#synagogues of north america

[angryjewishcockroach]

These are the three menorahs that we own that we did not light this year (but we did display them).

The first one is an artsy menorah that I'm pretty sure we got at the same time as our oil one. It is very much not my style and has never been. We've never used it, likely because my mom doesn't want to bother with having to clean out the wax from various places, which I get.

The second one is Synagogues of Europe by artist Maude Weisser. The plaque on it says it was made in 1995, but I'm not sure when/where we bought it. As you can see, it hasn't survived previous lightings very well, which is why we didn't light it or the next one.

The synagogues depicted are (from right to left):

Prague, Czechoslovakia: The Altneuschul or "Old-New Synagogue" (c.1280)

Toledo, Spain: Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue (c. 1200)

Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia: The Dubrovnik Synagogue was built in the 17th century

Cracow, Poland: The Rema Synagogue (c. 1550)

Vilna, Poland: This gate is located at the entrance to the Shulhof on Jews' Street in the Jewish Quarter of Vila.

Lutsk, Poland: The Lutsh Fortress Synagogue (c. 1626)

Zabludow, Poland: The Zabludow Synagogue (c. 1756)

Budapest, Hungary: The Synagogue in Obuda (1820)

Florence, Italy: Tiempo Israelitico, completed (1882)

The third one is Synagogues of North America, also by artist Maude Weisser. This one has a little plaque that says it was designed in 1997, but we got it two summers ago at the Touro Synagogue (the synagogue on the far right), the first purpose-built synagogue in the United States, in Newport, Rhode Island, where the artist herself was working (!!!).

The synagogues depicted are (from right to left):

Newport, Rhode Island: Touro Synagogue (dedicated 1763)

New York City: Temple Emanu-El (built in 1929)

New York City: B'nai Jeshurun (consecrated in 1827)

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Beth Shalom (built in 1959; designed by Frank Lloyd Wright)

San Fransisco, California: Shearith Israel (built in 1854)

Cincinnati, Ohio: Congregation B'nai Jeshurun (built in 1848)

Boston, Massachusetts: The Vilna Shul (built in 1919)

Chicago, Illinois: Kehilat Anshei Ma'Arav (built in 1891)

Charleston, South Carolina: Beth Elohim (built in 1840)

Bonus: a shot of all our menorahs because seven nights’ worth of candles is too pretty not to share:

[vamptastic]

my ulta zeyde used to ask restaurants if the food was kosher by asking if 'the chicken was happy' and i think that is a very fun phrase that also gets to the heart of what kosher law is about very concisely

[vaspider]

I want to learn more about Jewish culture and history after a recent Ancestry test confirmed my family are Ashkenazi Jews, but the process is daunting with the state of misinformation and antisemitism in the USA. How can I start if going to a synagogue and asking is just not an option? (Comments and info in tags are welcome)

A few places to start. :)

I have tried to provide a basic, broad selection of sites across a number of different strains of thought within the Jewish world. None of these links are an endorsement of a particular site, publication on that site, or point of view on that site. We're Jews: we disagree strenuously about deeply essential things & are still one people.

I really hate that I have to say these things, but every time I post about Judaism at all, someone comes through like they think they're Encyclopedia Brown or some shit, trying to sniff out what I 'really mean' by what I post. What I mean is that these are basic resources. :)

[judaismandsuch]

Where do Jews pray?

Aside from the "technically true" answer of 'wherever they happen to be' this is going into the words used English for the specifically chosen buildings.

You run into a few different common ones: Synagogue, Temple, and Shul.

Each have different histories, and implications that many people may not know.

So I want to break down the etymologies, implications, etc. as well as mention some less well known ones.

1)Synagogue: Linguistically arguably the most correct. It comes from from french, latin, and ultimately greek, and ultimately is from the translation of the Bible into Greek. The word be created as a translation for the word Knesset. It literally would translate (in the original greek) to 'meeting place'. overall: 10/10, cannot go wrong with using this word.

2)Temple: A fairly Common word, but one that is rife with theological implications that many are unaware of. Basically it goes like this: There was the first temple and the second, and we are waiting for the third (in theory). When the Reform movement started, one aspect was that the Temple was no longer felt to be a necessary and lamented missing aspect of Judaism, and that the places of prayer were equivalent.* So they began to call their Houses of Prayer 'Temple's. No one in the Orthodox movement would use that term, nor would people in the Conservative movement call their houses of prayer 'Temple'. (at least none that I have seen, and very much none at the begining, I am sure that there are some conservative shuls nowadays that do use the term 'temple'). Now, this means that the use of the word 'temple' to describe a Jewish house of worship is also a theological position. So hearing people use the term 'Temple' as a catch all term instead of Synagogue will annoy a lot of more religious Jews. Now there are a few disclaimers about this: 99% of people aren't aware of this. I have met many a reform and conservative individual that was unaware of the history. So like all pieces of information on a small aspect of theology, don't assume a use of a term implies full knowledge of ramifications. Of course, there is the other issue "Temple" refering to loads of other religions' houses of worship, so it isn't really a good identifier. 2/10, find another word people.

3)Shul A loan word from Yiddish, it actually is the same linguistic root as 'School'. A place of learning. I like it, but a lot of people won't know it, so you'll need to then translate the word. 8/10, but I am biased.

