#ultra-Orthodox Judaism

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Men dancing at an Hasidic wedding, 1954. Hasids do not mingle the sexes outside of marriage—the men and the women dance separately.

Photo: Leonard Freed via Christie’s

[yz]

Purim. Bnei Brak. March 2023.

[vamptastic]

why do christians get mad about jews having 'loopholes'. did i miss something. do you guys strictly follow the 613 commandments to the letter. if you don't even believe you need to fulfill these obligations in the first place, then why do you think jews are wrong for fulfilling them in silly or nontraditional ways? always followed by some shit about us not going to heaven because of it like damnnn i wonder if maybe there's another reason jews believe that following our own laws is a good idea. maybe because we want to be good people on earth instead of only being a good person for the sake of earning a primo spot in the afterlife.

[ofpd]

seeing a lot of christian instagram reels has mainly just taught me that the average american christian's beliefs are literally worse than those of the small minority of jews who are right-wing and orthodox and whom people love to sensationalize

[mariacallous]

American Jewish food is most typically defined as pastrami sandwiches, chocolate babka, or bagels and lox. But I am here to argue that the greatest American Jewish food may actually be the humble hot dog. No dish better embodies the totality of the American Jewish experience.

What’s that you say? You didn’t know that hot dogs were a Jewish food? Well, that’s part of the story, too.

Sausages of many varieties have existed since antiquity. The closest relatives of the hot dog are the frankfurter and the wiener, both American terms based on their cities of origin (Frankfurt and Vienna respectively). So what differentiates a hot dog from other sausages? The story begins in 19th century New York, with two German-Jewish immigrants.

In 1870, Charles Feltman sold Frankfurt-style pork-and-beef sausages out of a pushcart in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Sausages not being the neatest street food, Feltman inserted them into soft buns. This innovative sausage/bun combo grew to be known as a hot dog (though Feltman called them Coney Island Red Hots).

Two years later, Isaac Gellis opened a kosher butcher shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He soon began selling all-beef versions of German-style sausages. Beef hot dogs grew into an all-purpose replacement for pork products in kosher homes, leading to such classic dishes as Franks & Beans or split pea soup with hot dogs. Though unknown whether Gellis was the originator of this important shift, he certainly became one of the most successful purveyors.

Like American Jews, the hot dog was an immigrant itself that quickly changed and adapted to life in the U.S. As American Jewry further integrated into society, the hot dog followed.

In 1916, Polish-Jewish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a hotdog stand to compete with Charles Feltman, his former employer. Feltman’s had grown into a large sit-down restaurant, and Handwerker charged half the price by making his eatery a “grab joint.” (The term fast food hadn’t yet been invented, but it was arguably Handwerker who created that ultra-American culinary institution.)

Nathan’s Famous conquered the hot dog world. Like so many of his American Jewish contemporaries, Handwerker succeeded via entrepreneurship and hard work. His innovative marketing stunts included hiring people to eat his hot dogs while dressed as doctors, overcoming public fears about low-quality ingredients. While his all-beef dogs were not made with kosher meat, he called them “kosher-style,” thus underscoring that they contained no horse meat. Gross.

The “kosher-style” moniker was another American invention. American Jewish history, in part, is the story of a secular populace that embraced Jewish culture while rejecting traditional religious practices. All-beef hotdogs with Ashkenazi-style spicing, yet made from meat that was not traditionally slaughtered or “kosher”, sum up the new Judaism of Handwerker and his contemporaries.

Furthermore, American Jewry came of age alongside the industrial food industry. The hot dog also highlights the explosive growth of the kosher supervision industry (“industrial kashrut”).

Hebrew National began producing hot dogs in 1905. Their production methods met higher standards than were required by law, leading to their famous advertising slogan, “We Answer to a Higher Authority.”

While the majority of Americans may be surprised to hear this, Hebrew National’s self-supervised kosher-ness was not actually accepted by more stringent Orthodox and even Conservative Jews at the time. But non-Jews, believing kosher dogs were inherently better, became the company’s primary market. Eventually, Hebrew National received the more established Triangle-K kashrut supervision, convincing the Conservative Movement to accept their products. Most Orthodox Jews, however, still don’t accept these hot dogs as kosher.

