#synagogue shooting tw

[edenfenixblogs]

hello! It’s me again, the random non Jewish person in your inbox. I wanted to ask if you would be able to inform your followers and those reading this about the Tree of Life Synagogue.

So the Tree of Life/L’Simcha Congregation is, or was, a synagogue close to where I stay In Pittsburgh, it’s in Squirrell Hill to be exact.

In 2018, the congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services on October 27, 2018. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors. It was the deadliest attack on any Jewish community on United States soil.

The shooter, Robert Bowers, had been sentenced to death last year, by lethal injection.

Earlier this year, on the 17th of January, the Tree of Life Synagogue began demolition, however there are plans to create a new complex for the Jewish community in Squirrel Hill. Here’s more information on that from their website. There’s a donation information on that website, but I’ll link the donation site here as well.

Thank you so much for reading up to this point! Please donate and/or share the information or the links to the information please!

Thank you!

Thanks so much for sharing this and the fact that it will be rebuilt. I usually advocate for existing buildings to remain, but given the trauma that occurred at the temple, I completely understand a need for a clean slate. Jumblr, y'all know what to do. <3

[dreamingofbabylon]

wheeeee yippee happy Tree of Life Synagogue Shooter Sentenced to Death Day to those who celebrate

wheeeeeeee

[thatwritererinoriordan]

I respectfully disagree. Six million of our family members are missing from the world, along with all their would-be descendants, because of the actions of a genocidal maniac. If you're going to act like a genocidal maniac, fucking die already and don't be long about it.

Please, no one read "respectfully disagree" as sarcasm. It's sincere. I really do get the anti-death penalty perspective. As the author Michael Connelly is fond of saying, "Either everyone matters or no one does." I simply happen to be of the opinion that Nazi lives don't matter.

I’m totally against the death sentence, God knows, but I’m not remotely surprised this was the decision. I hope the families of the victims and their survivors find some peace with this decision.

[spoiledleaff]

NAZARETH. NOW. PLEAAASEEEEE!

✿ — okay, okay, haha! i know that this analysis is probably one of the most anticipated of the ep's songs, so i hope that i've done this analysis justice! :'D i'm also just gonna take a super quick moment to tag @excelsior9173, @laceandeights, and @pyrographic-memory!! i hope you all don't mind! :')) this is just because you all were so incredibly sweet with interacting with my original post, i figured i'd take a chance and tag you! :D there was also a super sweet anon who also asked for a nazareth analysis, but they asked on anon so i just hope that they see this, haha! :)

✿ — for a little bit of context, this ask is in reference to >>this<< post i made briefly going over my whole hc for the two ep!! :D you can also find my full analysis for calcutta >>here<<!! :)

anyways!! this post is gonna be another massive theory//headcannon post that will be focusing on the sleep token ep, two, and the second song, nazareth, as well as my hc that these songs are quite literally the basis for ii's backstory! :D i'm super proud with how this analysis turned out, and jericho is gonna be next up on that list! >:Dc followed by jaws and maybe even granite to tie it all up! :))

✿ — TWO + CALCUTTA.

↳ this is just a quick little summary of what we've analyzed so far!

this hc stems from the fact that every song from this ep are the only songs on spotify to list a 'vessel ii' as a composer alongside 'vessel'. and, of course, the ep is named 'two'! :D haha!

finally, i like to interpret calcutta as a song about hopelessness and about experiencing a growing sense of despair that can only come from loving another person that you cannot obtain. while sleep and their influences might be vessel's own personal prison—vessel is ii's calcutta; he is ii's prison that ii willingly crawls back into every night, just to have a moment where it is just the two of them. and i think that it is in this moment in time where sleep extends their influence to ii, intending to weaponize ii's jealousy and possessive thoughts to bring vessel closer to sleep. and this is where we've left off to prepare for our analysis of nazareth! :)

✿ — NAZARETH.

↳ tw + cw : discussions of death, jealousy, possessive thoughts, guns, domestic assault + murder. this one is a doozy!! please take care of yourself if you choose to continue.

