#sephardi characters

[rotzaprachim]

Nombres/שְׁמוֹת

Cassian Andor Kenari backstory, 721 words, read here

Asa’s sister was still a baby the year everyone died. She crawled and then toddled after his mother and preferred to stick her pudgy baby fingers into the the arroz kon leche than eat it, and she couldn’t say all her sounds yet.

The Kenari language in this is a mix of Ladino and modern Mexican Spanish. I am a native speaker of neither, nor I am Latine or Sephardi; any linguistic and cultural mistakes are entirely my own.

Trigger warnings for implications of the mass killing implied in Andor, colonial and antisemitic violence.

Asa’s sister was still a baby the year everyone died. She crawled and then toddled after his mother and preferred to stick her pudgy baby fingers into the the arroz kon leche than eat it, and she couldn’t say all her sounds yet.

“Ka’a!” She babbled happily. She knocked down one of Asa’s block towers and he grumbled. He didn’t like having to play with her when that play was work, a way of distracting the baby from sticking her hands on the stove or putting chemicals in her mouth or falling into one of the gaping ditches that kept appearing without prior notice in the woods around the village.

“No, kerida, no. Vivimos en una kasa, pero su hermano es Asa.” His mother said, flipping another tortilla off the comal.

“Ka’a!” She said, and poked him.

“¡Me yamo Asa!” he said. “I am not a house!”

On the day that everyone died the children did not, and they crawled out of the river, water-cold and scratched by the reeds. They walked back into what was had been their village but was their village no longer, the roofs burned and the walls smashed open and the windows in shards under their feet, and it was in those shards that Asa y Yojeved who was to become Keri y todos de los ninyos de Kenari saw for the last time their reflection, before the glass was fogged with the mildew and warm wet life of Kenari and ground into the soil. Todos de los espejos were gone, y todos los comales - all of the metal cooking-pots, all the mezuzot from the doorframes that no longer stood, all the forks and knives and serving-platters, anything, he later supposed, that might be melted down for use and value. One day he’ll know who built the machines of their desctruction, one day he’ll wonder where metal to build a planet came from. For now, the silver finials de la tora en el Kal are missing, but not the torn scraps of the scroll, fluttering in the breeze.

His sister cried. She was so heavy in his arms. He set her down, carefully, where there were neither shards nor cinders.

“Ka’a!” She said, confused but not yet sad. She didn’t know how to be sad yet, not really. “Ka’a!”

“No tenemos una kasa!” he said.

But she was little, and did not understand.

“Ka’a!” She said, and poked him.

“Si,” he said, finally. “Me yamo Kasa.”

There were no houses. There was no food. There were no parents to cook their dinner and wash their faces and make them go to bed on time. There was no one. Kassa saw a boy, he saw the boy try to jump into a river. Kassa saw a girl who was one of the biggest, the oldest of the children who were not yet big enough to be made to go to work in the mines, grab the boy by the collar of his shirt and refuse to let him go.

“No,” she said, “No. Si morimos, ellos ganan.”

She told them what her mother had told her, that the guards had regular shipments of supplies they hid from the workers, because they liked to be rich and fat while their people laboured. She told them they had to find them, and steal them. And the children of Kenari found them, and stole the proteinmeal and heatlamps and lights, the blankets and tents, and they made a new village under the domes of trees that could not be found by heat-lasers. And the food was not enough, but someone’s father had grown manioc, secretly, beyond the eyes of the guard, and someone’s mother had a tangle had a massive tangle of bean plants deep in the forest, and someone remembered how to fish from the river, for they, too, had been taught by their parents. And there were mango and cherimoya on the trees that were sweet on their tongues, that the children could reach for and eat and know were good.

And so the children of Kenari lived.

- o0o -

1 Estos son los nombres de los hijos de Israel que entraron en Egipto con Jacob; cada uno entró con su familia: 2 Rubén, Simeón, Leví, Judá, 3 Isacar, Zabulón, Benjamín, 4 Dan, Neftalí, Gad y Aser.