But over the last quarter of the 20th century in America, the Orthodox community has gained prominence and their opinions, and food preferences, hold more weight in the food industry.

The community’s stricter kashrut demands and sizable purchasing power created a viable market, and glatt kosher hot dogs hit the scene. Abeles & Heymann, in business since 1954, was purchased in 1997 by current owner Seth Leavitt. Meeting the demands of the Orthodox community’s increasingly sophisticated palate, their hot dogs are gluten-free with no filler. Recently, they’ve begun producing a line of uncured sausages, and the first glatt hot dogs using collagen casing.

Glatt kosher dogs can now be purchased in nearly thirty different sports arenas and stadiums. American Jews have successfully integrated into their society more than any other in history. So too, the hot dog has transcended its humble New York Jewish immigrant roots to enter the pantheon of true American icons. So when you bite into your hot dog this summer, you are really getting a bite of American Jewish history, and the great American Jewish food.

[girlactionfigure]

Back in the 50s, Danny Thomas was a major TV star who had a successful comedy series on national television (CBS) called ‘Make Room for Daddy’ (Later changed to ‘The Danny Thomas Show’). The son of Maronite immigrants from Lebanon, read that a young medical student, the son of Chassidic immigrants from Ukraine, was struggling to pay his tuition, and donated the shortfall. As a result, countless lives were saved and made better by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, who passed away exactly one year ago.

Rabbi Twerski described the story in an interview with the Pittsburgh Quarterly on November 19, 2007:

“By that time, I had several children, so my dad and some members of the congregation helped me to pay for school. I applied for a scholarship through a foundation, but it didn’t come through, so in my third year, I fell two trimesters behind on tuition.

One day, I called my wife at lunch as always, and she asked, “What would you do if you had $4,000?” I said, “I’m too busy to talk about fantasies.” She said, “But you really do have $4,000!” I said, “From where?” She said, “From Danny Thomas.” “Who’s Danny Thomas?” She said, “The TV star.”

Then she read me an article from The Chicago Sun. Local officials had told Mr. Thomas about a young rabbi who was struggling to get through medical school. Thomas asked, “How much does your rabbi need?” They said, “Four thousand dollars.” He said, “Tell your rabbi he’s got it.”

Rabbi Twerski was a scholar with feet planted firmly in two worlds — the rabbinic world of Torah and Talmud study, and a medical doctor and licensed psychiatrist. It was a rare pairing that earned him respect in both the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish world and wider American society. He was an expert on addiction and scion of a long line of prominent rabbis descended from the 18th-century founder of Hassidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov.

Rabbi Twerski was a prolific writer. He authored dozens of books on a wide array of subjects: from addiction and mental health to religious law for medical professionals and commentaries on Jewish texts. Twerski also collaborated with late “Peanuts” comic strip creator Charles Schulz on a series of popular self-help books featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

May their memories be for a blessing.

Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

[ravenkings]

i'm sorry but literally WHAT educated person thinks this???????????

as if people don't talk about the hindutva and ultra orthodox judaism????

[bijoumikhawal]

I mentioned this in the tags of a post the other day, but since NK is high profile and getting a lot of videos shared, and I saw someone today decry a short speech one of their rabbis gave as "extremist", I guess I'll make a post too

Neturei Karta is a Litvish Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi antizionist group. In my experience, they are the most high profile antizionist group that ties that stance to their religious practice within Judaism, but they are not the only group (the Satmar are also generally antizionist, and they're a larger group, but they don't like NK).