✿ — before we deep dive into those lyrics, let's talk about what nazareth means! :)

✧ — as a name, 'nazareth' might mean 'a watch tower', but it's also been connected in the new testament with the word 'netzer' meaning 'a branch' or 'a shoot'. however! this doesn't mean 'shoot' as in with a gun, but 'a shoot' as in 'a growth that occurs from newly chopped down trees'. but!! this still has a chance to relate heavily to how sleep views their blessing specifically in vessel, mainly with how it is the consequences of the actions depicted in this song that leave a shoot of despair and resentment growing in both vessel and ii.

✧ — additionally, nazareth holds significant meaning in the new testament of christianity! nazareth is actually the childhood home of jesus, and it is in a synagogue of nazareth where jesus preached a sermon that eventually led to him being chased out of his boyhood home.

↳ but! why was jesus chased out of nazareth if that was his childhood home? well, when the people of nazareth demanded that jesus perform a miracle, jesus refused to do so because the people of nazareth did not have faith in him. the people of nazareth where so upset with jesus, that they wanted to throw him off a cliffside. now, this!! this is perhaps the most vital connection we have from the title of the song to its meaning! because, the reference of jesus' rejection by the people of nazareth could be interpreted as a very clear and intentional mirror of sleep's relationship with vessel.

✿ —alrighty!! these are pretty much the most important points i can make before we officially dive into the lyrics! the relationship between jesus and the people of nazareth is something that is absolutely imperative to keep in the back of your mind while we continue with the lyrics! >:Dc

✧ — as always, this is all a byproduct of my own personal opinions and headcannons, but i like to think that nazareth is a song about the drastic measures that sleep would go through in order to keep vessel tethered to them, using ii's pre-existing jealousy against vessel's current partner (as discussed in the calcutta analysis) as a weapon. i know i said that i wouldn't go through every single lyric in the previous analysis, i realize i kind of did anyways, haha! regardless, here is my interpretation of nazareth's lyrics. :)

✧ — super quick!! while calcutta, and later also jericho, are told from the perspective of ii, i think that nazareth is specifically from sleep's pov, talking directly to ii!! please keep this in mind while we continue! :D

' and i'll see you when the wrath comes // knocking on your bedroom door with money // building you a kingdom '

↳ this is sleep's promise to ii. throughout the entire course of the song, this is what sleep promises to ii. but what does this mean? i think this is sleep telling ii that they will be there when ii's anger and jealousy inevitably takes over—there will be a point in ii's life where this wrath will metaphorically knock on the door of ii's consciousness with money, with a deal that is too good to pass up. ii has alienated himself so much from vessel and his partner that it is with his jealousy and with his anger that he is building his own kingdom, he is growing too comfortable with all of these awful, awful feelings that are only further amplified by sleep's manipulation; ii is the king of his own misery, and sleep is there with him every step of the way.

' drippin' from the open mouth // i'll show you what you look like from the inside // and i'll see you when the wrath comes around '

↳ i think that these lines really start to illustrate for the audience just how much of a master manipulator sleep is as they continue to actively antagonize ii in regards to his immense jealousy of vessel's partner. using graphic imagery — perhaps even projecting the image of vessel's partner dying and bleeding out and dripping blood from their open mouth, already illustrating what they want ii to do — sleep continues to acknowledge ii's negative emotions, further reminding ii that his wrath will make itself known and sleep will be there when that happens.

' tonight, tonight, tonight // you have the answer '

↳ whereas sleep's previous words feel like a promise, these ones feel more like a taunt. a scathing reminder — a borderline prophecy — that sleep knows ii's fate. they're taunting him with this, though still trying to provoke ii.

' let's load the gun // make her eat the tape in the bathroom mirror // see if she can guess what // a hollow point does to a naked body // let's fuck her up '

↳ previously, sleep has been daydreaming about the violence that they want ii to unleash on vessel's partner, but here?? i think ii's sanity has finally snapped, and he currently has vessel's partner tied up and scared for their life as these lyrics are being sung. i think that the previous lyrics were nothing more than sleep's violent daydreams, but this verse is sleep describing all the things they want ii to do while vessel's partner is in the room with them.

