#this tag is Jewish and so am I

[attackfish]

As it is Passover again, it is time for the annual debate as to whether the frog plague, which thanks to a quirk in the Hebrew, is written as a plague of frog, singular, rather than the plural, plague of frogs, was in fact, as generally imagined, a plague of many frogs, or instead a singular giant Kaiju frog. This is an ancient and venerable argument that actually goes back to the Talmud because this is what the Jewish people are. If we can't argue for fun about this sort of thing, what are we even doing.

In that spirit, I would like to submit a third possibility, which is that in fact it was one perfectly normal sized frog, who was absolutely acing Untitled Frog Game: Ancient Egypt Edition. One particularly obnoxious frog, who through sheer hard work, managed to plague all of Egypt.

[spindrifters]

my nana died yesterday. she was 94, and beautiful. the boys at her university used to call her champagne. she was a leo. an actress. a youth counselor. a labor union organizer. a mystic. very much the main event. she got to live a long and fantastic life, and I will miss her so, so much.

but I want to talk about something.

my nana had a difficult relationship with jews. not her own judaism. other american jews.

she was sephardi in ashkenormative america to begin with, already had serious beef to start. the ashki temple in her city refused to bury her father in the only jewish graveyard because he wasn't a member. she was a microminority within a minority that had no grace at the time for her.

it didn't help that she was born in the 1920s and watched over the course of the 20th century and the aftermath of the horrors of the shoah as zionism went from an unpopular fringe movement to something that took over and corrupted the establishment of her faith. my nana was a staunch and vocal antizionist, like her parents before her.

it isn't lost on me, the irony of her maiden name.

israel.

something that long predates the establishment of the settler colonial state in palestine. it was never meant to be what it's become. did you know that jews didn't used to have last names? we had patronyms. christians forced us to take their idea of surnames around the 17th century. most ashkenazim picked their trades. gold or silver or cohen. for sephardim, it was popular to go with where they lived at the time or where they had once had roots. mitrani and lousada and taranto. maybe it was so they could find each other in the diaspora.

but my ancestors took it a step further. they chose to go with israel. the name of that diaspora. the unifying tribal name, that needs no physical land to identify itself. it means one who wrestles with god. it was something beautiful, once. like my nana. for her sake, I hope one day it could be again.

may her memory be a revolution.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Perhaps a controversial take, but I don't think the phrase "make nazis afraid again" actually reflects what often happened in real life both in history and in the current day. I've seen way too many comfortable, celebrated nazis who were and are nothing but unafraid and emboldened.

I feel a more accurate slogan would be "make nazis afraid."

[attackfish]

So I reported this asshole and IP blocked them, for their intense and blatant antisemitism, but I'm screenshotting and posting this ask because it's a perfect example of what I talked about here: [Link] on my other blog.

I am really open about being an atheist. I am of course really open about being Jewish. I frequently talk about the two in conjuction, and when I talk about Christian cultural hegemony in atheist spaces and antisemitism in atheist spaces, I am talking as a Jewish atheist. But the first thing any gentile atheist who doesn't want to think about antisemitism and Christian cultural hegemony does, is erase my atheism and paint me as the outsider religious person attacking atheists.

And the same thing happens when queer Jews bring up antisemitism in the queer community. Our queerness is erased, and it's "Oh the Jews are such bigots, attacking queer people!" Every time. Intracommunity discussions of antisemitism in communities we belong to, over and over are shut down by gentile members of those communities, painting us as outsiders and interlopers trying to atrack the community. Thank you, Nonny, for providing a perfect example.

[spindrifters]

gentiles, you are encouraged to reblog for a wider pool but please respect the integrity of the poll

[zarohk]

Meanwhile, Conservative Judaism says:

Within the Jewish community and the larger culture, too often transgender people have been excluded, marginalized, harassed, or worse. The Jewish community and the Conservative movement must be committed to the proposition that all people be treated with dignity and respect and that our institutions, culture, and practices be welcoming and accommodating to the needs of transgender Jews as well as trans people who wish to become Jewish, and to doing so in an authentically Jewish way.

…

Once a person, child, adolescent, or adult, has the understanding and vocabulary to assert a gender identity, it is that which should be honored. Adopting this strategy is not about acceding to "whatever people want." Transgender people to not "choose" or "want" their gender identity any more than cisgender people choose or want theirs. Rather it is a core element of a person's being and does not seem to be subject to deliberate attempts to change.

I keep hearing people talk about how great this piece of shit is, and how the church is making sooooo much progress, but uh…

“Addressing participants of a two-day conference in the Vatican on the evolving role of men and women according to Christian teachings, Francis said what he called "gender ideology" was a threat because it sought to erase the difference between the sexes.

"I have asked that studies be carried out into this ugly ideology of our times, which cancels out the differences and makes everything the same," the Pope said.”

Anyway, I hope he dies in the very immediate future, that it hurts the whole time, and that the disgusting edifice he’s part of crashes down soon too.