[hinotorihime]

a) to what extent should i worry about which minhag a character would logically follow b) are there any reliable sources for decent summaries of "this minhag does this thing in this way" that don't necessarily require you to already know that there is a specific difference to look up (e.g.: apparently sephardim position a mezuzah at a different angle than ashkenazim. i would NOT have thought to specifically look up whether that was a thing if it hadn't been casually mentioned in a different article)

[doctorcrabby]

AAAAAHHHH MY PEOPLE ARE HERE (well one of them anyway)

Beni (B’nai) in Hebrew means “son of” or “children of” so this must be a specific subgroup of Jewish people. Jewish liturgy often refers to Jews as “B’Nai Yisrael” for example.

[a-little-revolution]

hey, i know you've said previously that in order to write a Little character, you have to know the stereotypes of Little people. however, my internet delves have been so far fruitless. would you be able to tell me what some Little stereotypes are?

i ask because i'm writing a novel, and one of my main characters is a Little person with achondroplasia. I know the medical part of it just fine, but I am having less success for the other aspects.

His name's Mordechai Fernandez-Chavez, he plays soccer, is good at arguing, loves archaeology/anthropology, and he's learned to be loud and take up space because one thing I (think) I know is that Little people tend to be ignored (please tell me if that's wrong!), he's a Sephardi Orthodox Jew, he's Mexican-Argentinian-American, he collects rocks, and overall I've tried to put a lot of work into making him a person, not just a Little person. But I'm still afraid I haven't done enough.

help? :O

Hello! Some common stereotypes for little people to avoid are;

that we're overly angry or grumpy - which accumulates in the real world by dismissing the emotions of real LP

LPs are often used for physical comedy, particualrly in scenarios where our short stature is seen as cute or the butt of the joke

hypersexualization is a big one, that we're inherently promiscuous or kinky. On the other end of the coin, sex with little people is often seen as taboo.

that we're all miners, black smiths, etc. as seen in fantasy

that we have good luck or are somehow lucky - this one is less common, but some cultures still believe that touching little people will bring you good luck, which is something I've encountered

[jewish-sideblog]

Mini rant bc why is it that every jewish character in media is the same ashkenazi assimilated jew? First off, where are all the sephardi jews? Would love more rep of that pls. But also, why can jews in media never just.... be religious? even a side character, let them where a kippa or have a married woman cover her hair. Why is the only way for a jewish character to be in mainstream media for them to 'fit in' with the goyim

People really think we control Hollywood meanwhile I'm begging for an ounce of genuine and accurate representation of Jews in mainstream media

[littlestpersimmon]

May i ask what cultures inspire the clothing you draw on your characters? They're beautiful.

Mainly all sorts of asian cultures- mostly southeast asian. My partner is Palestinian so I try to incorporate tatreez occasionally. Also include various sephardi jewish cultural motifs into my clothes- but really, mostly southeast asian, as philippine cultures is closest to my heart. I love balinese clothes as well, and clothes from Kelantan, and clothes from Tamil Nadu and Thailand, and Visayan clothes, and Manchuria and Hmong and etc and then I also add stuff from my own imagination. It's really hot in Manila, so all clothes I draw are really airy and light fabric for my own autistic self that I wish I could possess irl !!

[cuntdestroyer3000]

Notice how they cast a Jewish actress in the last of us but it wasn’t to play the only Jewish character who’s Jewishness is a major part of her character?

Ariela Barer would have been perfect for Dina but they cast her as Mel?? I’m pretty sure Dina is supposed to be a sephardi or mizrahi Jew and Ariela is literally Jewish and Mexican. Like bro💀

It’s weird to me how there IS a Jew on the cast but she’s not playing the Jewish character? Once again Dina’s Jewishness is SO important, her name is literally Dina bruh.

It’s weird to me and I’ve kind of seen a pattern where Jewish actors will get casted but most often not for a Jewish role, meanwhile the Jewish roles are given to non Jewish actors and they legit cosplay as us. (Don’t even get me started on Bradley cooper playing Leonard Bernstein bc wtf)

Like we’re allowed to play roles but we can’t play Jewish ones? It’s fucking weird. Like we can only have so much representation. Is a Jew playing a Jewish role just too much for them?

It bothers me bc I feel like if it were any other minority the fandom would be outraged but since Dina’s Jewish it isn’t really a big deal. The game was made by a Jew and that in my opinion is what really made the game great. It has so much Jewish thought and philosophy and it’s weird that they couldn’t have just cast a Jew to play Dina. Barer was right there💀

[to-know-how-it-ends]

Hey everybody. I haven't posted on tumblr for quite some time. I have reasons, among them being Passover and the antisemitism that seems to have grown tenfold since I came back.