↳ these lyrics are graphic, and it's deliberate. sleep wants vessel's partner to be afraid, they're toying with her life right in front of her eyes—sleep doesn't just want vessel's partner gone, they want her to suffer.

✧ — as a super quick interlude, i would just like to address sleep's motives before we continue with the rest of the analysis!!

in our calcutta analysis, we did briefly discuss why ii might be envious of vessel's partner—the reason being that ii might be envious of vessel's attentions being so divided between himself and vessel's partner, with ii feeling as though vessel doesn't care about ii when he's able to be with his partner, only defaulting to ii's company during the nighttime, when she is not available to be around vessel. which, to be fair, is honestly a totally valid human emotion! ii doesn't think of harming vessel's partner until sleep begins influencing him and taunting him. in calcutta, there isn't really any graphic displays of ii wishing any harm, let alone violence on vessel's partner—there is an instance where ii was rude to vessel's partner by completely dismissing her importance in vessel's life, but these wishes for violence don't make themselves terribly known until sleep starts taunting ii. but why would sleep be jealous alongside ii? well, i think that while ii has a very natural + human experience with his envy, sleep's jealousy is completely irrational and inhuman; it's completely possessive of vessel. sleep isn't used to vessel, or ii for that matter, interacting with anyone outside of sleep's influence. i think that sleep, as a deity, is used to being the center of attention—quite literally the center of worship. to them, vessel's partner feels like a threat, a distraction to vessel's worship. sleep doesn't simply want to occupy vessel's mind during the night, they want to occupy his mind and his attention at all given times. i think that knowing how ii shares those sentiments — albeit to a much more human and less completely dangerous degree; 'i'm whole again // for just a moment // 'till the morning comes' — sleep is able to poison ii's judgment and weaponize their shared jealousy to take vessel's partner out of the picture. i think the meaning behind the title of the song is that little hint that we need to properly understand sleep's motives! just like jesus when he refused to give the people of nazareth a miracle because they did not have faith, sleep is acting in a very similar way, albeit much more twisted. instead of simply rejecting vessel, sleep is rejecting his partner, the supposed source of vessel's sudden lack of faith. okay! back to the analysis >:Dc

' manifest pain at the core of pleasure // i'll see you when the wrath comes around '

↳ i think this line is meant to be split up between being addressed to vessel's partner and being addressed to ii. sleep has been an open antagonist throughout the entirety of this song; they want vessel's partner — and by extension, the audience — to absolutely suffer. sleep wants vessel's partner to think of vessel as she passes, sleep wants her to think of all the good times she's experienced with him + all the wonderful moments of her life she's spent with her loved one, and sleep wants her to die thinking of him; they want her to feel immense pain where there was once pleasure.

✿ — BIG, BIG TW FOR A DESCRIPTION OF BODY HORROR + GENITAL HORROR!! i totally understand if that's not your cup of tea!! please skip this next indented section!!!

↳ in a much more... gruesome approach, i think that this line might also be able to be taken quite literally—this is how ii kills vessel's partner. ii either shoots her in the heart, or... he might have also shot her in her lower abdomen, specifically targeting her reproductive system. sleep is so desperate to cause vessel's partner immense pain in the moments leading to her death that they are willing to have ii do anything to desecrate her humanity + any semblance of love she might've held for vessel—sleep wants vessel's partner to die with a twisted memory of vessel's love. regardless, because of this sentiment, i think this line specifically is a jab at vessel's emotions. of course, i always wanna insert my trans! ii headcannon into literally anything i write regarding this man, haha! so there's also a possible symbolic disconnect there if you really wanna think some sad thoughts :'D

↳ of course, we end with sleep's taunt towards ii, a reminder of what his rage + jealousy has forced him to do.