Other words that you may see:

Jewish Church: The issues are obvious, but for some reason I like it.

Beit Knesset: The Hebrew word, 'House of Meeting' it's good, but y'know obv. issues of using hebrew in english.

*I am summarizing and simplifying a large religious movement, obviously this misses some nuance.

NOTE: There are a lot of terms! This is "Common ones you run into in North America" But there are def. terms for it from other Jewish communities that I never heard!

If you have one you didn't see on the list, put it in the notes! (or a direct comment, I'm no cop)

[anarchistka]

Israel’s war on Palestinian territory is an atrocity. And illegal Israeli settlers should be stopped and convoyed back to Israel by Israeli law enforcement. And sure, the creation of Israel itself was a debatable project from the start and mass migration is known to bear potential for violent conflicts.

But the type of pro Palestinian activism I’ve observed (in North America and Europe esp.) rises so many questions:

[some examples that came to my mind I wrote down below, I would be seriously grateful for a detailed informative answer]

- Where should Israelis go?

- How tf is beating up Jewish students and painting graffiti on synagogues in Europe and America going to save any Palestinian civilians?

- Why is Jewish nationalism bad but Arabic nationalism is great?

- Are people who are not native to a land allowed to live there? What does it mean to be native to a land? Does indigenousity expire?

- (directed at European far left) Why should the EU integrate and support every refugee but Jewish refugees to Palestine should be expelled and are treated solely as inherently evil oppressors and their reasons to seek refuge in Palestine/Israel are ridiculed and dismissed? Of course Israel plays the role of an oppressor now but Palestinian fear of population replacement was a cause for unrest in the British Mandate in Palestine. This led to immigration stops for Jews who were fleeing the Holocaust. So at that time a fear that is usually associated with right wing politics cost additional Jewish lives. Why is right wing racial nationalism agreeable when non Europeans are doing it? Why do you oppose Jewish right wing nationalism by supporting Arab right wing nationalism?

- Why do you call Israel a colony? A colony of which country is it supposed to be? Of the US? (Illegal settlements are an exception, they are definitely colonies [of Israel] )

- If Israel, because it is a colony (?), should be eradicated, shouldn’t we also eradicate the USA, Canada, Brazil etc.? Where should the colonisers go? Or has the colonial status of these countries expired? Or were the reasons for the colonisation of these countries somehow more legitimate and righteous than the creation of Israel? Wtf

- Why do you dismiss the great cultural similarities between Europe and the Middle East? Why do you portray Palestinians as the noble but primitive barbarian when the Middle East is a highly developed region that has close cultural ties with Europe (even if often by war)? Besides : Arabs are capable of doing good and doing evil as well as everyone else. Palestinians and Israeli Jews know each other, they can learn each other’s language, they are familiar with the other’s religion, they literally stand on the same cultural foundation, and they use similar weapons and technological devices…

- What should Israel do when Israeli civilians are attacked by militant extremists from Palestine? What would the ideal response be?

- Why are Jews suddenly accepted as being “white” once this identity label has become a disadvantage (according to CSJ conspiracy theories)? Over six million Jews have been killed because they were considered inferior.

- What should an Israeli do to not be considered an evil oppressive genocidal colonist? How can an Israeli meaningfully contribute to a better peaceful future?

- Why is Palestinian violence framed as trauma response and Israeli violence is seen as demonic evil that is inherent to Israeli Jews?

[jewish-vents]

I wish we were allowed to be angry. Everyone else gets to be angry at us, and they aren't for the most part, directly hurt by us. Especially in North America, the majority of people have not been hurt by the Israeli government. I'm tired of having to walk by angry crowds and angry people who are angry at me for existing. I'm more tired that I'm not allowed to yell back. I'm not allowed to be angry at these people for protesting my right to exist-which is exactly what they do when they protest at the JCC or synagogue. I just- I need an outlet for this anger that's effective. One that actually addresses the issues. I'm tired of defending my right to exist and my right to my indigenous homeland. And I'm angry that I have to do it calmly, or not he taken seriously at all.

This!!!

Thank you for sharing this, it's so important that everyone be allowed to express their emotions, even their anger, in ways that are healthy and productive. It's sad and frustrating that Jewish people for some reason aren't allowed that. People keep talking about how we shouldn't tone police minorities and yet there is always a double standard when it comes to the Jewish community.

I hope you find a healthy outlet for your anger. Some ideas to consider: art, martial arts, working out, going to a rage room, venting to friends

[eretzyisrael]

Who are the Mizrahim? History 101

Where do Jews come from and what is the difference between Sephardim and Mizrahim? Loolwa Khazzoom gives this succint explanation for the Jewish Virtual Library:

A Baghdadi Jewish family

Regardless of where Jews lived most recently, therefore, all Jews have roots in the Middle East and North Africa. Some communities, of course, have more recent ties to this region: Mizrahim and Sephardim, two distinct communities that are often confused with one another.

Mizrahim are Jews who never left the Middle East and North Africa since the beginnings of the Jewish people 4,000 years ago. In 586 B.C.E., the Babylonian Empire (ancient Iraq) conquered Yehudah (Judah), the southern region of ancient Israel.