As I mentioned yesterday, there was an incident with Iran- one of two, actually, but this one gets brought up more- where NK sent speakers to a conference specifically for the purposes of defending the existence of the Holocaust, as several Holocaust deniers were in attendance. The speaker specifically chosen had his grandparents die in the Holocaust. However, he also was blunt in stating his opinion that Zionists used the Holocaust to oppress others, Zionists had been collaborators and thwarted efforts to save Jewish lives. This prompted the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi to call for their excommunication, essentially, and for the Satmar and broader Haredi movement to tell people to stay away from them. These remarks are complicated; many incidents one could classify as collaboration were Zionists trying to move Jews out of Europe, to save lives. However, when the speaker said the third statement, I'm fairly certain he was genuinely expressing his own intergenerational trauma. Early Zionists did indeed, have a fair amount of animosity towards Orthodox Jews. At one point Theodore Herzl (a founder of the modern Zionist movement) did express the opinion that Jews should convert en masse to Christianity, and the feeling was that the Orthodox who refused should be left to their fate. This accusation is a response to a very real tension among Jews that existed at the time. And the collaborationism was not always about saving lives; the Lehi gang, which committed the Deir Yassin massacre, sought out an alliance with the Nazis on several occasions, and expressed a desire for a totalitarian nationalist state.

Another incident was one where NK met with heads of state in early 2006, particularly Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after criticizing other Jews for referring to remarks he made as antisemitic, and did an interview with Iranian press where they stated the Holocaust was used as a political tool by Zionists, that Zionism is "not Jewish, but political", and that not all Jews are Zionists. They also clearly stated that when they say they are not Zionists, they do not mean withdrawal to 67 borders, but a full dissolution of state, where Jews still can live with Palestinians. Later on in 2006, Ahmadinejad made comments about the reality of the Holocaust that prompted Haroun Yashayaei, one of the most prominent members of the Iranian Jewish community, to publicly speak put against him (and no, he didn't get arrested over that. He actually is also a movie producer and got an award in 2008).

It should be noted that in West Asia and North Africa, Iran is one of only a few countries that still has a significant Jewish population. The others are Turkey (14,500), Azerbaijan (7,200), Morocco (2,100), and Tunisia (1,000). For those unaware, this is significant because during the 1920s and 30s, many colonial governments stripped WANA Jews of citizenship, and in the 40s-60s, many post colonial WANA countries forcibly expelled local Jews. As a result, the centuries long presence of Jews in countries such as Egypt or Syria is down a hundred or fewer individuals in many cases. Ideologically, I do not support Iran's government because it's a theocratic state that treats Kurds like shit, but all of NK's interactions with Iran must be contextualized in light of this. This is not me using WANA Jews as a rhetorical device either: my paternal country, Egypt, which I wish I could so much as visit, is such a country. The 2016 Iranian census puts the country's Jewish population at 9,826. That's a number that I would weep to see reported in Egypt, and the second highest of any West Asia or North African country.

Personally while I hold no serious ideological disagreement with NK over antizionism, I do not wholly support them for other reasons (gender/sexuality politics reasons primarily). I bring up these incidents with Iran because in the past I've seen people claim they are Holocaust deniers, or that they think Jewish people brought the Holocaust on themselves. I have never seen a NK member say ANYTHING of that sort, and the idea that Jews bring antisemitism in any form on themselves is in fact an actual belief Herzl held. The closest I've heard is when NK distributed leaflets after a Chabad was attacked in Mumbai where they criticized Chabad for being in bed with Zionists. I'll be linking some articles in the replies of this post about this, including the text of the actual speech given at the Tehran conference so it can be read in full.

[spacelazarwolf]

If Judaism is trans-friendly why is there so much stress on differences between men and women, esp in orthodox sects? /gen q

i’m gonna be honest i really don’t see how this could be a genuine question bc the way it’s framed reads to be like “you claim judaism is trans friendly, and yet the gender binary still exists within it???????????????” also please for the love of fuck stop using orthodox sects as a gotcha. i am sick of hearing how “judaism is homophobic/transphobic/misogynistic bc *cited ultra orthodox group that the vast majority of the jewish community, sometimes literally even other orthodox jews, disagree with*”

[secular-jew]

So you admit that even when a holy book instructs or excuses horrific acts to other people that doesn’t make the religion itself or its followers inherently evil?

Because for every fucked up thing in Muslim holy books I’m sure I can find something similar in other holy books or stories, just because one religion “doesn’t do it anymore” doesn’t mean the religion is inherently one of peace.