[gingerswagfreckles]

It's become extremely obvious over the past 15 months that the only reason much of the Western world ever basically agreed that the Holocaust was bad and was willing to teach about it is because for a brief period of time, Jews and gentiles in most of Europe + America had a common enemy in the Nazis. But this acknowledgement of Nazi antisemitism was only ever the same kind of acknowledgement of antisemitism that we get right now, where people are only willing to acknowledge the antisemitism of the people they already had a completely separate reason to dislike or fear. Antisemitism in this worldview is just a tool, a secondary accusation one can lodge at someone who is already for different reasons an enemy. It is never acknowledged as a form of bigotry in and of itself, that exists on its own and not as a follow up to another "more serious" form of oppression or bigotry against gentiles.

Obviously any Holocaust education we do get in Europe and the US has very much been the result efforts by Jews and our allies in a practical sense, but it is undeniable that there was a brief 70 or so year period where the white Western consciousness found it valuable (or at least politically convenient) to recognize antisemitism as wrong and the Holocaust as horrific. As true, original-brand Nazism fades, though, we see opposition to antisemitism and the Holocaust becoming less and less valuable to the white Western identity, as actual threat of Nazi occupation fades to historical memory. Newer, rebranded neo-Nazis and leftist Hamas supporters pose little to no threat to white Western gentiles. And thus, we see now not only a growing acceptance of antisemitism, but also a growing hostility towards the idea that we should study or condemn the Holocaust as anything particularly terrible. The Holocaust no longer represents a way for gentiles to additionally condemn an ideology that also threatened them, that also killed their families, that also resulted in their own countries and communities being occupied or destroyed by foreign fascist governments. It no longer represents to them an ideology that is in any way a threat to their own safety or way of life.

This is why we see such a massive rise in Holocaust denial among Gen Z, and, even more broadly than overt Holocaust denial, the rejection of the idea that the Holocaust should be particularly studied or condemned. More and more, we see people "questioning" the "propaganda" of The Jews Crying Victim All The Time, we see young people wondering why they are so cruelly forced to acknowledge on very rare occasion the suffering that the Jewish people went through in their own homes and towns. Often this is framed not only as intellectual bravery but moral bravery, as if this new generation rejecting Holocaust education is somehow fighting back against the unfair valuing of Jewish tragedy above gentile tragedy. What they don't understand, of course, and what many Jews up until now didn't understand either, is that no one ever valued the Holocaust because it WAS a uniquely horrific event in history, because it WAS the first and only industrialized genocide that gassed millions to death on a scale we can only pray the world will never see again, because it WAS only 70 years ago and is still a living part of the history of many Western countries. No. The Holocaust was only ever given the acknowledgement it was because it represented, at one time, an ideological threat that also included gentiles, though less overtly than it targeted Jews.

That ideological threat against Jews has not gone anywhere, and is in fact is seeing a new glory day dawning with the rise of fascism worldwide and the normalization/glorification of antisemitism on the left. But this new form of antisemitic hatred, be it neo-Nazism or support for Hamas, does not represent a threat to white Western gentiles, their way of life, or the integrity of their governments. And so we as we see the decoupling of the Holocaust from something that also incidentally threatens gentiles, we see standing against the Holocaust and antisemitism as a symbol of white Western identity disappearing as fast as it came.

[bitegore]

Zionists want you to conflate Judaism and Zionism. Zionists want you to believe that Judaism cannot exist without Zionism and that all Jews are Zionists. Zionism would have Jews believe that a Jewish state is the only way that they can be safe from antisemitism and will point to any instance of antisemitism as proof that Zionism is the solution- so Zionism wants gentiles to be antisemitic in their support of Palestine. They want you to conflate all Jews with Zionism and the state of Israel, and they want you to treat all Jews regardless of political affiliation as the face of Israel. Antizionist Jews exist, and incidences of antisemitism ostensibly acting against Zionism will not help dismantle the forces propping Zionism up.

Don't do their work for them.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I am absolutely begging people to stop treating nazism as their big, bad blorbo caricature they can just invoke when they're mildly irritated about people who (they think) have Bad Opinions.

Nazism is not just "any time a Bad Guy does Bad Things." Nazism is not your final jojo stand you can invoke to win discussions or debates. It is a real life ideology that is intrinsically linked to the radical antisemitism it espouses and ignoring that is fundamentally harmful to the point of being radically antisemetic.

Since this is on-topic, I've been reading People Love Dead Jews (I am on chapter two), and I think downplaying nazism is absolutely part of de-emphasizing and reprioritizing antisemitism to make it about everything else but the antisemitism. When nazism is everything, then it can't be fundamentally antisemetic. You won't have to acknowledge that jews are the primary target of nazis and nazism if nazis are everything else. It's not a coincidence, especially seeing how many jews people call nazis. This is part of the dead jew that people love - if your eye is turned away from the fact that jews both exist still and are affected by violence and oppression, you get to say, "the jew is dead!".

