@dammmithardison / dammmithardison.tumblr.com
has anyone made this yet????
[ID: An edit of the “I have done nothing wrong” meme so that the woman on top is labeled “Jews on Yom Kippur” and the man on the bottom is labeled “Hashem.” The woman’s text is edited to read “I have done wrong in my life” while the man’s text says “I know this, and I love you.” End ID]
What’s a stereotypical food from ur culture that u absolutely love.
the kenobi show has given me so much Jedi content and I’m so glad, but also as someone who’s Jewish, it’s made me Incredibly Aware of exactly how many people in the fandom would fall for Nazi rhetoric - like when I see people saying “the Holocaust was bad” but then going “the Jedi deserved their fall” in the next breath, it doesn’t give me a lot of hope that people actually know why the Holocaust was bad, or that they’d be able to see through the propaganda if it occurred today
Absolutely, completely, and totally. The inability of many fans to correctly parse a narrative, to evaluate the credibility of information based on the person delivering it, and instead believing obvious, malicious propaganda because it satisfies their vicarious craving for power, listening and trusting the people wearing literal black cloaks and surrounded by stormtroopers, it is all depressing at best and deeply concerning at worst.
We share a fandom with people who argue with their whole chest that fascism is better than democracy, and that genocide was not only deserved, but also a net benefit for society at large, either ignoring or accepting without problem the blatant, shouted, real world antisemitic parallels. I don’t know if they are projecting their religious trauma from Christian institutions onto the Jedi, and so don’t see the antisemitism of reveling in their genocide, but that’s my most charitable explanation.
It’s so frustrating how they happily share and support Sidious’s version of reality, the view that was put into Anakin’s mouth on Mustafar to show how far he had fallen into evil, not to frame him as being right. They aren’t guided by compassion for innocent people, or maybe even aware of the history of very real atrocities, but it’s no excuse when it’s a sign of being incurious about the experience of others unlike yourself, and unconcerned with their suffering.
Watching Episode 5 and hearing Reva’s story about hiding among the bodies, my first thought when I was watching was about the 33,771 Jews killed at Babi Yar, and the survivor narratives, which included hiding among the dead. I think everyone needs to know about the very real, historical analogies to the things depicted on screen and understand why it is so important for us to agree about who are right and wrong about genocide, even in a fictional form.
I am not Jewish, but it matters to me a great deal to protect Jewish lives and to make sure it never happens again, both specifically to Jewish people and to other vulnerable minorities as well. Our stories should inspire us to be vigilant about the creep of fascism, not inspire us to argue in defense of fascists and enjoy their violence. Yes, it is just Star Wars, yet it is also much more than that. The stakes of all of this are actually indescribably high.
I genuinely do not understand how fans have watched the same media with takeaways that so prolifically ignore the parallels before them. How do you look at [people in religious group are murdered,persecuted,hunted down,and tortured all while propaganda sells the narrative you are inherently evil because of who/what you are] and think,yes I will side with the fascists wearing leftover Nazi uniforms from World War II films who are helping hunt down children. We are shown scenes of the Jedi hiding in tunnels and secret rooms and carving messages into the walls while resistance fighters smuggle them to safety and provide fake identities and clothing. We are shown young Jedi forced to turn against their own from capture and torture and fear. We are shown Jedi’s bodies kept immortalized like trophies by their captors. We are shown their culture and traditions to be stigmatized and outlawed for representing who they are.
It should also be noted that Lawrence Kasdan,the screenwriter for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens,is Jewish. The Jewish cast list for the films is extensive, so extensive that Mark Hamill was one of the few gentiles in a leading role for the original trilogy. George Lucas is quoted from an interview to have said, “I love history, so while the psychological basis of ‘Star Wars’ is mythological, the political and social bases are historical.” Lucas has never been shy that he drew from many cultures and war narratives, the comparisons between the Third Reich and the western colonial response to Vietnam are not just documented, but extremely overt.
I remember reading this several years ago and it stuck with me. “It is a period of civil war. A new government has declared the practice of the old faith a crime punishable by death, disbanding an ancient order of sages and sending many into exile. Rebel fighters, striking from a hidden base, have won their first major victory against the evil Empire, stirring a spirit of defiance among the populace. Outarmed and vastly outnumbered, the ragtag band of rebels – aided by an all-powerful, all-permeating Force that binds together all life in the universe – remain the only hope for restoring peace and freedom to their people.
It's one of the greatest epics known to mankind. No, not Star Wars. The above synopsis is actually the story of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates a miraculous victory of Israelite insurgents against the tyrannical Seleucid Empire roughly 2,200 years ago.”