' tonight, tonight, tonight // you have the answer '

↳ this reoccurrence of this line had me going through the lyrics of all of the ep's songs quite a few times, because i never really remembered there being an actual question that might've been phrased or even referenced throughout the course of the ep. then, of course, i realized i'm writing a story for sleep token and quickly backtracked, haha! :'D i think this supposed 'question' is more-so implied in the aspects of ii's character that we see throughout the ep. i think that, deep down, this is another manipulation tactic used by sleep.

↳ vessel's partner is important to vessel, but obviously not to sleep. i like to think that ii was much more hesitant to accept sleep's blessings and their influence than vessel was, but his actions tonight have made it 'clear' that ii will do what he is told, even if that means harming vessel in the process. his allegiances are ultimately with sleep, not with vessel.

↳ (not really, haha! like i said, i think that this is another manipulation tactic used by sleep against ii. i think that, at this point, sleep is still obsessed with vessel and only vessel. ii is... interesting to them, but more-so in a useful sense than a 'hey, i actually kinda like this funky little fellow' kind of way, haha! sleep loves vessel, like, in a toxic, yandere kind of way. they want ii to feel guilty about what he's been coerced to do; they want ii to forcibly alienate himself even more from vessel, because ii loves vessel as well! and sleep unfortunately does know this.)

' let's load the gun // (they won't be missing you, they won't be missing you) // let's load the gun // (see you when the wrath comes, see you when the wrath comes) // let's load the gun // (see you when the wrath comes) '

↳ this is all sleep; ordering ii to load the gun, mocking vessel's partner over never being missed, and once again taunting ii over how easily his jealousy has gotten the better of him. this is where it all happens, and this is where it all ends.

↳ something i noticed while listening to this song on repeat, haha! now, i'm not experienced with music in any way, shape, or form, but to my uneducated ear, it sounds like there are two separate breakdowns towards the final minutes of the song—one following immediately after when vessel finishes singing, and another following a small piano-based transition that ends the song. i think that these two breakdowns symbolize our timelines!

↳ the first breakdown is when ii finally gives into sleep's demands and shoots vessel's partner until she's dead in the bathroom. the second breakdown is when ii completely loses it over what he's done.

✿ — to put it all together!! i don't think that ii can be entirely blamed for the murder of vessel's partner. with this story + interpretation, ii was entirely coerced, borderline possessed and overpowered by sleep's own possessive thoughts toward vessel, and inevitably manipulated into doing an extreme action when he wasn't in his right mind. (am i condoning this sort of reason in real life?? hell no!! but, as a very gentle reminder, this is fantasy! and like to think that i'm allowed to have my brain read too deep between the lines of a sleep token ep and come back to this silly little blog to report my findings and my daydreams, haha!) but ii's jealousy and wrath have made themselves known, and sleep was especially quick to monopolize on that—weaponizing ii's own emotions in a way that would directly benefit sleep through the murder of vessel's partner. this song is a warning; it is a threat and it's especially graphic and unsettling because sleep wants that reminder to forever haunt not only vessel, but ii as well, for the rest of their lives and their servitude to sleep. ii was the one holding the gun, but it was inevitably sleep that forced him to pull the trigger.

✿ — and that's it!! :D this concludes my analysis + narrative interpretation of the song nazareth from the ep, two! :)) once again, as a friendly reminder, this is just my own interpretation of the lyrics through a strictly narrative lense :) i don't think this could be actual sleep token canon, haha! i just think that this would make a very fun and interesting story for my own selfish reasons, haha! next up on the list is jericho, and then i'll for sure be making an analysis for jaws to tie everything all up! :) please feel free to let me know what you think of this analysis! :D this one was definitively a challenge to get through, but i've no doubt that jericho is going to be even harder in terms of angsty emotions as that one focuses more on ii's consequences and how they impact his relationship with vessel. :'D ahhhh, i'm not readyyyy, haha!

