#this tag is jewish and so am i

[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.

[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.

[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."

[spindrifters]

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

[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.

[astriiformes]

My rabbi's Shabbat email today made reference to my & Scribe's chuppah (not, like, us specifically as people, but to her having been a part of a chuppah recently and her thoughts still lingering on that) and I'm honestly going to be rotating her thoughts in my own brain for a good while, because I feel like she really captured the complex and fragile feelings I was having about holding a very personal celebration in a time where it feels like there is so little to celebrate.

And I know I'm not the only one struggling with that sort of thing at the moment, so in case her words resonate with anyone else:

As we move towards Shabbat, I return to a beautiful chuppah that I was lucky to stand under two weeks ago, when I got to shower wishes of blessing and joy on a wonderful couple. I offered the Sheva Brakhot, singing:  Let there soon be the sound of joy and happiness in all of our cities and all of our streets, the voices of those we join together in loving covenant, and the voice of lovers who exult from within the shelter of their love and community, and the voices of all who rejoice at tables overflowing with wonder. Blessed are you, G-d, who brings joy to those who love. As I sang, I imagined Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and the destroyed streets of Gaza. I imagined immigrant neighbors who have been ensnared by ICE agents and fasttracked for deportation, Trans beloveds en route to new homes, fleeing repressive new restrictions. From the safe and beautiful space of the chuppah, I poured out my prayers for peace and wellbeing. The wedding canopy is open on all four sides. A reminder that in the depth of love and celebration, it is our responsibility to invite all those who are in need of solace and support to join together underneath the chuppah. As we near Shabbat, I offer an eighth blessing for our Sheva Brakhot: Let there soon be the sound of children safely learning and families rebuilding homes in Gaza, of hostages returned to their families, of politicians hewing close to the peaceful will of their peoples. May the wailing of funeral processions and the nightmares of grieving parents be met with comfort and support. May the irrepressible voice of our collective calling for justice and peace, resisting fascism wherever it is found, overflow the bounds of our time and join with the voices of our ancestors and those yet to come in strength, wonder and love. We are powerful, beloveds, even when we are scared and disoriented. We are building the world we need, even as we feel it under threat. Blessed are You, G-d, who gives us the power and obligation to build canopies of peace in every generation.

[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.

[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

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I'm in many leftist spaces and I've seen many goyim in these spaces complaining about how often jews talk about leftist antisemitism.

The thing is that this is the consequence of claiming to be advocates or in support of another group of people - when you ostensibly prove you aren't for us, we're going to be harsher than we are to people who never pretended in the first place.

For an analogy, here's a similar situation: I am harsher toward "pro-trans" people who are transphobic than I am to people who are not. This is because the pro-trans person told me they were better than that. I am already aware that the anti-trans person is going to be anti-trans. Their anti-transness is self-evident. What isn't self-evident is a person who claims to be pro-trans and then proves otherwise.

This post is addressed toward leftist spaces because I occupy these spaces the most. It makes me wonder just how safe I am in these spaces when leftist begrudgingly acknowledge that this conversation keeps happening. I feel like a lot of leftists treat those of us who open these conversations like we're an "I left the left" rightist when... Most of us are still in leftist spaces. We have not left the left and through pretending we have, you absolve yourself the feeling of responsibility.

[zarohk]

@mewvore and @obscenicon have I got a great thread for you! It combines both of those into a delightful new canon!

I draw a pregnant trans woman and get questions about how its even possible, but tens of millions of people right now take a 2000 year old book that says a dude walked on water and raised people from the dead as uncontested fact. I'm not saying those people are wrong, I'm just saying you need to have faith, belief that a trans girl can in fact get pregnant, if you just keep cumming in her

[bi-kingdavid]

I was today years old when I learned David Draiman the lead singer of Disturbed is a trained cantor??? Mind blown.

[attackfish]

I am reblogging this again with less than 24 hours to go. I just want to say it this point that this poll has taught me just how many Jewish people don't realize that the Babylonian Talmud was not written during the Babylonian Empire, but was in fact written in the Sasanid Persian Empire, well after the Babylonian Empire was no more.

[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.

[attackfish]

To all of my Jewish followers who can/are fasting: may you have an easy fast.

To my Jewish followers who are not/cannot fast: hey, same hat! I can't fast either!

May your Yom Kippur be meaningful either way!

[zarohk]

One thing that always blows me away, is that between the relationship of dwarves to their scripture, and the portrayal of golems’ creation and relationship to work and community, Terry Pratchett has done the best job of the depicting Jewish beliefs, values, and communities (especially the conflict between different strains of Judaism) than any other author i’ve read, including quite a few Jewish ones.

Sometimes you read a book and instantly love a character. Anyway, Dorfl, the atheist golem is my new favorite Discworld character

[capt-sievert]

I've acquired a lil Golem and I'm absolutely going crazy over it

Oooh i love this thing so much.... Ooooohhh.....

It brings me absolute unfiltered glee and joy every time I lay my eyes on it how have I lived without it for so long oh my goodness oh my goodness the little critter.... Ooooh my clay little thing....... Ooooohhhhh my sweet child....... My kid....