If your problem is solely with people’s actions then direct your ire towards those actions

But if you hate the beliefs behind these actions, then be consistent and hate ALL similar beliefs

There are people trying to fulfill a cow based prophecy in Israel right now so it’s not like wacko’s don’t exist in Judaism to.

There is a difference. Muslim caliphs, mullahs, and sheiks are constantly preaching the Quran to their flocks every week, and they are repeating the calls to Jihad, the destruction of an Israel, attacks on Jews and other Kafirs. And so, there are 5 murderous attacks, per day, documented, by those shouting Allahu Akbar, our Islamic God is Great, we are killing the unbelievers in Allah's name." 5 per day, 2,000 per year since these attacks have been documented starting in 2001, post 9-11, an Allahu Akbar event I witnessed personally, and lost 2 female colleagues who were killed in barbaric manner while doing their day jobs in the World Trade Center. Some of these 46.262 Allahu Akbar attacks have resulted in 1-5 deaths, some 200, and some 3,000.

This is not happening in Christianity or in Judaism, nor in Buddhism or Taoism.

Maybe you can tell me, how many Jews have blown up airplanes or flown them into civilian buildings? How many Buddhists have killed 200 people dancing at a beach bar? How many upset or ultra-orthodox Protestants kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian or Yazidi girls, and used them as personal sex slaves? How many Zoroastrians have blown up buses and pizzerias? Sure, Jews have wackos - every religion does.

I used to think that all religions were peaceful save for a few extremists, up until 9-11, after which I did an intense amount of research into the history of Islam and of Jihad (both are intensely and deliberately intertwined). Also, it turns out, Mohammad was no Moses and no Jesus. He's not like other actual prophets.

What I learned is that the effed up Islamic trilogy (Quran, Hadiths, Sirah) is very dangerous, is militaristic and political, and ~60% of the texts instruct Muslims, specifically, how to treat others (non-Muslims, Kafirs, unbelievers) as 2nd class citizens at best, and corpses at worst. This is a major and defining difference. I won't get into all the nuances bc it would take an entire book.

[adhdnojutsu]

Uchihas are Jew-coded

Preface: I'm Jewish. As with all marginalized minorities, outsiders are welcome to listen, ask questions etc. but not talk over or goysplain us. This applies especially to challenging our indigeneity. Which is not in "Gobacktoeurope"...

Obito

I first started headcanoning this after seeing Obito's Kamui dimension. His panic room looks a lot like the Holocaust memorial in Berlin.

He also said this to Rin:

Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a): “Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.'

Tikkun Olam: if I ruled the world...

Jews have a collective imperative of Tikkun Olam, aka fixing the world. Obito's and Madara's drive to do so means little on the face since many anime villains have this goal, but given the previous things mentioned, this looks like part of a pattern. Itachi and Sasuke, too, wanted to shoulder the weight of the world to make it a better place. Even if it meant the whole world hating you - like the whole world has hated and still hates Jews.

Let's delve deeper into that hatred, shall we? The anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that we secretly run the world is directly tied to our imperative to fix it. You can't fix anything without power and influence. In fact, the whole notion of Tikkun Olam being our job, may strike Gentiles as conceited and inspire hatred. Obito and Madara needed to "run the world" in order to "fix it" and were happy to accept that this meant being hated.

This "Jews control the world" conspiracy theory connects seamlessly to Konoha's suspicion of the clan conspiring to take over and using the Sharingan, a trait unique to the Uchiha, to control tailed beasts in order to execute such a take-over. Kotoamatsukami is the ultimate parallel to Jews secretly controlling the media, and with them, public opinion (but not in our favour?).

Just like the Sharingan, Jews have, or are accused of having, singular qualities that facilitate our rise to power. This is because Judaism is a closed (ethno)religion and opting in (converting), having interfaith families etc. is discouraged. In some ultra-Orthodox communities, this is taken quite far... Let's just say that Uchiha wives, too, take their husband's last name, but Mikoto Uchiha looks like Sasuke looks like Izuna... go figure.