Yes we love Star Wars for fun and escapism and l’ll be one of the first in line to make jokes and be playful and silly about the content. But I beg of people to be mindful and critical too of the historical foundations in which we base our stories. Yes they are fantastical space operas,but they are also narratives and commentaries on war and oppression and hate. Human story telling does not exist within a vacuum and to approach something overt from such a staunchly western and Christian lens is a disservice to the very universe you profess to love. There’s a clear difference between having fun and liking the Empire & Sith for cool villain aesthetics and play,and staunchly and hatefully sticking to the narrative that the Jedi deserved being butchered in a Holocaust, just remember that.
Adding my voice to this as a person of Jewish heritage— the thematic connection is abundantly clear in the way the Jedi were systematically scapegoated in a time of conflict and economic hardship in the galaxy. They are disenfranchised by the corrupt ruling apparatus, yet they are also made the visible face of it and set up to take the fall for its failings.
These parallels run back hundreds of years to the pogroms that resulted from Jews being held in an untenable position between the upper and lower classes. Many became moneylenders or tax collectors due to being legally restricted from other trades, effectively making them a buffer for peasant outrage in times of famine or plague. They were perpetual outsiders, their "privilege" was precarious and able to be revoked at any time.
So when people take the Imperial propaganda seriously and say that the Jedi were out of touch, that they didn't help people, that they were corrupt with power... that's what it reminds me of. The Jedi couldn't even save their own culture from destruction and yet somehow they deserved it because they weren't able to save the entire galaxy. The Jedi legally operate under the authority of the Senate and yet somehow it is solely their fault that slavery still exists. They are attributed more influence than they had as a justification for mass murder, including the murder of literal children.
This isn't even to mention the whole "the Jedi stole babies" critique which isn't even something the Jedi are accused of in canon afaik. Fans came up with that one on their own! I really do not love how comfy a large portion of the fandom is in justifying genocide, even fictional genocide, with accusations of child stealing. I'd ask that you take a moment to read up on the blood libel if you aren't aware of the connotations here, keeping in mind that a lot of people still believe this right now in 2022.
We all enjoy Star Wars differently. It is fine if the Jedi are not someone's cup of tea. If you feel that way, just... go engage with the media you do like. You don't need to justify it in any way, and you REALLY SHOULDN'T justify it with arguments that are adapted directly from the historical playbook of antisemitism. These discussions do not exist in a vacuum, they inform our subconscious thought patterns, and the fact that people are so comfortable parroting these beliefs without self-awareness is actually quite disturbing.
Adding on as another Jew, the bit where himboskywalker mentioned:
We are shown Jedi’s bodies kept immortalized like trophies by their captors.
This is particularly insidious for so many reasons when you account for the intentional parallels between the Jedi and Jews. In Judaism, it is an important mitzvah to bury the deceased within 24 hours of death, to expedite their soul's journey and allow the mourning period to begin. Between death and burial, the soul is stuck in limbo, not able to rest in heaven or body.
IIRC, the Jedi also have a similar state of limbo when they are being frozen as trophies. They were used to lure in other Jedi because their souls were still present and calling out for help. During the shoah, many Jews who were killed in the camps were not really buried. I don't think I need to elaborate further on that heartbreaking line of thought. It's just so awful to relate so closely to these characters and see myself and my culture's history in them, only to watch as the majority of the fandom roots for their genocide, without a thought to the real world ties they have to a globally persecuted minority. They see all of these horrific things happen to these characters and they root for it because they eat up the same propaganda that was literally modeled after World War II antisemitic campaigns.
THIS is what I mean when I say that the beliefs someone has towards fictional characters can absolutely be indicative of what real world beliefs they hold. It might not be a 1:1 we-think-genocide-blatantly-in-our-face-is-okay, but it demonstrates that they are susceptible to propaganda and more than likely have a lot of misconceptions about Judaism and believe antisemitic conspiracies.
Real life prejudices, biases, and beliefs shape the way you interpret media. Saying the Jedi “deserved their fall” might not be a direct translation of genocide apologia to real life, but it does tell me that you more than likely hold some bigoted ideas. Also, at the end of the day, genocide doesn't occur out of nothing. The shoah wasn’t a spontaneous decision to blame the Jews for everything. That Jew-hatred was already present in peoples belief systems. So while, no, you might not actually have committed physical genocide and yes, they were fictional characters, you would absolutely fall for propaganda that causes genocide and actively perpetuate bigoted rhetoric that causes genocide.
