#the jewish experience tag

[afrenomes]

חנוכה שמח!

1st image is my family’s menorah, 2nd image is a cool menorah I saw a few days ago in the lobby of a building

[rabbiaharon]

On the anniversary of the vicious attack against innocent Israeli civilians on October 7th, I would like to go over what I’ve seen to be the feelings of most Jews I’ve met concerning the attack, and also talk about the experience that Jews in the United States (and perhaps worldwide) have had in the time after October 7th.

When you look in the grand scheme of things, there aren’t very many Jews in the world. In fact, we make up just under 0.2% of the world’s population. Statistically speaking, this means that the entire Jewish people could be lost by the margin of error of any given data set. There are nearly twice as many people in the United States who openly identify as LGBT than there are Jews on the planet. As a result, we tend to be tightly connected one with another, and running into a fellow Jew on the street can feel more like running into a long lost cousin, than being introduced to a complete stranger. Most Jews in the world either have at least some extended family or friends living in Israel. Israel is not a jewish state - it’s a secular representative-democracy with a loose Jewish identity due to the majority of the voting pubic being Jewish, but it is occupying our ancestral land, and we pretty much all know someone who knows someone (if we don’t have a personal connection). Gaza, on the other hand, is a terrorist enclave. It is ruled by an internationally recognized terrorist organization (recognized by the UN, the same organization for they brag that they’ve had their statehood “recognized”) who was democratically elected in 2006 by residents of the enclave, and assumed military control afterwards, and has not held a single election since then. This organization glorifies the murder of Jews - not just Israelis - and their charter calls for the total elimination of all the world’s jewry, and the downfall of the western world (including the US and Western Europe), replaced with muslim caliphates. They house military hardware in the basements of schools, and launch rockets indiscriminately from atop UN-funded hospitals. They are known for using human shields, and when their military structures are destroyed by the people they are shooting at, they use the bodies of all the innocent people gathered inside to wage a PR campaign in the news and social media, claiming that they’re the only victims in this conflict. This isn’t my personal opinion, this is well-established fact, and a quick google search or use of a meta-news search tool like Ground News can confirm that.

Last year on one of our most joyous holidays, a group of armed terrorists from that organization breached the border of that secular state and attacked innocent people. Some were teenagers and young adults who were just enjoying themselves at a concert. Some were babies or the elderly, who were killed in their homes, or violated and then killed or taken hostage. The next day, another terrorist organization that had taken control of another terrorist enclave on the north side of that secular state opened fire on that secular state, raining rockets down daily on the cities in the north, killing some, and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes and live in bomb shelters.

Many of us were personally affected by the attack on innocent jews in Israel. There was anger that so many of our own people were killed while just trying to enjoy themselves, or living in their home. Our friends or family who were being held hostage by that savage terrorist organization known for indiscriminate violence and the use of human shields? We wanted them back. Those of us who were paying attention were asking why Israel, which supposedly has one of the best intelligence gathering operations in the world, was blindsided? Why was there - in a country known for its military readiness - was such delay in their response, where it took them as long as 7 hours to begin their response. We wanted to see accountability from Netanyahu and his government, and we wanted to know why Israel seemingly let it happen.

In the midst of our mourning, most of the non-jews who seemed like they were somewhat supportive and open to us - especially in the wake of antisemitism on the right spurred by insane rhetoric by a certain president of the United States - suddenly lost their minds. They showed up to protest at holiday celebrations screaming "from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free" over our prayers. Pro-palestinian protestors have shown up to our places of worship brandishing knives, or baseball bats, or threatening with guns until the police are called. They harass jews on the streets who are minding their own business and threatening Jewish kids on their way to school. They have threatened violence to totally innocent jewry who are unrelated to the entire conflict, and followed through, not unlike the people who first attacked us. This is only the tip of the iceberg - as I have only mentioned the things that have so far happened in my community, and this is not the place or time to delve into it in all the gruesome detail. Suffice to say, my personal experience has been mirrored by jews all around the world who have been at best abandoned by their non-jewish neighbors, and at worst attacked by them, verbally, or physically. This trend has been reflected, of course, onto this website, and antisemitic behavior has long since spiraled out of control. Even as I type this, I am sure that some non-jew will jump onto this post, calling me out for not supporting the people who would be happy to see me dead. The one who does so will be no better than a member of that terrorist organization.