Of course, in the case of Jews, this quality is not so much a gate-kept genetic trait, as a gravitation towards intellectual and influential professions passed down through generations. This is a direct result of anti-Semitic policy though: often being excluded from handicraft etc, Jews shifted the focus to administrative, financial and legal sectors. Jews are also traditionally studious, so our apparent domination of the Noble Prize is a result of this.

But no matter the cause of our success in certain areas, it would obviously have Gentiles eyeing us with suspicion. Why is a single ethnoreligious minority so prominently represented in positions of influence and acclaim? What might we be plotting? Why shouldn't we be plotting, since we ARE - allegedly - conniving, manipulative and greedy? Better get rid of us. Remember: Nazis hated Jews and were scared of arts and literature. Being Jewish and being an intellectual are, if you ask anti-Semites, shortcuts to power. You know who else hates books and Jews? Every single terrorist organization, be it Taliban, Hamas, ISIS,... Anti-intellectuals are often anti-Semites. Education is power. Jews love education. Terrorist regimes hate smart subjects. Ignorance is cheaper than bullets, after all.

Ghetto Uprising/Beware the Beginnings

The clan suspected the compound was just the beginning. Although the discrimination the Uchiha actually suffered - a compound, which all the other clans got, too, and surveillance - was not comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto or any other real world segregation, Fugaku and other clan members expected it to take a turn for the worse if ignored. And in order to prevent another Holocaust, you must recognize and fight the beginnings.

These beginnings are upon us once more. Anti-Semitism has been skyrocketing, and blaming Israel, a single, far-away country, is dishonest, considering:

Palestinians have massacred Jews decades before there even was a state of Israel; what Nakba was their excuse in 1922? What Nakba was there in Iran?

Jews are entitled to Israeli citizenship, all moving expenses paid, so why do many live in Diaspora? Could it be that they do not wish to be involved with the state of Israel? So why take it out on them, unless one already hated Jews?

The most recent rise in anti-Semitism didn't follow Israel's bombardment of Gaza, but the DAY of Hamas' mass rapes, mutilations, torture, and murder of 1000+ Jews on October 7. People who don't usually praise children, including those of "colonizers", getting slaughtered and mutilated, suddenly praised exactly that. These people have always been anti-Semitic and found an excuse to be loud about it by weaponizing Palestinian suffering, which they only care about because Jews are the culprit. Proof: Houthis are starving Muslim children in Yemen, China oppresses Uyghur Muslims, Assad gassed Muslims, America bombed Muslims for 20 years, but - crickets. Think about it.

Likewise, the Narutoverse counterpart of the Nazis or Hamas, Tobirama and his acolytes, have found many a lazy excuse, most notably the Kyuubi attack. They suspected an Uchiha, and little did they know they were right, except, just like Netanyahu and the people under his command, a single deranged Obito did not represent a critical mass of Uchihas. And yet, the clan, just as world Jewry, faced collective punishment. The Narutoverse Nazis were frothing at the mouth for an excuse for decades, and notable Uchiha individuals kept delivering, not least because their own incompetence, just like Netanyahu's, allowed things to get that far to begin with.

Isobu

Doesn't Isobu look a lot like shellfish? And isn't he why Rin killed herself? Rin was Obito's everything and she died because of this monster. Not that it was Isobu's fault, but still.

Jews aren't allowed to eat shellfish. Obito has every reason to hate shellfish for the mere memory that stuff evokes. I know it's a bit of a reach, but again, patterns.

Dress Codes

For a proud, prominent clan with a bit of a superiority complex for their gate-kept characteristics, the Uchiha sure dress very modestly, the women even more so. In fact, they might just be the least flashy of all Konoha communities. The muted colours and baggy cuts scream "modesty". If you've ever wandered an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, you'll see the women tend to wear long, plain skirts, long, tight sleeves, ultra-conservative shoes, and plain, long or covered hair.

Mikoto fits right in, but so do other Uchiha women. Izumi is a bit "daring" with her sleeveless look, but her overall style still fits. Nobody in that clan seems to have much vanity, while the general population of Konoha and the Narutoverse at large, is a lot more individualistic.