Babylonians occupied the Land of Israel and exiled the Yehudim (Judeans, or Jews), as captives into Babylon. Some 50 years later, the Persian Empire (ancient Iran) conquered the Babylonian Empire and allowed the Jews to return home to the land of Israel. But, offered freedom under Persian rule and daunted by the task of rebuilding a society that lay in ruins, most Jews remained in Babylon. Over the next millennia, some Jews remained in today’s Iraq and Iran, and some migrated to neighboring lands in the region (including today’s Syria, Yemen, and Egypt), or emigrated to lands in Central and East Asia (including India, China, and Afghanistan).

Sephardim are among the descendants of the line of Jews who chose to return and rebuild Israel after the Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian Empire. About half a millennium later, the Roman Empireconquered ancient Israel for the second time, massacring most of the nation and taking the bulk of the remainder as slaves to Rome. Once the Roman Empire crumbled, descendants of these captives migrated throughout the European continent. Many settled in Spain (Sepharad) and Portugal, where they thrived until the Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion of 1492 and the Portuguese Inquisition and Expulsion shortly thereafter.

During these periods, Jews living in Christian countries faced discrimination and hardship. Some Jews who fled persecution in Europe settled throughout the Mediterranean regions of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, as well as Central and South America. Sephardim who fled to Ottoman-ruled Middle Eastern and North African countries merged with the Mizrahim, whose families had been living in the region for thousands of years.

In the early 20th century, severe violence against Jews forced communities throughout the Middle Eastern region to flee once again, arriving as refugees predominantly in Israel, France, the United Kingdom, and the Americas. In Israel, Middle Eastern and North African Jews were the majority of the Jewish population for decades, with numbers as high as 70 percent of the Jewish population, until the mass Russian immigration of the 1990s. Mizrahi Jews are now half of the Jewish population in Israel.

Throughout the rest of the world, Mizrahi Jews have a strong presence in metropolitan areas — Paris, London, Montreal, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Mexico City. Mizrahim and Sephardim share more than common history from the past five centuries. Mizrahi and Sephardic religious leaders traditionally have stressed hesed (compassion) over humra (severity, or strictness), following a more lenient interpretation of Jewish law.

Despite such baseline commonalities, Middle Eastern and North African Mizrahim and Sephardim do retain distinct cultural traditions. Though Mizrahi and Sephardic prayer books are close in form and content, for example, they are not identical. Mizrahi prayers are usually sung in quarter tones, whereas Sephardic prayers have more of a Southern European feel. Traditionally, moreover, Sephardic prayers are often accompanied by a Western-style choir in the synagogue.

Mizrahim traditionally spoke Judeo-Arabic — a language blending Hebrew and a local Arabic dialect. While a number of Sephardim in the Middle East and North Africa learned and spoke this language, they also spoke Ladino–a blend of Hebrew and Spanish. Having had no history in Spain or Portugal, Mizrahim generally did not speak Ladino.

In certain areas, where the Sephardic immigration was weak, Sephardim assimilated into the predominantly Mizrahi communities, taking on all Mizrahi traditions and retaining just a hint of Sephardic heritage — such as Spanish-sounding names. In countries such as Morocco, however, Spanish and Portuguese Jews came in droves, and the Sephardic community set up its own synagogues and schools, remaining separate from the Mizrahi community.

Even within the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities, there were cultural differences from country to country. On Purim, Iraqi Jews had strolling musicians going from house to house and entertaining families (comparable to Christmas caroling), whereas Egyptian Jews closed off the Jewish quarter for a full-day festival (comparable to Mardi Gras). On Shabbat, Moroccan Jews prepared hamin (spicy meat stew), whereas Yemenite Jews prepared showeah (spicy roasted meat), among other foods.

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[vague-humanoid]

In late June, a company called My Israel Home hosted an expo at a Los Angeles synagogue catering to a specific clientele: Jewish Americans looking to buy a new home in Israel — or on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Similar real estate fairs have popped up across North America this year, in places such as Montreal, Toronto, New Jersey, Baltimore, and Brooklyn, and several have faced protests as the war on Gaza has brought the issue of Israeli settlements and Palestinian sovereignty to the fore.

An outbreak of violence at the LA event thrust the incident into the national spotlight. Protesters at the Adas Torah synagogue, who decried the sale of what they called “stolen land,” were met by pro-Israel counterprotesters on the West LA streets. Fights broke out among demonstrators, LA police said, while protesters reported being beaten by police with batons. The fracas was cast in the national media as an incident of violence at a place of worship, rather than a political protest at a corporate event, prompting political leaders from both parties, including President Joe Biden, to characterize the demonstration as antisemitic. The Justice Department said it is investigating the incident.

But homebuyers interested in purchasing a property in the occupied West Bank have a more convenient option for making an offer: a simple scroll through online listings. 