Not to mention, with the increasing amount of antitheist ethnocentrists harassing Jewish blogs, I'm realizing a lot of people would actually be fine with genocide in the sense that a culture isn't physically killed, but everything that makes them unique is. Keep that in mind the next time someone posts about the Jedi needing to "reform."
I'm probably getting things wrong (I'm not Jewish, so by all means, call me out), but wasn't a major event in Jewish history the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem and subsequent forcing of the Jewish people into diaspora, all at the hands of the roman empire?
Like, that seems very similar to what happens to the Jedi
Their Temple was assaulted and defiled by the empire, the Jedi were slaughtered en mass, and what few escaped had to flee into exile to survive
You got it right, it's a major event in Jewish history, and that's a good addition to the conversation. Honestly, the parallel there is so striking that I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas actually used it for inspiration in the Jedi going into exile.
Not "shake a lemon angrily at G-d" week, but rather;
Gather a citron, an ancient fruit predating the cultivation of lemon. Notice how it has a wonderful aroma, and consider how its flesh is edible. This represents the Jew who is both learned in Judaism and who exhibits kindness and good deeds.
Now gather the closed frond at the center of a palm tree. Consider how sweet the dates of the palm taste, but how the frond exhibits no strong smell like the citron. This represents the Jew who is learned in Judaism, but who does not practice the compassion in the many texts they studied.
Now gather at least three branches from a myrtle bush. Take in the refreshing scent oozing from the branches' thick leaves, but see how it does not bear fruit. This represents the Jew who is not learned in Judaism, but whose good character and actions are exceptional.
Finally, gather two branches from the somber willow. While mighty and enveloping, the willow exhibits no strong aroma, nor does it produce fruit. This represents the Jew who is neither learned in Judaism nor kind in character and deeds.
Appreciate the various textures and shapes of these four species. Feel the weight of them in your hand. Value how different in so many aspects each of them are.
Take them all in your hands, and bind them together like an embrace. Point them in all the corners of the earth- South, North, East, heavenward, downward, and West. Think of all your Jewish brethren scattered around the world, and bring your precious bundle back to your heart with every direction you send it to. Contemplate the place of every Jew in your community, the Etrog, the Lulav, the Hadas, and the Arava, for they all belong.
This is the meaning of Sukkot: coming back to our roots and our bare essence. Erect a temporary dwelling in reminiscence of your wandering ancestors. Come together under the stars, as exposed and unguarded as when we first walked the earth. Welcome guests into your makeshift home, be they family, friends, or the spirits of founding ancestors passed. Surround yourself in your community- and bring it all back to your heart.
Respectfully, from someone who is jewish.. You are born jewish. You cannot "Convert" its insulating to jewish families. If you could "Convert" My family would have to have not been put in a concentration camp.
You are born Jewish. Like how you are born Gay, Trans, white or black. You cannot convert to Jewish.
I'm going to tag jumblr in this post because L + ratio + ur wrong and the vast majority of jews accept converts + jews always come to back me up when someone says something like this.
disrespectfully, anon, from someone who is also jewish, you need to shut the fuck up. it is EXTREMELY fucked up to invoke a mass genocide in which race laws were used to systematically murder us, and then turn around and AFFIRM those race laws by claiming jewish identity is nothing more than genetics. because that is absolutely what you’re claiming.
there are like two jewish communities in the entire world that don’t accept converts, and i highly doubt that’s your situation. so i can pretty much guarantee you don’t interact with your local jewish community, bc if you said this in front of a rabbi or other active members, you would likely get a 30 minute lecture.
if you are that protective of your jewish identity, perhaps engage with your local jewish community, expand your understanding of jewishness outside of the coincidence that one or both of your parents happened to be jewish, and actually engage with the rest of us instead of just weaponizing your ancestry online to harass conversion students.
Hey anon I have a sincere go fuck yourself from my Jewish convert mother and formerly Orthodox Jewish father (we're Reform now due to a lot of reasons that are personal). And an ESPECIALLY sincere go fuck yourself from myself, as I am technically a convert (but also technically not, it's complicated) because I was adopted and given a mikveh as a baby.
We were ALL at Sinai, including those of us who had a more complicated path to finding our community.