"This guy just slaughtered the whole police force, let's throw a kunai at him and see what happens" bless her little heart

Flag Infestation

Uchihas have no chill when it comes to plastering their logo everywhere in their compound. They were driven out of the general public and are doubling down on pride as a result. Same applies to Jews in the safety of our indigenous homeland (the Jewish Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem predates Islam, born in modern Saudi Arabia, by many centuries, so don't Gobacktoeurope me).

Oh, and a Nazi found an excuse to ghetto them up, assigned some of them authority to keep their own in check (Sonderkommando/"Konoha" military police), then got rid of them all and managed to sell it as a necessary evil.

[giyrut-girlie]

so when i started my degree i made a hachlata that i was gonna only wear skirts and dresses to uni bc at the time that was the judaism i wanted to live.

those following along at home know that ive been kinda deconstructing the ultra-orthodox/chassidishe influences on my judaism. i'm still pursuing orthodox conversion and still very much value some of the wisdom of chassidut in particular but have been figuring out where i stand on certain values.

with that - i'm currently at uni, waiting for my next class.

i'm wearing pants. and i still love judaism. i still love orthodoxy.

i don't 100% know how i feel yet about the whole thing, but i think the answer is good?

i think this was a very tangible step in acknowledging that the way i live judaism wont match up to people's expectations of orthodoxy, but that the most important thing in my relationship to hashem and being an active participant in yiddishkeit rather than accepting the minhagim of my rabbi just bc that's all i know.

anyway i love you jumblr and i love getting to share in this with you all

[girlactionfigure]

🟦PURIM DAY - Real time from Israel  

🅸🆂🆁🅰️🅴🅻 🅁🄴🄰🄻🅃🄸🄼🄴 - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

✡️It’s PURIM - Purim commemorates the (Divinely orchestrated) salvation of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian empire from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day.”

“And the Jews had light and joy and gladness and wealth.” - Megillah Esther

Purim Samayach - a Happy Purim!🧑‍🎤🦸🍷🍻🥂

ONLY GOOD(ish) NEWS in today’s report!

( PHOTO - Purim Megillah reading while on alert at Rafah beach, south Gaza. )

▪️PRIME MINISTER attended a Megillah reading last night at the national police academy.  He commented: "2,500 years later, a tyrant arose for the Jewish people in that same land. And heroes like you arose - and with cunning, heroism, and courage, we turned the tables, and we are breaking the axis of Persia (Iran).”

▪️A DELEGATION OF SYRIAN DRUZE CLERICS from the Druze community entered Israel this morning for a historic and special visit to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Lower Galilee.

▪️US THREATENS IRAN (Persia!) - Report: The letter President Trump delivered to Iran's Supreme Leader contains an unequivocal threat: You could face massive military action if you do not agree to negotiate to reach a new nuclear agreement. 

▪️ISRAELI GOVT TO ADOPT TESLA’s?  Govt studying the bid by Tesla for the next generation of government vehicles.

▪️PURIM JOKE BY HAMAS?  Hamas spokesman: Hamas insists that Israel fulfill its obligations to withdraw from Gaza and begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi Egypt-Gaza border corridor, to allow Hamas to rearm.  

There are new proposals that aim to "override the agreement."  We adhere to what has already been agreed upon in the past (no such agreement).

▪️PURIM JOKE BY IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER?  (Which he published in Hebrew on X) "Against the enemy's expectations,  the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance are only getting stronger and are filled with determination. Hezbollah operates with more force than ever and the Palestinian resistance is capable of forcing its terms on the other side in negotiations."  

( The question is: does he believe his own propaganda?  We think t yes - getting false feedback and amplifying. )

▪️HAREDI JOB TRAINING FUNDING - Additional budget items arrived at the Finance Committee today, including a coalition addition from Shas and United Torah Judaism (haredi parties) encouraging employment. The money to go to a scholarship that is associated with engineering institutions, the majority of which are ultra-Orthodox, and whose criteria for receiving that scholarship helps families with many children and low incomes.

