, very alone. Jews are 2% of the American population, and we can’t trust our government, our neighbors, or progressive organizations and movements to keep us safe—or even just not advocate for our deaths. We only have each other, and with Hashem’s help, we will keep each other safe and keep our communities and institutions and traditions alive until better times come along. Kol Yisrael aravim zeh ba’zeh.

Anyway, if anything I’ve said resonates with you at all, please consider donating to The Red Tent Fund, a new Jewish abortion support organization founded by a Jewish woman who was pushed out of the abortion fund she previously worked for when the organization started pushing antisemitic propaganda and refused to acknowledge sexual violence against Israeli women.

[anshelsgendercrisis]

something that's fucked me up over the last three weeks is the constant barrage of non palestinian goyim saying "why should we have to condemn hamas???????? why do we have to focus on jews or israelis when palestinians are dying??????????" and i know ppl who have already decided i'm guilty by virtue of being a jew won't give a shit, but i'm hoping people who still have a bit of humanity left in them will.

i've gotten so many anons chiding me and demanding to know why they should give a shit about the people killed by hamas (not all of whom were jewish or even israeli), and the answer i keep wanting to give is that. honestly you don't fucking have to. quite honestly, i wouldn't have cared if no one talked about it. i would be hurt to see people didn't see the loss of (assumed to be jewish) life as a tragedy, but i would have much preferred silence to the utterly horrific things i have had to see over the past three weeks.

bc that's the thing. we as jews are so fucking jaded when it comes to gentile reactions to violence against us. we're used to you saying it doesn't matter or even that we deserved it. gentile apathy has so thoroughly broken us that we consider it a win when y'all don't actively celebrate instances of antisemitism. and you had the opportunity to disrupt that pattern, to either take a single moment to offer condolences for the loss of so many lives (not all of whom were jewish or even israeli) or just simply back off and give us space to grieve.

but instead, i witnessed people, who just over a month ago had been wishing their jewish followers a happy rosh hashanah, post or repost some of the most appalling displays of antisemitism i have seen since may of 2021. i have watched you post about the "zionist media" ("jews control the media"), tell jewish israelis to just use their dual citizenship to go back to their third beach house on long island ("all jews are rich"), that jews israelis are bloodthirsty monsters who get pleasure from killing children (modern day blood libel), that jews are the "new nazis" (holocaust inversion), that jews in the diaspora are responsible for the actions of the israeli government (dual loyalty), and that every single israeli should die (literally genocide???????????)

i witnessed people who call themselves antizionist gleefully become tools of political zionism, bolstering the claims that the diaspora is not safe for us and therefore we must support israel when the countries we currently live in turn on us like they have without fail for the last 2000 years. and when i point this out, instead of taking this to heart, people double down. they insist if i'm pointing this out it must mean i believe it.

you all had the opportunity to do nothing, to prioritize the safety and liberation of palestinians over your own hatred of jews, and yet you still chose antisemitism. and i will never forgive you for it.

[dj-of-the-coven]

“Unable to slot Jews into a clearly defined role within their political agenda, most of the left tended historically to regard them with considerable ambivalence, and, in some cases, extreme hostility. While supporting universal human rights, the left never saw antisemitism as a primary concern. Instead, it was a secondary issue (if an issue at all) that would be resolved as a side effect of the general social liberation that the left was pursuing. Intrinsic to this approach is the view that Jewish particularity is, in itself, a defect to be remedied through assimilation and disappearance. […] Any attempt by Jews to make the struggle against antisemitism into a separate problem deserving of the same passion devoted to other progressive causes was rejected as a diversion from the main issues that animate the left.”

- The New Antisemitism, Shalom Lappin

On Antisemitism: An Open Plea.

Over the course of 2024, I was physically assaulted for being a Jew three times: once by a man waiting outside the JCC, and twice while working the desk at an anarchist bookstore.

All three of these attacks were done by men, all almost immediately after identifying me as a Jew. One of my assaulters, a white man with scruffy facial hair and a bucket hat, clearly identified as some kind of Christian—he wore three cross necklaces and a blue shirt with the Virgin Mary on the front. One man was black, wearing pressed slacks and dark leather dress shoes. One man was college-aged, white, wearing a band hoodie and jeans. Two of the encounters were one-off incidents, whereas the Christian man searched for me multiple times at the bookstore while I was not present. I am a fairly large person, and one with a lot of combat training, so I was lucky that none of these incidents resulted in the worst possible outcomes for an early-20s woman confronted alone after dark. Many people are not so lucky when they are put in my place. Particularly Jewish women.

And as a quick aside, people don’t tend to take the Jewish part of “Jewish woman” seriously. When I add this comment to the story, a lot of people scoff. I can somewhat understand why; despite the curls, if you were to look at me, you might think, “How did they even know you were Jewish?”. For two of these men (the ones who didn’t see me coming out of the Jewish Community Center), the answer is fairly simple. When they heard my name, they paused and asked. I don’t like to assume the worst in people, and thus I confirmed, though in the time since I have gotten much sparser with revealing that information to strangers. This is how I know they were attacking me for that reason. When you reveal yourself to be a Jew, or are recognized against the odds, things can often become unsavory quickly.