I am not minimizing the tragedy of innocent Palestinian children and parents who have tried to take their families and leave, but have been prevented by their government - or even prevented from emigrating by Israel. They are true victims, held captive by the same terrorists holding our own family and friends as hostages. But for those who voted that terrorist organization into power and have opted to stay and continue to support them? Those who have endangered their children by volunteering them to be human shields, and by teaching them the ways of violence and hatred? They are my enemies, and you should see them as yours too.

[afrenomes]

OH REALLY, UN?

[psychologeek]

Me, a jew:

(image description: meme "guess I'll die")

Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

[homosexualhooligan]

trying to put all my jewish feelings into something sweet

1 month until Rosh Hashanah, one of my favorite holidays

[afrenomes]

Like, how can thousands of people on this hellsite be like “yeah, don’t be antisemitic! Antisemitism is bad! Don’t say [insert the most blatantly antisemitic statement ever]! Instead, say [insert the SECOND-most blatantly antisemitic statement ever]!”

I don’t use this term lightly, but I feel like I’m being gaslit???? Like, did I read that post wrong??? I don’t think so, but how can so many people, including the person I follow who put this on my dash (and whom I’ve been following for a long time and until now I respected), be this fucking stupid???

[afrenomes]

hate hate HATE that nearly every non-Jewish blog I (used to) follow has inevitably posted antisemitic shit in the past year and are so unwilling to change their minds that I just end up unfollowing them. I don’t want to be JUST a Jewish blog—I wanna blog about anything that’s important/interesting to me!—but ultimately my dash has become 99% Jumblr and talking about Jewish issues. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but I’m just kinda sick and tired of that being the only thing I can engage in

[afrenomes]

goyish leftists will graffiti the most random-ass bathroom walls, skip classes to sit on their asses while barring Jewish students from accessing campus buildings, donate to obvious fucking scams that likely fund human trafficking, cut off their Jewish friends if they dare to have an ounce of backbone or boundaries or nuance, harass Jews and Jewish institutions, cheer on terrorist organizations that actively harm and kill both Jews and Palestinians, and even fucking rewrite historical events* before genuinely helping Palestinians, voting for the one candidate that would’ve most likely actually helped get us a ceasefire rather than fucking glassing Gaza, or even just shutting up and LISTENING to those who are most affected by this conflict.

*(remember when y’all called Oct 7th “exhilarating” and a glorious act of resistance? And now you’re all saying that no, actually, Oct 7th marks the day that Israel started genociding Palestinians, despite Israel not even responding militarily til days later? Or—wait no—this genocide has actually been happening since 1948! What’s the truth here????)

[afrenomes]

It’s also straight-up a myth that christmas is based on pagan traditions. I swear I have some links somewhere, but I can’t seem to find them atm. Maybe @didyoumeanxianity knows what I’m talking about?

Reminder that Christmas is a religious holiday and all the things that come with it (the tree, the colors, the traditions, etc.) are apart of it (even if you don’t celebrate for religious reasons it still is) and if you say “Oh it’s just part of the season” you’re throwing your Jewish & other not Christian religious participants under the bus

[afrenomes]

*watches instagram reel of First Nations people dancing in support of Jews* *opens comments to see tons of people calling them “fake” and “supporting colonizers”*

*watches reel of Ethiopian Jewish Israeli having fun talking about the history of Ethiopian Jews in Israel* *someone comments with “had your sterilization appointment yet?”*

[afrenomes]

Losers harassing online Jewish communities… must be a day ending in y 🙄

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Funny things about being in jewish culture™

You absolutely cannot expect jews to (1) stay on a topic topic or (2) be concise. The notion of "having a topic" to talk about is merely a suggestion (apparently, this includes me)

Jewish time means you're transported into a universe where time doesn't exist. Every shul has to have a portal to a different plane of oblivion - it's as important as having the scrolls in the ark

You might only know someone by their hebrew name and consider if they will look at you weird if you call them by it outside of shul

There is a latent jewish mother hiding in everyone and that mother will arise like a sleeper agent if someone has deduced that you aren't eating enough during any potential communal meals

Why so many puns

Why are all of you as sarcastic as me...

The one person who's actually fluent in hebrew flexing their superior language comprehension (diaspora)

Celebrating having a minyan

Singing prayers to popular children's songs

It's surprisingly normal to ask about someone's bris if it comes up

There are seven people in the building, yet I thought there were twenty

[afrenomes]

If I was better with words I’d write an entire thesis-length essay on not just the deeply-entrenched antisemitism of all this, but also the deeply-DEEPLY-entrenched misogyny of this whole past year

[tributary]