▪️NATIONAL BUDGET - Behind the scenes, quiet agreements were reached that will ensure the budget's approval, despite the threats and drama. Netanyahu will ultimately choose which path to take: He can split the Haredim (United Torah Judaism party), as he has done in the past, or try to make some representatives of Otzma Yehudit simply abstain or not attend the vote (to reduce the positive votes necessary).

🌎WORLD NEWS OF NOTE.. Columbia University expels students who took over the Hamilton Building in pro-Palestinian protests (a week after the Trump administration halted $400 million in federal funding.)

.. A new documentary in the US on Oct 8 about the funding connection between Hamas and the riots at a US university.

✡️PURIM today runs into Shabbat - Parshat (Torah Portion) Ki Tisa - Exodus 30:11 - The people of Israel are told to each contribute exactly half a shekel of silver to the Sanctuary. Instructions are also given regarding the making of the Sanctuary’s water basin, anointing oil and incense. “Wise-hearted” artisans Betzalel and Aholiav are placed in charge of the Sanctuary’s construction, and the people are once again commanded to keep the Shabbat.

When Moses does not return when expected from Mount Sinai, the people make a golden calf and worship it. G‑d proposes to destroy the errant nation, but Moses intercedes on their behalf.

[queenwille]

is it finally time to reveal that one of the main reasons hamas took the chance on october 7th was a political crisis in israel?

i’ll try to make it short for my ADHD sibs in the crowd:

israel had a really tough political crisis between 2019 to 2022, where no elected leader was able to gather a government (men) under the israeli democratic requirements, so it led to 5 elections in 4 years 🫨

when finally netanyahu managed to build a coalition by selling his dignity and the israeli soul to religious extremists (as he always does since he only cares about being on top, no matter what) the very large secular and left public in israel were having non of that.

forward a few months, the extremist criminal members of the coalition tried to pass an absence law that takes the grand jury’s power to overrule the government if needed, which fired up protests and manifests literally EVERYWHERE. public facilities closed down as an act of rebellion, roads were blocked and much more. Galant, the minister of defense, said publicly that the gov really needs to freeze the passing of that law due to valid concerns about the country and its citizens’ safety. due to that comment, netanyahu publicly announced that he’d be firing galant for going against the government’s current agenda. oh boy, the night that happened, all hell broke loose. people literally shot the country down until the late late hours of the night. the lack of freedom of speech was a serious deal breaker (reminder: they have been protesting HARD for W E E K S). many were on reserved duty (it’s when they complete their mandatory service, but come every once in a while for a few days of duty like training or backup and in case of a war, they need to report back to duty when they’re up to date and well trained) said they wouldn’t come to their scheduled duty days under a government that is extremist, not equal (ultra orthodox don’t have to serve as the rest) and doesn’t allow freedom of speech. it was a whole thing, netanyahu changed his tune real fast. you need to understand that for israelis to rebel against their duty is extreme af. military service in israel is mandatory and a valuable part of the soldiers’ culture and identity, it’s not a just job they chose like in many countries.

BACK TO THE AGENDA. hamas documents and recordings revel that they were very much aware of the ongoing civil (and military) crisis and mentioned it as a perfect opportunity to hurt israel.

many of you think that when we identify with the word zionist, it means we agree with everything. the main thing y’all cancel when you call israelis white colonialists, it’s first the rich and diverse population it has. are all christians alike? do all muslims think the same? why is it that when it comes to the jewish people, everyone is so quick to assume we’re all clones? judaism itself has a few ethnicities which is very much a topic on the israeli agenda since like forever. and then you have, as any other religion, religious people and then secular and then people who are in between. that’s all before you mention the 2.5m non jews living in israel.

TL;DR no, not only not all israelis support netanyahu, but you’d actually be surprised how many oppose to his egocentric regime. take the time and ask, don’t just take the easy way out of goysplaining.