[girlactionfigure]

🛟 SHABBAT & HOLY DAY — SAFETY BRIEF — for those in ISRAEL 

via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime

EREV SHABBAT

✡️ Erev Shabbat - Parshat Karachi - Numbers 16:1 - Korach incites a mutiny,

▪️DEAL SITUATION ANALYSIS.. (“The Land of Jihad”) What is the connection between the Israeli delegation to Qatar and the threats of an all-out war in the north?  If we examine for a moment the set of levers that Israel has over Hamas, we will find that there are not many of them. The strip is already destroyed (and the Hamas leadership doesn’t care), the IDF has already operated in every sector and the elimination of the senior officials is not in sight (as they stay deep in tunnels or within masses of civilians).

If there are no levers of pressure on Hamas, then we will look for a lever of pressure on the patron - that is, the Iranians. And there is one such, their name is Hezbollah.

The worsening of the rhetoric in recent days against Hezbollah and the threats that after the operation in Rafah the eyes will be on the North, has a dual purpose: one, to deter Hezbollah. But the second goal is more interesting.

When the Iranians realize that Israel is serious and is probably going to make a move that means tremendous damage to Hezbollah, then the Iranians themselves will pressure (Hamas leader) Sinwar to finish the deal.

The Iranians will fight to the last drop of Sunni Arab blood. For them, all Gazans will die on the way to the liberation of Jerusalem. But the Shiite Hezbollah, meat from Iran, is another story. The Iranian interest is to preserve it.

▪️YEMEN ON BEING IN LEBANON.. "We ask the Yemeni brothers living in Lebanon not to leave the country and bear arms together with the people of Lebanon and participate in fighting if necessary, against Israel.  We need to provide protection for Arab honor and our precious lands."  (( Honor, more important than life in their society. ))

▪️LEADER OF THE NEW MAJORITY PARTY IN FRANCE.. Marine Le Pen pledged:  ”Those who identify with Islamic ideology should be excluded and expelled.  French people who adopt the "ideology of the enemy" must be punished.  Radical mosques will be closed.  The Muslim Brotherhood will be disbanded.”

▪️HAMAS CAPTURES PEOPLE TRYING TO TAKE AID, BEATS AND LEAVES THEM TIED IN THE SUN TO DIE..  we are frequently asked for these videos.  Very violent, viewer discretion advised: https://t.me/arabworld301/82876.    And here they are left to die - https://t.me/arabworld301/82877

▪️ON JULY 4TH..  Pro-Palestinian protesters marched on American Independence Day in the streets of New York with Palestinian flags and shout death to America?  

▪️HEZBOLLAH SAYS.. Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah: We will stop attacking Israel only after a complete ceasefire in Gaza.

▪️DEAL POLITICS - NATIONAL UNITY MK BENNY GANTZ.. his party will support ANY responsible outline that will lead to the return of the hostages. (Meaning he is guaranteeing to provide votes from outside the coalition if Netanyahu can’t get votes from the coalition right wing parties.)

🛟 SHABBAT & HOLY DAY — SAFETY BRIEF — for those in ISRAEL 

via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime

Chief Rabbinute instructions with Risk Adjustments and sensible advise

✡️ Note Israel Realtime DOES NOT POST updates on Shabbat or Holy-days (Israel time) UNLESS life threatening / saving. 

❗️The NORTH, draw a line from  Haifa to Afula and Tiberius, as well as near-Gaza towns..

❗️These are all HIGH risk of rocket and drone attacks.  Shabbat & Holy Day precautions REQUIRED.  Elsewhere, keep them in mind.

➡️ Prepare your safe space before Shabbat/Holy day: unlocked, MAMAD LIGHTS ON, A/C on.

➡️ SAFE TO GO TO SYNAGOGUE?  Prepare for alerts on the way, and in synagogue - know the space safe!

➡️ CHILDREN, ELDERLY, DISABLED?  In higher risk areas it may not be safe to go to synagogue.

➡️ CARRY YOUR WEAPON, even without an eruv.  Pepper spray, legal size knife, legal gun.

➡️ CALL POLICE, DO NOT HESITATE !! - If anything suspicious, CALL POLICE immediately!  Dial 100

➡️ (Silent) MONITOR FOR ALERTS :

.. SILENT TV -  Channel 14 - stream https://www.now14.co.il/live/ (doesn’t work with adblocker)

.. SILENT RADIO - 

• Kol Chai radio - on radio 92.8, 93 and 102.5. - stream https://www.93fm.co.il/radio/players/%d7%a9%d7%99%d7%93%d7%95%d7%a8-%d7%97%d7%99/

• Kol Barama Radio - on radio 92.1, 104.3, 105.7 and 107.6. - stream https://kol-barama.co.il/live/

• Galei Israel - on radio 89.3, 94 and 106.5. - https://www.rlive.co.il/station/galey-israel

.. ON COMPUTER - leave a computer open to https://www.oref.org.il/en (only in Israel) - alerts will display and sound on the screen. Turn OFF screen saver, sleep and hibernate.

.. VIA APP - leave on phone with red alert app.  Set app to YOUR area so it only alerts for your area.

✡️ It is a mitzvah to take actions to protect and save and preserve life on Shabbat, not a violation.  But ONLY actions which do so.