Nevertheless. Many of you may not know this, but in addition to being a humongous musical fan, I really love to write plays. Currently, I am in the process of developing a play-in-a-play centered around the Purim story.

Unfortunately, I really only have mine, my family's, and my own perception of the Purim story and holiday to base my play off of, which limits my story, my characters, and the inclusiveness of this play. So I wanted to ask my fellow tumblr Jews of all backgrounds (I am looking for everything under the sun, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, etc., so I would really love a lot of perspectives)

what does the Purim story mean to you?

What are the themes you find most important?

The characters?

Are there any variations that you know of from other tellings of the story?

And for Purim, the holiday, how do you celebrate it?

I also want to open this up to any non-Jewish tumblr people -- what do you know about Purim? What is your perception of it from an outsiders perspective?

Thanks so much and hope everybody had a Pesach Sameach!

[papihomo]

Hi, since I am currently hyperfixated on Omori! I thought I'd spill some of my character headcanons!

Sunny/Omori - Full Name: Sunny Seraphim Liao - Ethnicity: Chinese-Coptic Canadian - he enjoys the literary works of William Blake & other romantic period poets - involuntarily mute.

Mari - Full Name: Mari Iris Liao - Ethnicity: Chinese-Coptic Canadian - favorite musical artist is probably Erik Satie - she is an avid enjoyer of obscure artforms - absolute theater kid lets be honest - embraced both of her cultures with pride.

Basil - Full Name: Basil Ivan Kaminski - Ethnicity: Polish-Canadian - brought up in a heavily Polish Catholic household - closeted baby gay - obsessively plays mario on the gameboy advance - total hypochondriac.

Hero - Full Name: Enrique "Hero" Almanzar - Ethnicity: Mexican-Guatemalan Canadian of Mayan descent - can probably cook better than Gordon Ramsay lets be real - probably worked at a blockbuster video rental store as a part time to get by during high school - one of the best people you can hang out with lets be real.

Kel - Full Name: Kelsey "Kel" Cristobal Almanzar - Ethnicity: Mexican-Guatemalan Canadian of Mayan Descent - has a goofy little obsession with terrible low budget films such as "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" - idolizes Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabbar - has one of those basketball hoops near the driveway - ultimate gremlin.

Aubrey - Full Name: Aubergine "Aubrey" Hadassah Bernstein - Ethnicity: Israeli-Canadian of mixed Ashkenazi & Balkan Sephardi descent - raging lesbian - probably the Captain of her school's Baseball Team - Polyglot - can & will cuss you out in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Yiddish & Ladino - absolutely ruthless when it comes to being honest about shit - usually listens to grunge music - her favorite song is "Stacy's Mom" - neurodivergent af.

[thatrandombookworm]

I watched Disney’s Wish finally. It wasnt as bad as people say but I am a little miffed that despite Asha calling her grandfather Saba and one line in the opening song where she says shalom (she also says hola and salaam in the same line so take it with a grain of salt), there’s no other mention of her being Jewish/speaking Hebrew? Literally anywhere??

Not even the wiki has anything about it??

The most i could find was a thing on TVtropes where it said oh yeah shes “ambiguously Jewish”—where the only things they reference as proof are the two above situations—so not actually Jewish (oh cool, theyre stealing Jewish stuff who could have seen this coming)

I spent the rest of the movie looking for anything that shows she’s Jewish but there’s nothing.

The most the producer says is that Asha has, “Southern European and North African heritage” so there’s potential for her to be Sephardi? Maybe?