[gayleviticus]

any given social media post about how progressive [liberal american] Judaism is vs [conservative evangelical] christianity you could basically completely swap the two religions if your only exposure to either had been, say, ultra orthodox Judaism and Episcopalians

and in fairness, evangelicals and liberal Jews both make up a larger and more obvious proportion of religionists that outsiders will be exposed to (altho obviously ultra orthodox are specifically going to value not getting that involved w outsiders). but I guess the point is more that there's nothing intrinsically virtuous about Judaism over Christianity, but what you're really comparing is progressive vs conservative religion.

the question of which religion better cultivates a progressive vs conservative take then becomes a quite reasonable one, altho it's quite complex when we consider stuff like the religious right co opting christianity, 'Jew' being a religious and cultural identity etc vs Christian being one people will shed the minute they get sick of conservative BS, etc

[hyperpotamianarch]

Weird question, but I'm a little lost right now lol. My mom always told me her mom was raised Jewish and my mom's grandma was born Jewish. She's not at all religious and raised me atheist. I've done my best to keep kosher, study Torah, learn Hebrew, attend services or go to shul, perform mitzvot, etc in the past decade or so, and definitely thought of myself as a ba'al teshuvah.

Lately, I decided to get on a genealogy website and look into my actual ancestors. I found US census records, military draft cards, hospital death certificates, marriage licenses - extremely trustworthy, verifiable sources - going back to at least 1880 in a very clear trail. My grandma's extremely Polish maiden name came from her Polish Catholic father. Grandma's grandmother and grandfather came over from Bulgaria in the 1880s and were married in a church.

While it's cool to see my great great great grandparents' actual handwriting and know where they lived, I was completely wrong about everything I thought I knew about my family history and I feel like a complete berk. I genuinely thought I was Jewish. I wasn't trying to lie to people or misrepresent Judaism to curious gentiles or worm my way into Jewish spaces in order to proselytize. I still definitely want to continue my study and officially convert, and I'm trying to work up the courage to lay it all out in front of the local rabbi and ask what he thinks I should do. I've only gone to two Yom Kippur services and a few study sessions over Zoom, so I don't really know him or the congregation well.

I don't want to come off sounding like I intentionally lied to him or that I'm trying to get special treatment or skip steps during the conversion process. This is a genuinely jarring realization that's changed the way I think about myself and my faith. Do you have any advice for me going forward, or do you know someone who might?

To be honest, I'm... Probably not the best person to turn to on this topic. However, I can try and help.

You didn't lie to anyone, and this kind of things can happen. You can probably said you were told by your family you were Jewish but upon investigation you found out your great grandparents married in a church. Now, technically that doesn't directly point to the idea that your grandmother wasn't Jewish - she could've been a Jewish woman attempting to assimilate with general society, or have converted to Christianity (which according to Orthodox Judaism at least doesn't change her descendants' claim to Judaism.

Honestly, at this point... I think it's more a matter of having courage to talk to the Rabbi about it than it is about things of the religion. And yeah, gathering courage to talk to an authority figure you barely know is going to be hard.

I don't know if it'll be helpful, and I hope this won't hurt you, but I know a joke about people in a similar situation don't take it as me laughing at you for being where you are, but maybe it can help add levity to your eventual conversation with your congregation's rabbi. Anyway, here goes:

Three Jewish brothers found out that their mother wasn't Jewish. One was a Hareidi, Ultra Orthodox; another was more Neo-Orthodox, but tended to go with strict Halacha; and the third tended to go with more lenient Halacha. When they found out they are Goyim, the latter immediately went to eat pork before he converted - since, as he got some time to be Goy, he could at least enjoy it. The second, on the othr hand, went to eat meat from a cow that had a hole in her lungs, as up to today he went according to the Halacha that it is forbidden. The first said: "oh, now I can drink Coca Cola!"

(Hareidim tend to only trust very specific Kashrut brands. Maybe there could be a version with Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, but I never heard one.)

If you still feel trepidation... you can, perhaps, turn to others on Tumblr that are better suited to that than I. I'm an Israeli Jew and I assume you are American, so there might be cultural differences. I suggest you try be open with your Rabbi, personally, but I might be missing something cultural that is different outside of Israel.

I wish you good luck in talking to your Rabbi and your conversion process!