[mask131]

It is very amusing - and yet quite terrifying - to see how still to this day there are blogs on Tumblr that support the belief that "All these things the West claims Putin did outside of Russia? He didn't do anything because there's no proof so people are just making it up, Putin's my poor innocent little baby :3 owo". I just saw a post like that two days ago. [It would be interesting to see what those people think the "West" means, because this range from "It is just the USA" to "It is just Western Europe" - anyway]

So, today is my obligatory post about the fuck-ups of Putin's Russia within other countries. And while I always wanted to make a post about the various misinformation campaigns and manipulations of Wagner in various countries of Africa (including the creation of a false mass-grave in Mali that Wagner wanted to use to accuse the French military in place in the area of war crimes - hopefully this plan was foiled because a drone ended up filming them as they were preparing the mass-grave), today I will rather focus on a more recent and more worrying case. And much more "hot-topic" because it involves... The Hamas-Israel conflict, and the mass wave of antisemitism in Europe that recently rose!

Let us go back in time briefly. 7 of october 2023, terrorists of the Hamas organize a surprise attack on Israel. On the 8th of October, Israel starts throwing bombs at Palestine in retaliation - and this is the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war. A war that completely, vividly and violently split the opinion in both Europe and North America, due to how muddled and complex and devastating this conflict is. And a war that had one notable very dark side-effect in Europe (but also in North America) - it woke up a dormant wave of antisemitism. Due to Israel position when it comes to the history of Palestine, and due to how excessive Israel's attacks towards Palestine in retaliation for the Hamas' actions were - notably leading to a grave humanitarian and sanitary crisis in Gaza, that a lot of people chose to define as a "genocide" - a "pro-Palestine" wave arose in Western Europe that was against "Zionism" (understand, support and affiliation with Israel). Problem is - for decades now a lot of antisemitic people had been using "anti-zionism" as a thinley veiled excuse for what was pure antisemitism, due to how Israel is THE Jewish nation. AND for years now, especially in France, antisemitic actions have been on the rise (in France we had the graves of great Jewish personalities covered in antisemitic tags, and various synagogues degraded). As such, alongside movements supporting Palestine and denouncing Israel, numerous antisemitic actions and attacks started happening in various European countries.

In this context, end of October, in the Ile-de-France region, in the Parisian area, over several habitation buildings, more than 250 Stars of David had been painted in blue, overnight. On the morning of the 31st of October, they were on display for everyone to see.

This of course only fueled further the panic and the socio-political debate. The blue color of the stars clearly indicated a tie to Israel. But the fact was that these buildings were habited... by Jewish people. These stars were used to "mark" these buildings - with the clear message "Jews live here". And due to the blue color, it seemed to be part of the whole antisemitic distortion of the pro-Palestinian message: "There are Jews here - There are people of Israel here".

This made all the news, and one interview in particular was in loop over the various info channels of France. Several of the inhabitants of this building were elderly people. Old enough sometimes to have known World War II. And one of the old ladies that lived in these buildings broke down in tears when interviewed because as she explained: "This is all like when I was a child. It is happening all over again."

Because, it should be known - and if you don't know, you will now - that France wasn't just invaded and occupied by the Nazi forces during World War II. The Vichy government of France actively collaborated with the Nazi government to "save" a bit of French independance and "prevent" some casualties - and this formed the darkest part of France's history, La Collaboration. France was divided in two - and while the South was the "free" zone... the North, including the Ile-de-France, was the "occupied" zone where Nazis and collaborators were in control. And Paris saw some of the worst things... Like the infamous "Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv", when the French government, by order of the Nazi government, arrested and gathered in a velodrome more than 13 000 Jews before sending them to the death camps.

As such, to have buildings in the area marked by David stars (the symbol used during World War II to mark Jews on their clothes, shops and houses) as a "visual denunciation" in the context of an antisemitic wave tied to foreign governments' decisions... You can understand how traumatizing this can be - or rather how this wakes up the old trauma and the old shames of France.

But here is where things get INTERESTING.

The police of course searched thoroughly the ones responsible for all these tags - and they ended up finding them... It was a couple. A man, 29 years old, and a woman, 33 years old. They were actually caught while they were painting more of those, in the 10th arrondissement de Paris. But... they were not of French nationality. They were from Moldavia. And this was intriguing. Everybody believed this had been done by antisemitic French people... But no.

And what was the Moldavians' justification for what they did? Support for Palestine? Antisemitism? No. They were "paid" to do so. They just did a job. Curious isn't it? The police found, by digging in the couple's phones, who exactly had paid them and given them the instructions for this operation... And it turned out to be another Moldavian man, but not anybody.

Anatoli Prizenko. A Moldavian businessman known for his strong pro-Russia views and for his open support of Putin. Of course, Prizenko was asked about this whole affair - he was notably interviewed by French media. And what was his answer? When asked why he paid a couple to go paint more than 250 Stars of David in the Parisian region, what did he answer? The funniest and most pathetic excuse you can find. "This was a gesture of support. This was a gesture of support towards the Jews of Europe. It was meant to be positive". I put pictures of the painted tags in this post: I will let you judge if it seems like a support for the Jewish people of Europe, or if it rather looks like the kind of tags left on buildings during World War II.

Okay, so a pro-Russia Moldavian businessman did this in hope to exploit the current tense and hostile climax in France, in light of the disastrous events in Palestine. But beyond his support of Putin, nothing actually clearly ties this operation to Russia, right?

