jewish goth aesthetics

alright, so, i am jewish, but i am not goth, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. anyway, i started making this list because i was frustrated by the idea of people making jewish goth characters but doing nothing interesting with their jewishness. the whole point of using christian imagery in goth fashion is to subvert it, but being openly, proudly jewish is already a subversion of christian hegemony. irl goth jews can wear whatever the hell they want, ofc, but it comes off differently when it's a fictional character made by a gentile writer. thus, an incomplete and non-definitive list, in no particular order, of many possible goth aesthetic choices that are either explicitly jewish, or just generally compatible with a goth character that doesn't want to use christian imagery for whatever reason.

So there’s this famous phrase in Genesis, “לא טוב היות האדם לבדו" (“lo tov heyot ha'adam l'vado”), which means “it is not good for man to be alone.” I was thinking today that it might make a nice Jewish friendship bracelet or wedding ring inscription or something. Problem is, if you try to split it up it becomes

לא טוב היות האדם לבדו

“Existence is not good.” “Man is alone.”

All the other ways of splitting them up are similarly awful. And on the one hand, I think this is really kind of beautiful—how this phrase, which is about togetherness, is so beautiful as a whole but cannot be broken into parts without itself becoming splintered and distorted. The language mirrors the very nature of humanity that it describes.

But on the other hand it totally ruined my friendship bracelet idea so @G-d this is a callout post

complaining is sooooooooo good for the soul. they dont want you to know that but i know it

a prayer of gratitude

[ID: image of hebrew text detailing the bracha (jewish blessing) for seeing exceptionally strange-looking people or animals:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהֵוָהֵ, אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם מְשַנֶּה הַבְּרִיּוֹת Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, m’shaneh ha-briyot. Blessed are You, HaShem* our G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, who makes creatures different.]

this is the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen

Big Gedalia Goomberg is *not* OSHA approved.

Your friendly Black History Month reminder that Black Jews are JEWS.

Born Jews, Jews by choice, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Mizrahi, Israeli, diaspora…they are an integral part of all of our communities and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

We still have work to do as a community to uplift Jewish POC, particularly Black Jews, but to my Black Jewish friends out there know that I see you and I will keep trying to do the work.

Happy Black History Month. ❤️

during Black History Month please remember that Black Jews also do face antisemtisim. we go through the hardships of being Jewish. do not assume we are any less Jewish because of our Blackness

thank you

-sincerely a Black Jew

What I love about Jewish ritual objects is how....for so many of their productions, they just *can't* be automated. Even aside from Halakha, the details for some just *have* to be done by human hand. A machine can weave the fabric for a Tallit, but it can't tie the Tzizit correctly. A Shofar can't be made by a machine because each horn is shaped ever so differently with different textures. Kosher food can be mass-produced but only a human can ensure that it's Kosher, and a Jewish person *has* to turn on the ovens. A Mezuzah and a Torah and Tefillin can't be machine printed, they *have* to be written by a Sofer.

I just love how we emphasize the human involvement in our objects.

I think it’s a labor of love, that you are performing this action, that you are responsible for saying the bracha. It’s forcing you to be connected in the process, and that’s how we’re like G!d. They didn’t mass produce anything, but breathed life into the world, nurtured life, held life up. I just find it really cool how we make the ordinary sacred by elevating it through labors of love.

Yes! You get it!

Where the Warsaw Ghetto once stood, Hanukkah candles light the night

I keep getting ads for Hanukkah merch that has festive fillagree and says “Light and Love,” but where is my Hanukkah swag that says “Death to the Seleucids” and has warhammers?

Leonard Gordon (via sch-uwu-lchen)

despicable me ruined the word minion whenever i become a supervillain im just going to have to call them my homies or whatever

Try being in a group of ten or more Jewish adults 😔

hang on i need to ask some of my jewish friends smth

yeah this is funny

shlep is one of the best yiddish words and we don’t talk about it enough

there’s no other word that specifically means 1) i am going somewhere, 2) it is a long and not very pleasant journey and 3) i am complaining about it

genuine question, because I have apparently(???) been using this word incorrectly this whole time: does it/can it not also mean, "I will be going there, and also carrying A Bunch Of Stuff?" As in, "I'm spending the night at their house, but I won't have time to come home after work, so now I gotta schlep all my stuff there and leave it in the back room until the end of shift?"

I have never heard this term used without Items Being Involved. You mean to say that one can schlep without having an armload of stuff? Or a giant backpack or something?

You can also be hauling stuff as part of the schlep

I feel like a schlep is always a haul, it’s just that sometimes the only thing you’re hauling is yourself.

Huh. I always thought schlep meant "an unkempt person"

That's a schlub! Sounds similar to shelp.

Sometimes you feel like a schlub because you got schmutz all over your shirt, and you were already shvitzing to begin with, so now it just looks like you're walking around in an old schmatte, and you can't possibly go to schul like this, so you'll have to schlep yourself home before shabbos and hope the journey doesn't make you too schluffy.

this is so fucking funny

watching people make the beth israel synagogue hostage situation about guns, israel and palestine, joe biden, donald trump, terrorism, immigration, literally anything before they talk about antisemitism….. hurts. the situation is literally still ongoing and all you care about is how you can twist it to make it relevant to you and your own politics? like. i am scared to go to synagogue, i have been scared to go to synagogue for a very long time, i was scared to go to synagogue at my own bat mitzvah. my synagogue has armed security and an anti-ramming barrier, the synagogue down the street from mine has a metal detector too. my sister’s jewish day school is designed for hiding from attackers and has a playground on the roof to protect students. what else is there to talk about? jewish community centers get bomb threats, chabad houses get burned down, torahs are ripped out of arks in the middle of the night, visible jews are attacked in the street and at hannukah parties and in grocery stores, menorahs are knocked down, shuls are vandalized, menorahs are stolen. how can you think any of this is about anything but antisemitism? how can you be so self centered and ignorant that you make this shit about you and your own opinions??????? like. wake up! face the fact that antisemitism exists in america! it’s a real and present issue and you obscure it at your own peril

the hostage situation is a really good example of the ways that “jews hold disproportionately vast political influence” type antisemitism poses just as much of a danger as other kinds. even goyim who recognize “jews control the world/are deceptive and greedy/arent human” etc as dangerous & unacceptable will frequently engage with “jews are more powerful politically than goyim” (or statements that imply that) as reasonable matters of opinion. this man took jews hostage not at random but because he believed that jews are inordinately powerful & a random rabbi across the country could therefore order the release of a prisoner in texas. any analysis that ignores the antisemitism inherent to this line of thinking fails to address the reality of this situation