//icb i have to make a psa but if you’re not jewish and you’re seeing posts about yom hashoah, holocaust remembrance day, and you start to froth about ‘but not only jews died–’. stop. nobody is saying only jews were targeted. there’s a separate day–international holocaust remembrance day–for *all* victims of the shoah. today, however, is specifically for jews to process our grief, trauma, history. so maybe let us do that.

nonjews feel free to reblog.

This is your casual reminder to stay inside this Pesach. Save lives by staying on your couch and watching cat videos.

unpopular opinion but goyim literally is not a bad term and if your response to jewish people saying it is “if you’ll call me that i’ll just call you a jew!” shows that

1. you’re antisemitic, obviously, if your response is to call us a historically dehumanizing term just bc you’re upset

2. you can’t stand being the “other” category for five seconds when we have been our whole lives

3. you’ll only tolerate being the “other” when it’s in pretty words you like such as “non-jewish” or “gentile”

they mean the same thing! jewish people aren’t doing anything wrong by using one over the other, leave us alone lmao

i think the worst thing to come out of this site are the ‘NAZIS ARE TERRIBLE. they WILL KILL ALL JEWS in COLD BLOOD, LET THEIR FAMILIES DIE IN FRONT OF THEM, and start the HOLOCAUST 2.0!! also reblog to make a jew feel safe.’ formatted type posts

ways to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:

-let them celebrate their holidays openly around you and encourage them to express themselves religiously. if they invite you over for a holiday, go!! they’re making an effort to let you learn more about them.

-consider any different diets they might be on (ex. kosher or even if it’s passover) when you have them over at your house. a little goes a long way with this one

-if christmas is around חנוכה that year, feel free to send them a חנוכה card!! it’s not really as big of a holiday for us but we do appreciate the effort put into making us feel included :)

-educate any of your friends that might make antisemitic jokes. even ‘grammar nazi’ jokes. standing up for jewish people goes further than when theyre just around. antisemitism isnt something that only exists when a jew is in the room.

-understand that, if they practice judaism, their beliefs arent like yours, and that that’s ok! a lot of people forget that not everyone is either a christian or an atheist whenever the topic of religion comes up. (but also remember not every jew practices or believes in judaism!!)

-if they tell you to warn them before you talk about nazis, do it. It’s really easy just to give someone a heads up before you talk about people who want them dead, especially if they’re openly jewish or a holocaust survivor descendent.

ways NOT to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:

“NAZIS are EVIL. they will KILL ALL THE JEWS. that’s just BAD. they will MURDER EVERY SINGLE JEWISH FAMILY. NO JEW IS SAFE. anyway reblog to make a jewish person feel safe and loved 🤗”

also if you can goyim reblog. and if you’re jewish and want to add on feel free!

i think the worst thing to come out of this site are the ‘NAZIS ARE TERRIBLE. they WILL KILL ALL JEWS in COLD BLOOD, LET THEIR FAMILIES DIE IN FRONT OF THEM, and start the HOLOCAUST 2.0!! also reblog to make a jew feel safe.’ formatted type posts

ways to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:

-let them celebrate their holidays openly around you and encourage them to express themselves religiously. if they invite you over for a holiday, go!! they’re making an effort to let you learn more about them.

-consider any different diets they might be on (ex. kosher or even if it’s passover) when you have them over at your house. a little goes a long way with this one

-if christmas is around חנוכה that year, feel free to send them a חנוכה card!! it’s not really as big of a holiday for us but we do appreciate the effort put into making us feel included :)

-educate any of your friends that might make antisemitic jokes. even ‘grammar nazi’ jokes. standing up for jewish people goes further than when theyre just around. antisemitism isnt something that only exists when a jew is in the room.

-understand that, if they practice judaism, their beliefs arent like yours, and that that’s ok! a lot of people forget that not everyone is either a christian or an atheist whenever the topic of religion comes up. (but also remember not every jew practices or believes in judaism!!)

-if they tell you to warn them before you talk about nazis, do it. It’s really easy just to give someone a heads up before you talk about people who want them dead, especially if they’re openly jewish or a holocaust survivor descendent.

ways NOT to make a jew feel safe and comfortable:

“NAZIS are EVIL. they will KILL ALL THE JEWS. that’s just BAD. they will MURDER EVERY SINGLE JEWISH FAMILY. NO JEW IS SAFE. anyway reblog to make a jewish person feel safe and loved 🤗”

also if you can goyim reblog. and if you’re jewish and want to add on feel free!

— Joy Ladin

What do Reform Jews belleve about Homosexuality?

The Reform Movement understand that every human being is born with a specific sexual and romantic identity– some straight, some bisexual, some gay etc. They do not believe that one’s sexual or romantic identity makes them sinful or that it is a challenge– but is just another beautiful aspect of them as a human being. Reform Jews believe that every human being is created in the Divine Image (Gen 1:26), and thus that everyone should treat each other with love and respect in the way in which only God should be treated.

Rabbi Akiva went as far to say that we should bless humankind because we are God-like. (Pirkei Avot 3:14). Although several texts point to same-sex acts as taboo, Progressive Jewry understand that these texts were written a long time ago for a very specific reason– and that reason is not to marginalize any specific group. Nor would any loving God support the marginalization of God’s children.

As Jews, we are commanded time and time again to lead of life of justice one filled with acts of G'milut Hasadim (acts of loving kindness) and Tikkun Olam (the fixing of the world) through helping those who are oppressed as “we were slaves in the land of Egypt and God redeemed us” (Deut 15:15) Every time we sleep in a Sukkah, recite the Mi Chamocha, or celebrate our redemption during Pesach, we are reminded of the importance of freedom and our job as Jews to help others who are oppressed.