[woodsdyke]

TW mass shootings, death

mass shootings of course are all so preventable and so fucking tragic but it feels... especially strange when you have personal attachment to the places where they happen. ive been to table mesa king soopers, the aurora movie theater, drove past columbine, my grandma's friends used to go to the pittsburgh synagogue and ive walked past that, too. a neighbor of mine got killed in a targeted mass shooting and i heard the gunshot that killed him. personal connections to places of extreme tragedy and senseless violence feels very, very strange

idk. working in firearm violence prevention makes u think a lot. life is fucked up and weird

[nope-body]

Highlights from history class today!

-

Me: mentions how the people who stormed the capital were white supremacists and neo-nazis

Some kid: Where did you get that from?

Me internally: oh great, here we go again

Me: (About Trump and his supporters) Agreeing with Nazis means that person shares their beliefs. That means that person is also a Nazi. People who support Nazis are also Nazis, because they are supporting that ideology.

Some kid: Well I have extended family that are Jewish and they voted for trump, are they Nazis?

Me, internally: that’s not my point!!! Stop directing the conversation away from the main idea and into incredibly complex discussions that are still being discussed in Jewish spaces!!

Me, out loud: okay, yes, jewish people can’t be Nazis. But my overall point still stands.

My teacher: so you’re saying that everyone who voted for trump is a Nazi.

Me: yes.

Many many people: all start arguing against me at once

-

A kid in history class today: “Regardless of ideology, it’s insulting to call [the people who stormed the capital] Nazis, and it’s insulting to call our president a Nazi.” (Paraphrasing now) Nazis were in the past, and yes the Holocaust was bad, but it’s over now, and calling someone a Nazi is an insult (implied “because they aren’t/can’t be”, also basically implying nazis don’t exist anymore??)

Me: Nazism is an ideology. It’s not an insult when it’s simply stating a fact.

Teacher: okay let’s move on to another topic...

-

-

[sroseh]

I’m from San Diego, the county in which the Chabad of Poway synagogue is located. It devastated our communities when it was attacked. I was working at a mortuary near the area at the time and it was crushing. (To be transparent, I did not help any of the family of the deceased as I believe the family went to family owned Jewish mortuaries.) But, the Jewish families who were already in the process of working with us were grieving for their community. My sister’s boss was one of the people who was able to escape the synagogue when it happened.

Fuck Pewdiepie I’m glad you and your Nazi sympathizing wife got robbed. I’m glad you feel unsafe because you’ve encouraged your viewers to make people feel unsafe. The victims of the Christchurch shooting and the Poway synagogue shooting didn’t feel safe as your name was called out to them while they bled to death or watched their congregation die. There’s a reason why your name was called out in two different hate crime mass shootings.

[blackoutchocolate]

Being Jewish is weird sometimes. We had our sukkah building party at my shul yesterday and it was really fun. Except.

I spent the whole time acutely aware that we were being visibly, publicly, obviously Jewish. And we were outside. I was scared all through the High Holidays but we were inside. There was a locked door between us and strangers. Yesterday we were outside the building. I felt like we were sitting ducks. During the HHD I had a sense of “if someone comes in and tries to hurt us here’s what you do” but yesterday I had no idea. How could I have survived if someone appeared with a gun?

And why the FUCK should I have to worry about this?

[galsinspace]

Just had a coworker tell me, among many other shitty cold takes, that it's hypocritical to be shocked and sad about the recent antisemitic attack in my city because people die every day. I uhhhhh don't think I wanna come to his game nights anymore.

I'm glad I can have some calm down time folding laundry rn bc Oh Boy

[houseofwolvess]

im so fucking ashamed of my sister

[dontgetmadgetmaddie]

I'm so furious I can't stop crying right now. People from the Tree of Life/L'Simcha congregation—girls at the time, women now, maybe even moved on now I hope, brought me comfort foods and prayed with and for me and painted my toenails to make the scary situation with my feet a little less dismal, so at least I could look at the floppy, useless things without crying when I was in rehab. Also we did princess crafts with all the girls in the institute. A metric fuckton of princess crafts. And every time we drive past ToLoLS I get a soft warm under my chest, up where my laughs live, because those girls were a lot of what made that place bearable. And then I see this, and I just... No one should have to bring a weapon into their place of worship lest you're using it in said worship. If you need a bladed thing for a sacrifice, lovely, have at it. If you want to bless your boys' guns before they ship out, hell—people bless more mundane things for more mundane reasons all the time. But those things have not been brought there to keep you safe. I'm gonna say it one more time in case my blathering cut through what I'm trying to say here. No one should have to have weapons in their place of worship to make it a safe space. It should BE SAFE.