Something that I just need to get off my chest, and tbh I'm curious what you and your followers think about this topic: I'm Jewish and for shorthand purposes, a Zionist, but out of fairness and intellectual honesty I do try to read opinions/articles coming from an anti-Zionist perspective. I specifically look for ones that aren't explicitly antisemitic (which narrows it down substantially) and acknowledge the valid claims of both peoples (narrowing it down even further.) In several of these more balanced articles, I've seen extensive analysis of "Jewish fear" and how the politics of fear impact the situation. At first I was trying to take this perspective in, because I have seen fear (even legitimate fear) be weaponized. On the other hand, though, the longer I think about it, the more I really don't like how most of them approached that discussion. It comes across very "get over yourselves" and "get past the past," and I just find that extremely frustrating. Because the thing is this: it's not paranoia, or post-trauma, or even particularly remote in time. It's a completely rational fear when one looks at the last 2500 years of history and stacks that up against what Palestinian leadership's stated goals are re: removing Jews from the land. And there's never any real concrete plan for how to keep Jews safe from another genocide (or multiple) if we don't have self-determination somewhere, ideally somewhere we have a valid historical claim to. It just gives me strong "go back to your husband and save your marriage; I'm sure he'll change" energy. Why should we believe that it'll be different. The bones of Babi Yar weigh that scale down pretty far and so far there's naught but a feather on the other side. Hopes, wishes, thoughts & prayers, etc. Anyway it really rubs me the wrong way.
It's not remote at all.
Less than 90 years ago, major cities from Vienna to Warsaw to Alexandria to Baghdad were all 25% Jewish. To put that in context, New York City today is about 18% Jewish. 100,000 Iranian Jews were forced to flee for their lives from an "antizionist-not-antisemitic" regime in 1979, the same year Alien came out. Poland banished its pathetic surviving remnant of Jews in 1968 as collective racial revenge for defeating the Soviet bloc's Arab client states; that was 8 years after Ruby Bridges climbed those school steps.
What is ancient history? What doesn't matter anymore?
You are right to see it as a "go back to your husband" vibe. Whenever I have told social-justice leftists about the unreliability of America, about the Jewish need for a state that is guaranteed to defend us if America goes the same way all prior diaspora countries did, several of them have told me that American Jews must stay and fight for their country and force it to be safe for them. I can't help but notice that they say no such thing about Mexicans or Syrians, for whom fleeing to a safer country is seen as an unquestionable right - no matter how much racism that safer country may have anyway.
Let me walk you through a timeline, focusing only on some of the largest, most violent antisemitic purges:
The Holocaust began in 1941, and left 6 million Jews dead.
Before that, there was Kristallnacht, which occurred in 1938.
That same year, Ecuador forcibly expelled all Jewish residents not working in agriculture.
Four years before that, in 1934, 2,000 Afghani Jews were expelled from their towns forced to live in the wilderness.
In 1929, the Jewish community of Hebron was massacred.
In 1922, the Hebrew language was banned in the Soviet union, and thousands were sent to the Gulag for so-called “Jewish cultural particularism”.
In 1921 all Jews living in Mongolia were forcibly expelled.
In 1919, Jews were mass executed by the Polish Army in the Pinsk massacre, and the the Kiev Pogroms killed 30,000-70,000 Jews, and left half a million more homeless.
The year before that, 3,000–10,000 Caucasus Jews were killed during The March Days.
Between 1917–1921, Russian Pogroms killed as many as 250,000 Jews.
In one 48-hour interval in May 1915, all 40,000 Jews living in Kaunas, Lithuania were forcibly expelled from the city.
In 1910, Shiraz blood libel pogrom swept through Shiraz, Iran, brutalizing thousands.
In 1891, 20,000 Jews were forcibly expelled from Moscow, Russia.
In 1881–1884, pogroms swept through all of Russia, forcing 2 million Jews to flee the country.
In 1864, at least 500 Moroccan Jews were massacred in Marrakech and Fez.
In 1862, during the American Civil War, General Grant issued an order expelling all Jews from his military district, before being directed by President Lincoln to rescind the order.
In 1815 Pope Pius VII reestablished the ghetto in Rome, and forcibly confined the Jewish population of the city there.
On June 29, 1805, 200-500 Algerian Jews were massacred.
In 1791 Catherine II of Russia confined Jews to the Pale of Settlement and doubled their taxes.
Between 1790–1792, most of the Jewish communities of Morocco were destroyed.
In 1786, Jews were forcibly expelled from Jeddah.
In 1776, the Jewish community of Basra was massacred.
In 1768, the Jews of the Jews of Uman, Ukraine were massacred.
In 1766, Jews were forcibly expelled from Toruń.
In 1753, the Jewish community of Kaunas was forcibly expelled.
In 1744, the Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa forced the entire Bohemian Jewish community to pay for their readmission into the country every ten years, and introduced a law limiting each Jewish family to one son.