Regardless, you will never live in a world without us**

עם ישראל חי

[nonbinary-vents]

What people have done to the am Yisrael chai (and also עם ישראל חי but a little less so cause these guys don’t know the first thing about Hebrew) is beyond disgusting and shows exactly how ‘just anti Zionist!’ they really are. Am Yisrael chai is a centuries old Jewish saying that celebrates us not just surviving, but living in a world that will kill us every time the opportunity presents itself. Am Yisrael chai is the best defiance to the world of still being here when everyone wants us gone, it is a pure joy of being on this world and being a Jew, it is that the Jewish people are alive. We are alive

You know, I wanted to talk about how horrible it is that that’s been twisted, how non Jews ar e determined to snuff out our life, but like… actually I don’t want to. I’m so tired of all of that. I just want to be happy, and I want to celebrate with my people. We’re still here. We’re alive! !עם ישראל חי! עם ישראל חי

‏וגם זה יעבור

[attackfish]

L'shanah Tovah! May you be enscribed in the Book of Life! May your Rosh Hashanah be full of apple cakes, honey, and joy!

If you're gentile, happy weekend, I guess.

[spindrifters]

I need zionists to stop telling me this is none of my business because I don’t live there. the state of israel made it my business when they claimed to represent and act on behalf of every jew. that made it personal. you don’t get to have it both ways.

[zarohk]

Due to centuries of cultural exchange there are a lot of similarities between the hamster religion and that of the chipmunks, both now being functionally death cults. The root of where they differ is how the two religions view this holy death.

To hamsters, death is an art form, an ever-ascending pillar of the strange and the grotesque. Hamsters seek beauty and uniqueness in death, venerating the most outlandish of the dead as saints: Our Lady of the Plumbing, Saint Tim the Blended, and Saint Ms. Cupcake Who Got Into That Barrel of Degreaser, to name a few. Through death, they connect with their god, whose immense corpse formed the world after choking to death on a stray asteroid. Hamsters will spend weeks planning their deaths and awaiting an opportunity to swan dive off this mortal coil.

Chipmunks follow a warrior’s religion. While hamsters embraced humanity as creators of new and exciting shapes and poisons, chipmunks never forsook their wild ways. Chipmunk culture idealizes the divine struggle: to face insurmountable odds and to die with honor. Only by throwing themselves under the wheels of a moving vehicle can they earn their reincarnation and escape the cruel jaws of the fox-god who awaits them in the underworld. Every chipmunk goes to their death secure in the knowledge that they have faced their fate a million times before and that they will face it a million times again.

Squirrel religion does not speak of death.

[iliothermia]

dont mean this in any disrespectful way when you posted that i did go through your account and saw you had posted about gaza back in oct 13, i think in the current climate where so many zionist weaponize anti-semitism to silence people trying to stop the genocide i was also worried when you posted that and had seen no posts about palestine on your twt i did go down farther and saw that that was not the case and its just not easily apparent i do feel like you are aware of this though and it feels a little exploitative to post that knowing people would be sensitive to the language you used and your lack of public sentiment around palestine and unfollow you thinking you were a zionist i dont think your a zionist but your immediate outrage at people unfollowing you for that post is ignoring the context in which your posting in. please remember people are dying before our eyes everyday from people who use the language of anti-semitism to fuel that death i implore that you act with compassion towards people and not bad intentions

(for reference to others, this is about this post I then shared on my twitter as well.) Me commenting about people unfollowing me for sharing support for my community is not outrage, it's an observation on how I can't support fellow Jews without it being connected to Zionism. I said a very positive message to support others who have been dealing with things IN DIASPORA like I have and get messages like yours and this.

It is not exploitative for me to express love for MY COMMUNITY (NOT ISRAEL) after experiencing multiple actually antisemitic incidents IRL recently and saying the words I needed to hear for others. I need to hear that people care. My synagogue got bomb threats and I've been called a kike and harassed in real life multiple times. I didn't even post about most of the stuff I've dealt with to be sensitive to others and the online environment lately. Yet here I am being called exploitative and that I should be more sensitive to others for supporting my community. I have never once called anyone on here or anywhere else an antisemite or weaponized antisemitism so please don't project on me.

[petrichorvoices]

Hi Jumblr, my rabbi is on sabbatical but I have a kind of time-sensitive question about if something is idolatry or not. So I'm converting to Judaism, and my family is Protestant. They know that I'm converting, but they've been forcing me to go to church with them and today they forced me to participate in a prayer. Because going to church just involves me sitting there doing nothing for an hour, and because participating in the prayer just meant holding their hands while they prayed, I'm not certain if this counts as idolatry or not.

I'm doing my own research into this as well but I figured I'd make a post about it in case anyone already knows the answer. For what it's worth, I've tried very hard to refuse going to church or praying, but it's really dangerous for me to do so and they end up winning because they hold a lot of power over me. But I *am* putting up a hell of a fight.

[bookofwambs]

some of you have pissed me off and i would like to remind some of you again of how zionist these two individuals are. i truly hope noah and that bald headed loud loser never get booked for anything ever again. evil individuals. this is islamophobia. this is zionism. this is propaganda. this is advocating for the genocide of palestine. i don’t know how else i can say this but if you support either of these us, you are just as bad and are complicit. you should be ashamed of yourselves for putting your favourite show or ship above the lives of millions of innocent people.

stop babying noah. he is an adult. 19. old enough to vote and make decisions. this is who he is.