Let us go deeper down the rabbit hole... By November, French authorities revealed that yet another campaign of mass information led by Russian entities was plaguing the French Internet. I say "yet again", because it wasn't Russia's first attempt. Already the French authorities had to denounce and warn the population about an enormous amount of fake websites created by Russians. These fake webpages were almost perfect copies of the ACTUAL websites of the various newspapers and information channels of France, and all covered the war on Ukraine... With the difference that these fake websites twisted the words, faked the numbers or outright invented elements that made it seem like Europe's support of Ukraine was a bad thing, causing all sorts of troubles and dysfunctionments, or that made it look like Ukraine was wasting all the resources it was given. A pure misinformation-operation in hope of making people lose faith in the support of Ukraine, or even making people hate Ukraine for "stealing all our money and weapons".

And they did it again... With this case. Another important Internet operation by Russian - from fake web pages to fake web accounts, this new operation was about mass-sharing and mass-spreading the news of the Stars of David... And insisting upon all sorts of fake rumors that were later debunked, and highlighting the antisemitism in France. (As I said, they didn't really need to do that since there is already an antisemitism on the rise that was well-noted and is already worrying everyone, so Russia didn't invent that... But their point was to overblow this specific incident in order to create a true mass psychosis). France denounced this Internet operation - and Moscow only answered by saying France was "stupid" for suspecting them in such a way...

And does it stop here? NO MY DEAR! Because these last days there's been a new development! Now it is not fully confirmed/revealed, because the investigation is still underway. But after all these months of research, there are pretty solid and conclusive elements to determine who was behind this Internet campaign of misinformation and rumor-spreading... All the clues point towards the "fifth department" (foreign business department) of the FSB, the Federal Security Service of Russia.

So yes... We are back to the Cold War...

And you want to know the worse thing? European countries have started collaborating on this business, because as it turns out, there were a lot of pro-Russian and anti-Otan manifestations or "waves" in several European countries recently (Spain and Germany for example)... that when investigated tie back to the FSB in one way or another. The oldest identified FSB operation of the sort is - at least from what I heard - from the spring of 2023, in Poland. There was a series of misinformation, sabotages and spying actions with strong anti-OTAN slogans used - and at first it seemed that this was a manifestation of the will and desires of Polish people themselves, as it was presented as "the folks of Poland are speaking"... But a bit of investigation revealed the core of this movement were... again, Moldavians, not Polish people. And further digging proved that these Moldavians had ties to the FSB, who very likely ordered them to do all this...

[princesssarisa]

The last three Love Like Salt tales in Cinderella Tales from Around the World consist of one from Pakistan and two from India.

*These tales stand out in two chief ways from their European counterparts. First, by not following the standard Cinderella or Donkeyskin storyline after the princess is banished, but going in completely different directions until the standard father/daughter reunion ending. Secondly, by handling the meaning of "love like salt" in a different way. Where the European versions emphasize that food without salt is tasteless, these South Asian versions instead skewer the poetic cliché of equating love with sweetness and point out that savory food is just as necessary as sweet food, if not more so.

**The king asks his many children (more than just three, and in one case including sons as well as daughters), how much they love him, and all but the youngest daughter reply "Like sugar," "Like honey," "Like sweetmeats," etc. But the youngest daughter says "Like salt," so her father has her abandoned in the jungle.

**In the end, she invites her father (or her entire family) either to her wedding feast or just to visit her home. She serves no food but sweets, which her father soon tires of, and when she finally serves him salted food instead, he realizes the value of salt.

*As for what happens in the middle of the story...

**The Pakistani tale of The King and His Daughters is the simplest: a prince just finds the princess hiding in a hollow tree, falls in love with her, and marries her.

**In one of the two Indian tales, both titled The Princess Who Loved Her Father Like Salt, the princess comes to a palace where a prince lies dead, with many needles sticking out of his body. One by one she pulls out all the needles, somehow knowing that this will bring him back to life, but one day she pauses to take a bath, and her slave girl pulls out the last two needles instead, reviving the prince. She tells him that she's the princess and marries him, reducing the real princess to a slave. But eventually he learns the truth and replaces the false bride with the true one. And refreshingly for this type of story, the slave girl isn't killed or severely punished, but forgiven by the princess, though she is forced to serve her again.

**In the other Princess Who Loved Her Father Like Salt, the princess is newly wed and pregnant when her father banishes her, and she ends up giving birth and raising her son in a golden palace in the jungle. The boy becomes the protagonist, who goes on a journey that involves rescuing three fairies from a Deo (giant) and winning half the kingdom by granting a wish of the king's. He then takes the king (his grandfather) to see his mother, reuniting the family.

Now for some footnotes from me:

*I'm surprised that this book doesn't include any Love Like Salt variants from the Americas, because I know they exist. There's a picture book from the '80s called Moss Gown, which I remember reading in elementary school, which is based on an oral version from North Carolina. That version is problematic, because it takes place in the South before the Civil War, on plantations full of slaves, and because the white heroine's helper is a a black "witch woman," a literal case of a "magical Negro." But I do like what she gives to the heroine: a dress that by day is a raggedy thing made of moss, but which turns into a beautiful ballgown at night. I wish a European variant or two had shared that detail.