Any leftist worth their salt would call these attacks against me unconscionable—I doubt that most would be willing to defend this behavior—but make no mistake. None of the men who attacked me were acting out some kind of exception to a rule, nor was I particularly surprised that these incidents all occurred in or around spaces that should be safe for Jews. This is the reality that the Jewish people live in. Wherever we are, we can expect a roughly equal reaction from the population, left wing or right wing, and the largest point of difference between the two is whether they will call you “Zio” or “Kike” before grabbing you by the collar.

I was attacked only three times last year. Yet, countless more times I have watched the people in my communities ignore the rhetoric that led to these attacks, wave them off as radicals, as zealots unrepresentative of their peers, and continue to live their lives as if these incidents don’t happen regularly.

This is a major problem on the left.

Yes—the left.

The American right-wing is axiomatically predisposed to this type of behavior. If they aren’t the ones committingthe hate crimes, then they are often the ones most comforted by them, affirmed that their goal of a pure-white America is one step closer to being attained. It’s never surprising for a Jew to encounter a conservative with just one or two comments to make about us being “good with money”, “owning the banks”, “controlling the media”, and other examples of kindergarten-level political opinions. On the other hand, one wouldn’t automatically assume that a leftist would hold such opinions. Being opposed to race-based and religion-based discrimination, it would be a bit counter-intuitive for leftists to say such things about Jews. Wouldn’t it?

You would be surprised.

If there’s anything that the last year has taught me, it’s that the left is much more susceptible to antisemitism than ever previously understood, despite its long history within progressive social movements. So long as you stipulate “Israeli” and/or “Zionist” before saying the word “Jews”, any and all manner of violent hate speech can be considered revolutionary sentiment: I have seen fellow leftists call Jews, not just "Zionists", inhuman, bloodthirsty, real-life monsters, scum, vermin, pollutants; capitalist pigs and agents of genocide; a fake people with a fake identity and a fake claim to safety and dignity. And pointing this out will net you with a number of other responses, questions of whether you support the actions of the Israeli government, as if the point of the discussion was ever about that and not about the antisemitism being lobbed at you in broad daylight. Talks of antisemitism are always shafted into talks about Israel regardless of where in the diaspora you happen to be. Those of us who are staunch leftists, who want nothing but peace and solidarity with Arabs and Muslims—which is a majority of Jews—are pressured into remaining silent about our worsening mental health and safety for the sake of the cause. We’re told to speak later, when the most important voices have spoken first: every ethnic, gender, and sexuality minority first, then maybe the Jews. It was only recently that I realized this mythical “later” will never come.

Largely, Jews just want peace. Jews want safety. Jews want recognition of our suffering, regardless of the actions of a government that might not even be ours, depending on who you’re talking to—but Israeli Jews deserve these things as well. There is nothing wrong with criticizing the Israeli government, but when will goyische leftists realize that Israel’s government, like all governments, is not a true representation of its people? When will goyim realize that it’s not okay to dehumanize Jews, no matter what their political opinion is? When will they finally wake up embarrassed by their own behavior, realizing that my Jewish peers, my cousins, my extended family, my community—all of us are just people who are entitled to the same respect and empathy as any ethnic group in the world? Will they ever learn to recognize their own bigotry? Will they ever see the world from a pair of Jewish eyes?

The answer is, for all intents and purposes, no. But I don’t want to stop trying just because it feels hopeless.

If you are a leftist goy and you’re still reading this, I would like to ask of you only one thing: stop talking and start listening. If you don’t know anything about Jewish history, don’t talk about it. If you know less than four Jewish people, and you keep them at an arm’s length in case they turn out to be “evil baby-killers”, then you shouldn’t mention your Jewish friends. If you believe only Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews count as “real Jews”, you shouldn’t be weighing in on which Jews count as white. If you couldn’t name any Jewish holiday besides Chanukah, you shouldn’t bother to call yourself educated on my people and our traditions. If you believe that the Jewish people, alone among all peoples, deserve to be oppressed for the crimes of a vocal few, then frankly you should not consider yourself a human rights activist at all.

If you are a Jew, all I have to say to you is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to speak up on your behalf; on behalf of all of us. I’m so sorry that everyone is acting like this is fine. I’m sorry that our lives have been shrinking ever-smaller as we’ve been made unsafe in queer spaces, disabled spaces, online communities and real-life ones, spaces that should belong to everyone. I wish I could fix your pain. I hope you’ll accept my attempt to chip away at it.