Reform Jews support full marriage equality for same sex couples and full inclusion into the Jewish world and secular communities as well as fighting to help transgender people and help stop hate crimes against all marginalized people. Check out this page for more information from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism! http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issuegl/

Antisemites are quick to spread the idea that Jews are incredibly wealthy people who have a great deal of social capital and wield a lot of control, and it’s darkly humorous to me at this point.

Being Jewish, for quite a lot of Jewish history, meant that you would live in poverty and oppression. You might get lucky and take a job that paid well but the gentiles wouldn’t take, circumstance might just be on your side, but for the most part, your opportunities would be severely limited.

Even today, Jewish poverty is a very real problem. In New York City alone, over 500,000 Jews live near or below the poverty line. Many of these Jews are Shoah/Holocaust survivors, and quite a few are fairly recent immigrants, frequently from Russia or the former Soviet Union. Poverty is also common within the Hasidic community. [x]

“Jewish” and “living in poverty” are not and have never been oxymorons. The truth is that Jews are not endowed with some sort of psychic force that draws material wealth to them, and in many cases, Jews are more likely to be poor than the general populace.

The whole Jews and the bank connection is from a time when people religiously followed the Bible (pun intended), almost to the letter. A successful bank is, in point of fact, a business, and practising Christians, a huge majority of the population, would not have been able to successfully run a bank because the Bible forbids charging usury. Usury is now defined as “the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest” (Google definitions). Some early (14th century) influential European banking families were the Bardi and Peruzzi families, and a little later the Medici family. During that time, circa 1300, the word usury meant “the practice of lending money at interest” (etymonline.com, an online etymology dictionary) and only later came to mean excessive interest. Banks can’t really run without charging interest, because, in general, banks pay you a little for letting them hold your money for you so that you want to let them hold your money, and there’s a little more to it, but banks aren’t mints, and don’t fabricate money, so they get that money by charging interest on the money that people borrow from them (that’s usury). And that is illegal according to the Bible, henceforth, if you run a bank and charge usury, you are a sinner, not a real Christian blah blah blah oh look, Jews don’t have a rule against that! It must be them!

a quick guide to whether you're being antisemitic or just anti-Israel

not antisemitic: criticizing Israel’s policies and goals

antisemitic: holding Israel to higher standards than you do majority-gentile countries (aka the rest of the world) or hating Israel just because it’s a majority-Jewish country

Alternative Fasts & Alternatives to Fasting

Yom Kippur is only a few days away, and many of us who observe are anticipating the most significant fast day of the year- for many of us, the only day of the year we fast, and/or the day we feel the most obligation to do so. For a lot of us, myself included, fasting presents a great physical and emotional challenge: and it’s meant to; otherwise, why should we fast? However, for some, these challenges are too extreme, and can have effects, whether psychological or physical, lasting beyond the twenty-four hours of hunger during the holiday itself.

You may or may not be familiar with the concept of piquah nefesh: the injunction that prioritizes human life above the fulfilment of any mitzvah. Strict interpretations of this concept include, for example, working on shabbat (ie, using the phone to call 911). I prefer to interpret it more broadly, especially in the case of individuals struggling with disordered eating, or illnesses like diabetes. I personally have lived with an eating disorder for most of my life, and going without food for 24 hours, only to eat a huge meal at the end of the holiday, is a miserable and triggering experience. Every year, I either struggle to fast, and “succeed” in not eating, but I cannot pray or have a spiritual, meaningful Yom Kippur while doing so; or I break my fast early and end up disappointed in myself. Either way, this is not the optimal experience for such an important day.

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided that this year I will experiment with a deliberate, mindful, modified fast. I plan to eat two or three small meals of steamed brown rice, and I will drink water. As well, being dependent on caffeine, I’ll forgo sweetened coffee with cream and drink plain black tea instead. Eating will allow me enough fuel to (I hope) have a genuinely meaningful Yom Kippur, while this being plain, simple food will remind me of the fact that I am fasting (even if it’s “fasting”).

Below are some resources I’ve found helpful on this subject. (Please bear in mind that many are not written with ED sufferers in mind, and may contain triggering material.)

Any thoughts? I welcome input.

If you think antisemitism doesn’t matter because of how small the total world population of Jews is, consider that antisemitism is the reason that the modern Jewish population is so small in the first place.

When I try to speak about antisemitism, all too often the response I get it “but X group has it worse!” Instead of listening to what I have to say about very real antisemitism that I have witnessed or experienced, people try to silence me by telling me that another group experiences more-injust injustices than Jewish people.

Whether another group has it worse than Jews is not relevant in discussions of antisemitism. Even if it is true (and please, research the facts before running your mouth), the fact that other groups are persecuted has nothing to do with the suffering, oppression, and murder of the Jewish people. Silencing Jews who talk about antisemitism does nothing to help anybody, much less he other groups you are supposedly trying to champion.

I might be done saying Hebrew Bible

Learn to pronounce Tanakh

It is not difficult

Jewish people have the right to live Jewish lives free from oppression and persecution.

Casting off our culture or religion will not save us from antisemites. It will not solve antisemitism. It will not solve anything. It will only remove from us our cultural and religious heritage and force us to take on aspects of those who have persecuted us, but as even the most assimilated Jews have been subject to antisemitism, even then we would be subject to antisemitism.

Our culture is ours. Our lives are ours. We should not have to debase ourselves or remove each last vestige of Jewishness and Judaism from our lives to receive humane treatment and human dignity.