[jennyboom21]

[historyofshipping]

I never felt Jewish until recently...

So I am Jewish by heritage. My grandmother is Jewish and she, her brother, and her sister came to the US from Germany with an uncle in the 1930s. Her family was supposed to follow.

They never made it.

I found their concentration camp death records a few years ago. 

She and her family basically pretended to be Catholic in the US. She married a (non-practicing) Catholic and had children with him. It wasn’t until long after they divorced and later in her life that she became a practicing Jew again.

We observed Jewish holidays every once in a while but never consistently. I’ve never, ever thought of myself as Jewish because I’m not. I was raised by agnostic parents, went to a catholic school, and am an atheist.

I look just like my grandma though. I have all of her “Jewish” features. I have Jewish genes. I know because before my partner and I tried to conceive, I chose to undergo genetic counseling because I’m Ashkenazi which puts me at risk of carrying genes for devastating diseases like Tay-Sachs. Like my father carries.

My sister and I do not.

This weekend, it hit home - the fact that I’m Jewish. Or that many with hate in their hearts perceive me as Jewish.

FFS, I’m a historian of eugenics. I study this shit for a living. It still didn’t click until this weekend. Until the shooting at the synagogue.

I broke down this weekend for the first time in a long time.  Once I started crying, I just couldn’t stop.

Stay safe and stay strong, everyone.

[medium-guy]

I just cried in history

[etchedstars]

and people STILL act like antisemitism isn’t a big deal or it’s funny!

These info graphs are by flatbushgirl in Instagram

I thought these were some important facts to share since a lot of people don't know any of this

[the-goofball]

About four years ago, I was a little bit busy with “miniatur figurines”. It started off work related because they wanted pictures of mine in the new office.

It evolved quickly. I posted some pictures of the room I made for my partner here on tumblr.

But that’s not where it stopped. I re-build one of the kinky locations we have in town. And there was even a “tiny little perverts” calendar for the WLIT* community with events across (northern) Europe.

And then there was the shooting in Munich in 2006. And attacks on houses where refugees were living became more and more frequent.

I was pondering what I could do with the miniatures. And I had this image in my head of a protest against racism in front of a synagogue. But

a) I was never gonna be able to rebuild a synagogue (my partner had to do the simple cardboard box for the venue I mentioned)

b) I don’t know if you’ve noticed in the pictures above, but railway/train model stuff is very white and very male (and racist, sexist and ableist and you name it).

In the picture below you see how many figurines I had to get to have a few Black people/POC and I was actively searching for them.

While it was fairly easy to simply change the context for some of the figurines by placing them in a different setting/with different people, or even add scars from top-surgery or painting strap-on straps onto a naked butt, changing ethnicity seemed very daunting to me. Painting them was one thing (the result from my first test was not very promising, though). So, I bought skin tone colours. But what about clothes? For example a hijab? Or...

Long story short, I gave up on the idea. But as you can already guess, it’s back. And just yesterday I stumbled across a video from Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland where someone transformed a figurine into Gandalf and there were some really helpful tips concerning clothes and hair (of course I’m already thinking about tiny face masks).

Edit: these figures are about 20mm which is not even an inch in size. So they are very small. No chance of sewing clothes for them.

So, stay tuned :o)

If you’d like to see more (kink free) miniatures

Under the cut are some of the kinky settings (TW there are folks in cop uniforms among the participants)

There are more kinky miniatures on flickr for the curious minded :o)