*I'm also surprised and disappointed that this book doesn't include the Ashkenazi Jewish variant How Much Do You Love Me? (a.k.a. The Way Meat Loves Salt), where the father is a rabbi, the heroine's love interest is a rabbi's son, and her magical helper is the prophet Elijah in disguise, who gives her a magic stick that grants her wishes. That version has also been adapted into a picture book, which I've sometimes seen in the gift shop at my local synagogue's annual Jewish Food Festival. @ariel-seagull-wings has also shared it here.

The next set of Cinderella tales in this book are the subtype of One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[illalmusalliin]

Sheet #3: Dar Al-Salam / Ummah

This is the third sheet I drew. Dar Al-Salam (Abode of Peace). Also known as Ummah, this neighborhood is filled with streets named after famous and not-so-famous cities and places across the Muslim world.

We have Sarajevo Road (Sarajevska Cesta), Edirne Caddesi, Beirut Boulevard, Dagestan Street, Dhaka Street, Sana'a Street, Cairo Street, Nouakchott Street, Gaza Street etc. Grand Makkah Concourse on the left, running north-south, was modeled after the Grand Concourse in The Bronx.

I tried writing out each name in their respective language(s) as well. For Agadir Street, I wrote it in Arabic and the Amazigh alphabet. For Dhaka Street, I wrote it in Bengali. For Zanzibar Street, I wrote it in Swahili. And it goes on from there.

There's also Qiblah Road. The qiblah faces northeast as it does in North America. Many mosques in this neighborhood. There are still churches and synagogues as well. Some of these are Ibrahimi Mosque on Al-Khalil (Hebron) Street, Ba'albek Mosque on Beirut Boulevard, the large Qiblah Mosque, the Balkan Mosque between Edirne Avenue and Prizen Street.

North of this neighborhood is Chapines neighborhood. We'll get to that one in a few sheets. South of it is Thawrah (Revolution in Arabic). West is Central Filastin and, again, east of this neighborhood is Centrum.

[mariacallous]

(JTA) – A Jewish center in Durham, North Carolina, evacuated its occupants after receiving a fake bomb threat on Tuesday, one week after the arrest of a suspect accused of directing a series of such threats at synagogues across the country. 

Since the summer, dozens of Jewish institutions across America have been targeted with fake bomb threats, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL said it had identified three new threats at Jewish locations across North Carolina this week, including Tuesday’s.

The suspect who was arrested last week, Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, was a Peruvian national who made more than 150 threats, mostly by email, against synagogues and other buildings both Jewish and non-Jewish across five different states in September, the FBI said. The period when he sent the threats included Rosh Hashanah, which took place in mid-September. The bomb threats began, the FBI said, after Santos tried and failed to solicit child pornography; phone numbers that were sent along with the threats belonged to teenage girls who had rejected or cut off contact with him.

But Nunez Santos’ activity did not account for all of the hoax threats Jewish institutions have received since July, according to ADL reports. And the incident at the Jewish Community Campus in Durham, which led to the evacuation of a Reform synagogue, a Jewish day school and a JCC all located on the campus, demonstrated that such threats have continued even with that suspect in custody.

According to the Secure Community Network, a security firm monitoring Jewish institutions that partners with the ADL, there has been a noticeable downturn in such threats since the High Holidays and Nunez Santos’ arrest. But SCN also expects more threats to be made. Jewish institutions dealt with previous waves of fake threats in 2017 and 2020.

“While a certain number of incidents have been attributed to that arrested individual, the uptick in swatting incidents and bomb threats is not just a trend from recent months, but recent years – and they are continuing,” SCN director and CEO Michael Masters told JTA in a statement. “One arrest will not – nor has not – stopped what has emerged as a tactic for fear and disruption.”

Masters said SCN was “communicating with federal law enforcement and intelligence partners on next steps” to address the epidemic of false threats to Jewish institutions, which attract a response by law enforcement.

“Since at least as early as 2017, the Jewish community has been targeted with waves of bomb threats, often facilitated by advanced communications technology,” Todd Gutnick, an ADL spokesperson, told JTA. “Unfortunately, this trend is likely to continue.”

[jewish-sideblog]

Could one argue that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Sephardi and Mizrahi? I mean, when Jewish ppl were expelled from the Roman Empire, one could either go north, or go east. And I’m sure many Sephardi went North into the cold lands of Eastern Europe. Mizrahi would probably have gone either east or north. But I think it’s more possible Ashkenazi would be descended from Sephardi over Mizrahi strictly due to the locations each culture subset came from.

All of this came about bc my dad and I periodically trace back family genealogy. 😊

Unfortunately I’m not a genealogist, but I’ll do my best to tackle this question from what I’ve read on the subject. As a sociologist and a historian, though, there are a few things to consider.

Sub-ethnic Jewish terminology can serve as a decent proxy for general location in the diaspora, or for genetic diversity. But it’s hardly one-to-one. The major separation between Ashkenazim and Sephardim isn’t their location— there are plenty of both in France, for instance, and the historical record indicates that Ashkenazim spent a lot of time in Iberia during the early diaspora living alongside Sephardic communities before being driven East. The primary difference between the communities is actually the Minhag, or a customary / cultural framework.