In 1743, the Jewish community of Riga was forcibly expelled.
In 1742 Elizabeth of Russia issues a decree of expulsion of all the Jews out of Russian Empire.
In 1727, Catherine I of Russia issued an edict forcibly expelling all Jews from Ukraine.
In 1718, the Jews of Carniola, Styria and Carinthia were forcibly expelled
In 1717, all Jews living in Gibraltar were forciblt expelled.
In 1715, Elector Max Emanuel ordered the deportation of all Jews living in Bavaria.
In 1712, a blood libel in Sandomierz led to the forcibly expulsion of the entire local Jewish population.
In 1691, 219 people were convicted of being Jewish in a court in Palma, Majorca, and 37 of them were publicly burned to death.
Only 500 Jews survived Austrian sieged the city of Buda in 1686. Half of them were then sold into slavery.
In 1679, a large percentage of the Jews of Yemen were forcibly expelled in the Exile of Mawza. Many died along the march to the Mawza, and more died once there due to the barren and inhospitable conditions there.
Between 1648–1655, the Ukrainian Cossacks massacred about 100,000 Jews and destroyed 300 Jewish communities.
In 1639, more than 60 people accused of being Jews in Lima, Peru were burned at the stake in a single Auto-da-fé.
In 1633, Jews were forcibly expelled from Radom.
In 1615 King Louis XIII of France decreed that all Jews must leave the country within one month on pain of death.
In 1593, at least 900 Jews were forcibly expelled from Bologna.
In 1593 Pope Clement VIII forcibly expelled Jews from all Papal states except the ghettos in Rome and Ancona.
In 1591, Philip II, King of Spain, banished and forcibly expelled all Jews from the duchy of Milan.
In 1571, the Mexican Inquisition began, leading to the trial and execution of those suspected of secretly practicing Judaism.
In 1569, Pope Pius V forcibly expelled all the Jews of Bologna, and encouraged the vandalization and destruction of all Jewish graveyards within the region.
In 1560, the Goa Inquisition began, and those in the region who were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism were tried and executed.
Between 1537-1546, Martin Luther whips up antisemitic sentiment throughout Germany, leading to multiple forcible expulsions of the Jewish communities living in the region.
In 1543, all Jews were exiled and forcibly expelled from Basel.
In 1540, all Jews were banished from Prague.
In 1539, all Jews were forcibly expelled from Nauheim.
In 1535, the Spanish sold all of the Jews of Tunis into slavery.
In 1526 Jews were expelled from Hungary, Croatia, and Slovakia following the Battle of Mohács.
In 1519, the Jewish community of Ratisbon was forcibly expelled, and it’s synagogues and graveyards were looted for building materials.
In 1511, most Apulian Jews were either expelled or tortured to death.
In 1510, the Jews of Naples were forcibly expelled.
In 1510, 40 Jews were executed in Brandenburg, Germany, and the remainder of the Jewish population was forcibly expelled.
That same year, 38 Jews publicly burned at the stake in Berlin.
In 1506, a massacre in Lisbon, Portugal killed over 2,000 Jews in the span of just three days.
In 1499, all Jews were forcibly expelled from both Nuremberg and Verona.
In 1498, Jews were forcibly expelled from most of France.
In 1496, the Jews of Portugal, including those who had fled the Spanish Inquisition just four years prior, were forcibly converted to Christianity and expelled.
In 1495, the Jews of Lecce were massacred and the Jewish quarter was burned to the ground.
In 1493 approximately 37,000 Jews were forcibly expelled from Sicily.
In 1492, the Jewish population of Tuat was massacred in a pogrom.
In 1481, the Spanish Inquisition began, leading to the murder, torture, forced conversion, and forcible expulsion of the Jewish population of Spain.
On Assumption Day, August 15, 1474, the Jews of Modica were massacred. During the evening, Christians are recorded to have run through the streets chanting: “Hurrah for Mary! Death to the Jews!”
In 1473, the Jews of Cordova, Spain were massacred.
In 1421 in Vienna, 270 Jews were burned at stake, and all remaining Viennese Jews were forcibly expelled.
In the single year of 1391, more than 400 Jews were massacred in Barcelona, another 250 Jews were massacred in Valencia, and all the Jewish inhabitants of Palma, Majorca were killed or forced to convert.
In March of 1389, approximately 3,000 Jews in Prague were killed in a single massacre.
In 1370, the entire Jewish population of Brussels was massacred, completely eliminating the Jewish community there. The event was commemorated by local Christians as “the Sacrament of Miracle”.