This is not the first time a Jew has come forward to speak about this, but I hope that adding my voice to the conversation will help at least one more person realize that what has happened to us is wrong. There is no world in which the collective punishment of an entire ethnic group is justified. No matter what Israel has done, no matter what tragedies and injustices have been inflicted on Palestinians by the IDF, there is no world in which this mass-scale vilification of Jews can be called real justice. There is no world in which these means justify the ends. And what ends do you even want to this? For all Israelis to blow up and die? For all Jews to stop practicing our faith? Or do you want the long-proposed answer to the Jewish question—the total annihilation of all Jews from the planet Earth?

Of course not. But if you don’t make an effort to educate yourself on antisemitism, then the answer to that question will make itself known in your mind, and in your heart, before you even know it. There is no genetic difference between you and a Nazi.

[spacelazarwolf]

another pride month reminder: if your events aren’t welcoming to jews and other religious minorities, they are not a safe space.

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

It's difficult to be in left wing/liberal spaces (online and off) at the moment because the conversation always seems to drift to Israel/Palestine and there is a huge assumption (in left wing spaces among left wing people) that because you are (for example) an environmentalist or a supporter of trans people you are automatically pro-Palestine and anti-Israel too. I find myself having to ignore A LOT of hatred toward Jewish people these days from places and people I used to feel almost completely onboard with. I am not Jewish but I can vividly imagine, if I were, how devastating this realization would be. How suddenly unwelcome I would feel. How it would make me think "wow there really is nowhere besides Israel that is safe to be Jewish".

I have found myself switching to donating to Israeli environmental organizations and Israeli LGBTQ spaces because the UK-based ones I used to support keep posting about Palestine and the evil of Israel and I just can't with that.

The feminist spaces, the environmental spaces, the LGBTQ spaces, musicians I used to love.. I've stopped going, I've unfollowed. It's depressing. But I will NOT support anti-semitism. I will NOT support terrorism. I will NOT support Arab Muslim colonialism and expansionism. I will NOT support revisionist history or fundamentalist Islamist ideology. I will NOT infantilize Palestinians and regard them patronisingly as simply poor helpless victimized brown people that righteous white people must defend. I just won't. I don't care how trendy it becomes in left wing circles. I won't do it. I support my Israeli friends and Jewish people at large. I sympathize with them. I agree with Israelis right to defend themselves, their right to exist as a country and their ancient connection to the land. I even understand their anger. And no that doesn't make me a "genocide apologist" or a "baby killer" or a "zio-nazi" (ffs) no matter how many times those accusations are repeated. Good grief.

I'd say 'I despair' but truly I do not. I do have hope. I hope some of my former friends and peers will eventually come around. I hope they'll be embarrassed and sorry. I don't expect it but I hope. I will continue to be an environmentalist. I will continue to be a feminist. I will continue to support LGBTQ rights. I will not be pushed out of those spaces or away from those things by another subject I disagree with. I understand enough about propaganda and history and peer pressure and group think to endure and try to be forgiving (in advance.) But lord I'd be lying if I said it wasn't disappointing and disheartening and occasionally terrifying seeing and hearing people I know (thought I knew) and love (loved?) suddenly donning keffiyehs and waving signs with the Star of David crossed out on them (or re-drawn as a swastika.) And the utter lack of willingness to even try to see things from another perspective.

I could have written every single word of this myself - it’s been an incredibly disheartening experience seeing people and organisations I had so much respect for, who have done and continue to do amazing work in other areas, lose the plot completely and forget and betray every single one of their own ideals when it comes to Israel and to Jews in general. It’s like this monstrous antisemitism was lying dormant in so many people, just waiting to be awakened and the fact that it was a massacre where Israelis were the victims that did it disgusts me on so deep a level I don’t have words adequate to describe it.

They can pretend all they like that it’s the war that they’re protesting, that it’s because they care so much about the Palestinians, but it’s all bollocks. Innocent Israelis were being raped and tortured and massacred and kidnapped and these fuckers were celebrating while it was still happening and they were rallying in the streets protesting against Israel before they’d even fired a single retaliatory shot and before their dead were even cold. They pretend to give a shit about Palestinians, but where the fuck are they when the people of Gaza are rising up against Hamas and being tortured and murdered by their favourite terrorist idols for daring to oppose them? If they can’t blame the eternal scapegoat, they don’t give a shit.

[xclowniex]

Jews are treated so unfairly and left out of so many opinions leftists hold, and this time I'm specifically talking about the lesser opinions that don't get talked about as much.

Like I've seen so many people say "minorities don't owe you kindness when you're bigoted towards them"

Yet as soon as a jew is no longer kind, or acts out emotionally, it suddenly not okay for us to do so.

"You should remove people who hold bigoted opinions from a group as you need to create safe spaces for minorities"

Unless it's antisemitism then it's fine and the antisemite is allowed to stay.

"You should listen to minorities when they tell you you're being bigoted"

Unless it's a jew telling you that you're antisemitic

"Nothing is too hard when it comes to unlearning bigotry"

Unless it's unlearning antisemitism or even simply unfollowing accounts which are antisemitic

And you don't have to personally agree with all or any of the statements above to understand that there is a sizable chunk of people who do agree and do have these double standards towards jews.