Like, you’d think it’d be something worth commenting on, a Disney character who’s Jewish/Jew-coded and not a villain

But noooo, Gd forbid a main character is openly/visibly Jewish

[princessg3rard]

wanna infodump at me?<3

🚬🍓

SURE !! <3

this is going to be basically an “how to make ur jewish character a normal person with a cohesive background” bc I’m doing it rn and have noticed that a lot of gentile writers don’t really pay attention to the details and differences between communities :3

so I’m writing series of jewish!mcr fics now, right ?? so the first order of business was to figure out what kind of jew they’ll each be, which was actually kinda hard - like I need to make sure I make them part of communities I know well enough to represent well, right ?? anyways it ended up being not that bad, since I know plenty of Italian/greek jews and South American jews to represent at least half well (btw that would make them all sephardi, despite the majority of east coast jews being ashkenazi).

then, it’s to time to decide where they fall on the religious spectrum !! contrary to popular belief, u can be jewish and an atheist at the same time, bc judaism is an ethnoreligion - but u can obvi be super devout and religious, so what kind of beliefs can ur jewish character possess ??

the spectrum is as follows:

atheist — secular — traditional — religious — ultra orthodox (haredi)

for the purpose of my fic, and in light of the members’ actual upbringing, they all fall within the “traditional” category, with a quite religious upbringing (so for example, bc frank went to catholic school his jewish version went to little yeshiva (but didn’t go to the big yeshiva, he’s too cool for that)). pay attention to the way ur jew interacts with tradition and scripture - most jews celebrate every holiday and observe Yom Kippur, but only from traditional and futher on the religious side keep the shabbat and strict kashrut laws.

up next, how do they interact with their community ?? do they go to their synagogue ?? do they participate in purim parties ?? do they have an elaborate or small Seder ?? do they eat cheese on Hanukkah ?? do they avoid kitniyot on Passover ?? etc. etc.

these questions can be helped by the prior aspects of their jewish identity - community, denomination, level of religious devotion :) it helps guide u in what they can and can’t eat, when they dress up, when they invite all their friends and family over to show them their culture - and develop story beats accordingly !!

make sure that ur jew dresses up for holidays (chag/chagim) and shabbat !! it’s quite important to most jews to wear their “Sunday best” in holy days like that :3

k I’m done yapping thanks for coming to my ted talk :)

[bisexualamy]

i'm beginning to really hate ppl referring to stuff in books and shows as "xyz rep" like "queer rep" it sounds so corporate and soulless.

i'm reading a beautiful fantasy book steeped in sephardi jewish folklore and sephardi jewish culture in inquisition era spain. i made the mistake of reading the top few lines of goodreads reviews and the first thing i saw was "if you want a good book with Jewish rep" and it made me so irrationally upset. to reduce all the research this author clearly did, all the beautiful worldbuilding and loving integration of jewish culture and traditions and everyday life down to "Jewish rep" is such a disservice to all the work she did.

one of the things i love about this book is it presumes a familiarity of judaism and presents it without explanation. it provides a glossary if you're unfamiliar with the terms so you can understand the references. for the first time in a long time my culture is presented as the dominant culture worth not only exploring but treated casually. as much a presence in the main characters as the people on the streets and in the background of scenes. for the first time in a long time i don't have to do the legwork to understand christian references that authors assume i should know. i cannot articulate how amazing that feels.

calling it "rep" makes it sound like representation for the sake of representation. it's a fantasy book that draws its inspiration from sephardi judaism and jewish folklore. why tf is this "jewish rep" but narnia isn't "christian rep." i hate that even when a book is for us we are still othered.

[ao3feed-jonmartin]

Safehouse Seder

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/j0JsKe7 by thevampirecrow Looking back, he was too young, of course, and he was free already. How does a boy so young and naive, a boy who has always been free, understand what it means to be trapped?   In which Jon and Martin celebrate Passover in the Scottish Safehouse. Words: 2409, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: Gen, M/M Characters: Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Additional Tags: Angst, Jewish Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Jewish Martin Blackwood, Set in Episodes 159-160 | Scottish Safehouse Period (The Magnus Archives), Jewish Character, Apocalypse-Typical Suffering, Pesach | Passover, Seder Pesach | Passover Seder (Judaism), it is angsty but it's also very hopeful, Fluff, POV Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, non-ashkenazi rep too, Author is Jewish, Sephardi Jon Sims, Ashkenazi Martin Blackwood read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/j0JsKe7

[spacelazarwolf]

Reading your blog has taught me a lot about Jewish culture I didn't know before and I'm really grateful I've found you! It's gotten me also genuinely interested in writing some Jewish characters into some novels I'm planning. Do you have any recommendations or places to check out for advice on writing Jewish characters?

sorry this took me for absolute ever to get to.