In 1354, approximately 12,000 Jews were massacred throughout Spain.
On August 4, 1349, 6,000 Jews were burned to death in Mainz as a part of the Black Death Jewish persecutions. Around 3,000 more Jews were massacred in Erfurt for the same reason, 600 were burned at the stake in Zurich, 600 more were burned at the stake in Basel, and the entire Jewish population of Speyer was destroyed.
In 1336, roughly 1500 Jews were killed in Franconia and Alsace.
In 1328, approximately 5,000 Jews were massacred following antisemitic preaching by a Franciscan friar.
In 1321 the Jews in central France were accused of ordering lepers to poison wells. After a massacre which killed an estimate 5,000 Jews, King Philip V admitted that the rumor was false and they were innocent.
In 1298, German knight Rintfleisch claimed to have received a mission from heaven to exterminate “the accursed race of the Jews”. Under his leadership, approximately 100,000 Jews were massacred, often by mass burning at stake.
In 1290, the Jews of Baghdad were massacred.
In 1290, the Edict of Expulsion forcibly expelled all Jews from England.
In 1285, a blood libel in Munich, Germany resulted in the massacre of 68 Jews. Following the massacre, 180 more Jews were burned alive inside synagogue which was lit on fire.
In 1275, King Edward I of England passed the Statute of the Jewry, forcing Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying yellow badge, and seizing Jewish assets. Scores of English Jews were arrested, and 300 were publicly hanged.
In 1236, Crusaders attacked the Jewish communities of Anjou and Poitou and slaughtered an estimated 3,000 Jews.
In 1232, over 1,000 Moroccan Jews in Marrakesh were killed.
In 1203, the entire Jewish quarter of Constantinople was burned down by Crusaders.
In 1190, the Jews of York were massacred by departing Crusaders.
In 1171 the Jews of Bologna were forcibly expelled.
In 1146, an estimated 100,000 Jews were massacred by the Almohads in Fez and 120,000 more were massacred in Marrakesh.
In 1124, the Jewish Quarter of Kiev was burned to the ground by antisemitic arsonists.
During the First Crusade, more than 5,000 Jews were murdered in the Rhineland. Another 1,200 Jews committed suicide in Mainz to escape torture and forcible conversion.
In 1066, the Granada Massacre killed more than 4,000 Jews in a single day.
In 932, the Jewish quarter of Bari, Italy was destroyed.
In 694 King Ergica of Toledo ordered the kidnapping of all Jewish children over the age of seven, and the raising of those kidnapped children as Christians.
In 469, half of the Jewish population of Isfahan was put to death.
In 325, all Jews were forcibly expelled and banned from Jerusalem.
Between 132–135, the Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed, and 580,000 Jews were killed. Hadrian then ordered the forcible expulsion of all Jews from Judea, which was then merged with Galilee in order to form the province of Syria Palaestina, renamed in order to suppress the Jewish people’s connection to their historic homeland.
We're gonna need something more substantial than hopes and prayers in light of that history.
Like, listen. There's a conversation to be had about how trauma and experiencing violence does not grant you the right to hurt other people, and that even legitimate fear based on concrete extant threats doesn't allow you to act unethically, but. BUT.
(1) That applies equally to everyone, not just Jews; and,
(2) It's a hell of a lot easier to philosophize about ethics in the abstract, and another to be personally dealing with the weight of that history on your heart and your family tree and to stare down the reality that you might be in one of the lucky generations - or you might find yourself, your family and/or community on the wrong end of your former neighbors' favorite weapons.
For the gentiles: David Simon says Miller is a disgrace, and if it was the day of remembrance for his father's death, and David was one man short for a minyan (which requires ten men), he wouldn't let Miller join to make a proper ten because Miller isn't a man.
A group of Jews in Rome sang Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim (If I forget you Jerusalem) under the Gate of Titus. This was the gate through which Titus and his army passed after the destruction of the Temple.
Rome is dust, ashes, and ruins, and We Are Still Here.
There is no statement you can make that applies to every religion in the world. Full stop.
"But all religions follow a book or other form of guidelines!" Nope!
"But all religions discourage independent thinking and questioning!" Wrong again!!
"But all religions believe in some sort of higher power or supreme being!" Stop talking!!!
Any attempts at forcing all religions under one blanket statement are ignorant at best, violently bigoted at worst. Even the term religion itself has a dubious definition and a political weight behind what practices and traditions are called "religion" and what are "spirituality" or "mythology."