So if you’ve got someone of Hispanic or Spanish descent who converts to Judaism in America? They will likely become Ashkenazi, not Sephardi, because the Minhag, Rabbis, and Synagogues in America are mostly Ashkenazi. There isn’t any regard given to genetic ancestry when considering sub-ethnic groups, it’s purely cultural.

I think overall it would be far more accurate to say that the ethnic subgroups of Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim all evolved from Second Temple Jewry. And genetically, all Jews by blood descended from Second Temple Jews. While I think that certainly, some Ashkenazic families used to be Sephardim but changed their culture over time, the same is going to be true the other way around.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that one sub-ethnic group fully “descended from” another. We all have origins Israel and Judea. We all just had to evolve and make changes as the diaspora grew, and the vast majority of those changes were simultaneous.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

"We know that these self-identified Jews aren't actually Jewish because their Haggadah is different than ours and I don't like it"

AKA

"Reform and Reconstructionist Jews aren't real Jews, and no real Jew has ever altered the Haggadah via a Jewish lens of modernization....what do you mean Jewish feminists did exactly that and a huge chunk of progressive Jews actively incorporated those changes into their regular Haggadah material, what could women possibly have to contribute to the Haggadah that The Original Jewish Patriarchs didn't???"

I have absolutely pissed myself laughing at these fucking xenophobic shitheads and their alternate reality, but man, eventually the threshhold for "blood is leaking from my eyes" gets reached.

Anyway, here's a bunch of links to different Haggadah booklets so you can all see for yourselves how many different translations, iterations, and adaptations ACTUAL FUCKING SYNAGOGUES AND THEIR JEWISH MEMBERS have been making over the last few centuries.

A shortened Haggadah for "first timers, people with short attention spans, and hungry families with noisy kids":

A more standard length Haggadah emdorsed by the Jewish Federation of North America's Rabbinic Cabinet

One version of a Reconstructionist Haggadah

Another Reconstructionist Haggadah based on the work of several Reconstructionist Rabbis

A Reconstructionist synagogue's supplemental material to the first Reconstructionist Haggadah chosen to incorporate more work and writing from Jews of color from several significant JoC communities

One of the most well known Feminist Haggadahs

The National Council of Jewish Women's supplemental Haggadah material

The overarching Reform Judaism leadership's main page FULL of different haggadot

A "Haggadah for everyone!"

Chabad's take on the Haggadah

I'm out of space to add more Haggadot, but please understand that even if you try to seek out a "traditional" "orthodox" haggadah, you will still be directed to A BUNCH of different translations, transliterations, content structure, and messaging. Literally, there IS no such thing as "what the Haggadah is supposed to say" and deciding that someone isn't Jewish because *they're just using different Haggadot than you* is some of the most hateful kind of intracommunal erasure I can fucking imagine. It would be like Israel having a history of saying that the Jewish people (and their descendants) who renounced their faith under duress during the Holocaust need to convert to Judaism officially in order to be considered eligible for Israeli Jewish citizenship, or that only converts to *specific* sects of Judaism "counted" legally as Jews

Oh wait....

https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1329&context=psilr

Truly, I love being a Jew in a deeply antisemitic country where neonazis have more rights to free speech than Jews criticising holocaust deniers do lmao. Truly, it is a pleasure and a delight to be denied my history and my heritage by people who insist that accepting and endorsing war crimes is the price I have to pay for "safety". I have never been happier to revel in the beauty of my faith than now as I watch the world justify crimes against humanity in our name when literally two years ago, all those same people were insisting there were "good people on all sides" in Charlottesville. What a lucky little traitor I must be to my people, my faith, my G-d, and my family if I dare to think that we Jews have the right to evolve and grow culturally in line with halacha, even when that means rejecting established tradition in favor of modern halachic and Talmudic conversations about equality, justice, and compassion. How silly must I be not to realize the necessity of denying our own people their existances because they dared to disagree with you, oh great speaker for Hashem itself!

May your names be buried in the muck you sling, and may you receive all that you wish upon others.

And to anyone who decides NOT to be rabidly antisemetic in my notes, I hope you have fun looking through a bunch of Haggadah formats because truly? Pesach has always held a special place in my heart. It's the religious holiday I have always most loved and treasured. Like yeah, Purim's fun, yeah Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are important (don't tell my rabbi, but she talks sooooooo long on Yom Kippur and it's hard to sneak out to keep my blood sugar from harming me without disrupting my loved ones in their practice, so between RH/YK and the erevs, everything is usually just a fuckin blur for me by the end of it. My rabbi's dad, our former rabbi, does a great story hour tho). But pesach is about grief and love and meaning making, and the memories we treasure, and I could spend a lifetime talking with my aunties and my adopted mom and her friends all talking and sharing stories and singing in the kitchen.

There are SO many different interpretations of the haggadot, and I don't think I've ever used the same one two years in a row, but I've almost always loved the one chosen. Jewish introspection at Pesach speaks to me in my so, and I hope it makes yours sing too.

[dzbsabezab]

Efforts to market homes in Israel and “stolen” land in West Bank to Jewish Americans are continuing to spark protests across North America, with the latest angry confrontations happening outside a synagogue in one of Los Angeles’s most prominent Jewish neighborhoods.