i think my biggest piece of advice is that in order to write a good jewish character, you have to find a good balance between not making them into a caricature or token jew and also still letting their jewishness inform their character.

first you want to decide what kind of jew this character is. are they ashkenazi, sephardi, yemeni, italki, beta israeli, bnei menashe, or one of so many more diaspora groups; where does their family come from? or did they convert? once you've got an idea of that background, think about if you want them to be observant, religious, secular, or some mix of the three. be really intentional when choosing this. think about their family, their background, what they likely grew up with, are they continuing the tradition of their family or are they rebelling? are they choosing a new tradition?

when deciding things about their character, remember that their jewishness will most likely affect every aspect of it. do they have generational trauma that causes mental illness? if they converted, what's their relationship with their family like and how does it affect their jewish identity? how do stereotypes about jews affect their perception of their gender and the world's perception of them? how does their jewishness intersect with their sexuality, their race, their class? (also if you're going to make your jewish character rich, just..... be careful)

and when in doubt, ask a jew! plenty of us are more than happy to answer questions, myself included. there are going to be a lot of things you don't get or don't know because you're not immersed in the culture, and imo i think that's fine as long as you're doing your due diligence and research.

tagging the jumblr tag so other jews can add their thoughts as well.

[olderthannetfic]

As a Jewish person I'm so fucking tired of goysplaining. Goyim commenting trying to "well, actually" me about my own faith and traditions because they did a Google search and Google says this and this is so, so obnoxious. I have been trying to explain to one commenter that actually this one name is associated with one gender among Sephardim and another among Ashkenazim but every. fucking. time. it comes up they go, "well Google says it's __ so this nonbinary character's AGAB must've been __" NO. If you have a Sephardi parent and an Ashke parent and you have a name that goes different ways depending on which group you're a part of, that means there's a 50/50 chance (actually less when one remembers intersex people exist) and no amount of "BUT GOOGLE SAYS IT'S THIS" overrides thousands of years of cultural practices.

If they want to headcanon this character's AGAB they can do it in their head like everyone else without trying to "well, actually" Jewish people on our traditions and naming practices. Just say you're enbyphobic and can't imagine a character without thinking about their genitalia and go.

--

[magnetothemagnificent]

Hello! First, I’ve learned a lot from your blog so thank you for continuing to post, I really appreciate it.

Second, I am a non-Jewish author and I’m currently writing my first novel. In it, I wanted to include a few secondary Jewish characters as well as some discussion of anti-Semitism. I don’t plan on writing too much in-depth because I don’t have firsthand knowledge of the lived Jewish experience but don’t want to finalize anything without (compensated) input from Jewish people. I was wondering if you had any advice on using sensitivity readers, specifically because Jewish people are not a monolith so would having more sensitivity readers be better? Is it likely they might disagree on certain aspects of representation and if so, how might I decide? I’ve never had sensitivity readers before so I’m kind of overthinking things 😅

Well, you'd first want to think about what "kind" of Jew your Jewish characters are. There are different ways of practicing Judaism and different heritage traditions. Some questions you'd want to figure out before you start writing:

Are your Jewish characters Orthodox? Conservative? Reform? Reconstructionist? Egalitarian? Unaffiliated?

Are their traditions Ashkenazi? Sephardi? Mizrachi? Ethiopian? Yemenite? Some other Minhag?

Were they born Jewish or did they convert?

What's their relationship like with other Jews in their life?

What's their relationship like with the gentiles in their life?

Do they speak any other language? Hebrew? Yiddish? Ladino? Judeo-Arabic? Ge'ez?

How does their Jewish identity intersect with their other identities?

Once you figure that out, you can try to find sensitivity readers for the different Jewish characters. A Reform Jew wouldn't be able to speak on the experiences of an Orthodox Jew. An Ashkenazi Jew wouldn't be able to speak on the experiences of a Sephardi Jew, for example. While many Jews have intersecting identities within Judaism, such as having two or more heritage traditions, it's important to remember that Jews aren't a monolith. I think you'd need to have more than one sensitivity reader, especially if you have multiple Jewish characters.

And if you're not sure what the words I used in the above questions mean, or want to (and should) learn more about Judaism before you start writing, here is a post I made with links to a bunch of different sites to learn about Judaism.

Happy writing!