Christianity is not the be-all-end-all of religion. Neither is whatever your personal religious background is. Stop trying to force your preconceived beliefs and biases onto religion as a whole.
"But all religions discourage independent thinking and questioning!" Wrong again!!
SO FUCKING WRONG OMG
If you are a Christian that wants to host a Passover seder this year:
1) Don’t. It’s appropriative and gross.
2) Still don’t.
3) Jesus never participated in the type of seder that Jews have today. He lived (if he existed as described in your Christian holy books) during the Second Temple Era of Judaism, when worship was Temple-focused and ritual sacrifice was a key facet of the holiday. The modern seder takes most of its traditions from rabbinic Judaism, which was not the Judaism of Jesus.
4) Don’t do it. Don’t. No, there is no good reason for you to do it.
5) Given the Christian antisemitic violence traditionally inflicted on the Jews during this time of year (the lead up to Easter), it is EXTRA awful for Christians to try and appropriate our traditions related to Passover.
6) Don’t. Pesach is our holiday, and our religion is a semi-closed practice. Don’t appropriate our stuff. Don’t make our stuff about Jesus.
7) There are no exceptions to the rule that Christians should not host Passover seders.
Hope this helps.
So I'm trying to write a fic about Jews doing Sukkot in space in the Star Trek Universe and I just.
Timing? What counts as sunset when there's no sun? Where would the Sukkah even go? What direction is "East"? Just how would it work? Help.
I’m thinking about moving to Portland. I currently live in Bumfuck Newport, WA, I don’t have any money, and I would like to live with a Jewish family, although I wouldn't mind moving in with someone my age (23). Can you help?
Here’s a funny thing about being Jewish: Even our straight, white, cis men know what it is like to be afraid. Even they know what it is like to be told you’re going to hell for the fact of your belief, to be afraid of expressing yourself in public because you might get jumped. Here’s another funny thing about being Jewish: We are a nation of survivors. Our history is replete with other nations trying to stamp us out. People think of anti-Semitism and they think of the Holocaust and Nazis and that’s it, but that’s not it. The Holocaust was just the latest attempt to wipe Jews off the map. And now it is starting again. Every time somebody tries to kill us, they fail. And for a while, things get quiet. The anti-Semitism is still there, of course, it never goes away, but for a while, for a few decades, people stop trying. But then the survivors grow old, they die, and their children grow up, grow old, and start to die as well. And people start to forget. They forget that they tried to kill us before, and failed. They forget that there is no evidence or possibility of us actually being at fault for the things they blame us. People forget. The goyim forget. And the grandchildren of the survivors of the last attempt to kill us have to go through it all over again, no matter that they promised us we wouldn’t, that the governments and nations promised them it would never happen again. They keep trying. And they keep failing. They never learn. Hundreds, thousands, millions of Jews die in each one of these cycles. The cycle can continue until the sun expands or Mashaich comes, whichever happens first, but they will never succeed in wiping us out. We will make it through. And we will add another fast day, another day of mourning, of remembrance in honor of those who died, to the dozen already on our calendar, and we will pack our bags, move somewhere else, and we will survive. We always do.
So I'm trying to escape my abusive parents by going to live with a friend in southern WA, and I need some advice/help about settling into the Jewish community there. For reference, my friend can literally see the state of Oregon from their backyard, and is about an hour's drive from Portland, OR. Does anyone live near there or know much about the Jewish community there?
notes regarding Jewish textual tradition:
-our sacred texts include more than just the 5 books of the “old testament”
-we don’t call it the old testament and please don’t call it that unless you’re referring to the christian use of it, when talking about the jewish torah use the term “hebrew scriptures”
-torah = the 5 first books (genesis exodus leviticus deuteronomy numbers) + the prophets and the writings (song of songs, psalms, etc)
-there is also Talmud (mishnah and gemara) which is where conversations by rabbis about how Jewish law should work were recorded (mishna) and further commented / debated on (gemara), and the law codes that later simplified and revised the talmud for better practical use (the shulchan aruch and mishne torah), sages’ commentaries on these law texts, and centuries of responsa to them. these texts are where you will find a lot of the rituals, observances, and rules that Jews follow (so for example the kosher laws, when we say what blessings, how we celebrate holidays, etc). so no, we do not participate in “old” testament ritual sacrifice and looking directly in there for how Jews live is a rather fruitless attempt.
-sometimes the word “torah” can refer to talmud as well, it can refer to any study of holy texts.
-responses and interpretations of Jewish law and scriptures goes on to this day
-Midrash is another type of important jewish texts which are basically poetic or interperative writings about the things in the torah/talmud/etc, comparable to parables, written by various jewish scholars to think through Jewish thought, history, religion, etc. not seen as binding legal texts but rather ways of thinking through torah/judaism. there are ancient published midrashim as well as modern ones.
-Basically understand that Jewish textual tradition goes far beyond what you know of the Hebrew scriptures and “Jewish practice is just Christianity without the New Testament” is terribly inaccurate.
-The idea that “Jews just do ancient barbaric Old Testament rituals” is ages old antisemitic slander.
non Jewish people are ok to reblog this because it is so often misunderstood
I don’t think I’ve ever written this down before. This is the story of the first time I played a shofar (as I remember it, not as it happened).
So it’s the mid 90s and I’m in primary school (‘elementary’, my dear yanks). We were doing Religious Education and learning about Judaism, I think for the first time. The teacher didn’t really know anything about Judaism that wasn’t written in the book, so he kept asking me, since I was the Only Jewish Kid In The Class (only jewish kid in the school in fact, except my sister). I wasn’t very religious, but I was doing my best to make up reasonable sounding answers. Anyway, the school had somehow got hold of a shofar. (If anyone’s religious education wasn’t up to the stellar standards of mine, the shofar is the ram’s horn that’s blown like a trumpet as part of the ceremony of certain jewish holy days). The shofar was passed around the class, and of course, hygene be damned, everyone tried to play it. But it’s not an easy instrument to play, there’s more to it than just blowing. So everyone is puffing and wheezing and red in the face, and the best anyone can get out of this thing is a pitiful squeak. But we’ve all just seen the guy on the VHS tape with the hat and odd hairstyle blowing it, and we heard the tooting noise come out of the tinny little speakers of the TV on the wheely cart, so we know this isn’t right. Is our shofar broken or something? Is it blocked up?
Finally the shofar gets around to me, and I am psyched all the way up. I haven’t played a shofar before, but I’m determined to get some kind of noise out of this damn thing, because my heritage is looking silly right now. The burden of upholding the dignity of Judaism itself falls upon my narrow shoulders. So, I take the biggest breath I possibly can, and put the shofar to my lips. Everyone’s looking at me, because I’m The Only Jewish Kid In The Class. And the thing that nobody in the room (including me) is thinking about, is the fact that I’m also The Only Trumpet-Player Kid In The Class. I only know one way to blow into an instrument. It happens to be the right way. And I do it, just as hard as I possibly can.
If you haven’t heard a shofar played properly in person, it’s not easy to describe. Recordings don’t capture it at all. Maybe it’s just because you usually hear it in a context of fasting and extreme reverence, but nonetheless a shofar blast (and that’s what they call it, a “blast”) is an amazing sound. The shofar sounds like raw naked power, it sounds like righteous fury. It sounds like more noise than a single human could ever make, yet it has a property like a human voice, like a bellow, a howl, like a newly bereaved mother splitting her lungs with blood and thunder. It’s a BIG sound, in the sense that it’s very loud, but also in the sense that it seems to fill whatever space it’s in, to come from all directions at once. It makes sense that the ancients gave it religious significance. When you hear the shofar’s call, the story of the Walls of Jerico tumbling down doesn’t seem that crazy.
So, it’s not possible to play a shofar quietly, and I’m giving the thing everything I’ve got in a little red brick classroom in southeast london. I can feel the room resonate and shake, hear the single-glazed windows rattle in their frames. I’m having a great time - this is the loudest noise I’ve ever made in my short life! And it’s in school! And I’m allowed to do it! So I keep going as hard as I can until my little lungs give out. I remember surfacing, out of breath and grinning, and listening as the antique cast-iron pipes throughout the building slowly stopped reverberating over the slack-jawed silence of the room.
The kids of course have seen enough TV to know exactly what happened. The Shofar knew I was Jewish. Obviously it’s not going to unleash that kind of unearthly sonic firepower for just anyone. Shofars only work for Jews. And the teacher is like “…That doesn’t sound right… but I don’t know enough about Judaism to dispute it?”. I didn’t offer any other explanations, because why would you demystify your Mystic Jew Powers?
And I’m writing this because I just realised that there were perhaps 30 kids in that class, and there just aren’t very many jews in southeast london to set them right, so it’s quite possible that there’s at least one 25 year old adult out there who still believes that the Shofar is a Holy Sacred Artefact which will Sound its Mighty Voice for none other than God’s Own Chosen People. And that cracks me up.
@effingsorceress I thought this might give you a laugh
Oh my! Hahahaha that is priceless!
