#i am jewish and i will always be jewish and i always have been jewish and my children will be jewish and their children will be jewish

[xclowniex]

How is people pointing out the atrocities committed by the IDF/IOF whatever the hell they are immediately labeled “allies of Hamas” when ya’ll constantly always use the whole “you can disagree with the actions of others” excuse to justify why Israel does whatever they do

Please point out where I have ever said that. It's honestly pretty tiring getting asks where people try to put words in my mouth that I have never said.

What you can find on many posts on my blog is me saying that I myself do not agree with the actions of the Israeli Government or the IDF and that you can criticize the Israeli government and IDF without being antisemitic which a lot of people fail at doing.

A lot of "criticisms" come from modern day blood libel where people will straight up say an antisemitic trope and swap out jew for zionists or Israel and that is not okay. Changing jew to zionists or Israel or anything similar does not remove the fact that it's still an antisemitic trope being used towards either half of the world's jews (as half live in Israel) or towards 80% of jews (as 80% of jews believe in some form of zionism, the most popular form amongst jews is a peaceful two state solution)

Another from of antisemitism which is masked as "criticism" is when people will only say something is bad if Israel does it yet is fine with any other country doing it. This is antisemitism as why is something only bad when the only jewish state in the world does it?

If a criticism does not fall into either group, then it's not antisemitism.

I also have not labeled everyone as "allies of hamas" what you are thinking about is when I have replied to anons and people saying they are riding hamas's dick or have drunk the hamas koolaid. This is simply me calling out people who are falling for hamas propaganda. Microsoft literally did a report earlier this year on Iran pushing pro hamas propaganda online and getting a lot of engagements. You can search the research findings yourself online as it's free to view.

Whilst I do understand that my replies can be harsh, from my perspective, I am getting a lot of asks, a lot of which I just delete and do not answer, of people who do not understand the basic concepts I have explained here and also like to do the whole "oh you only post about pancakes, you must hate waffles" thing. And it gets tiring and annoying. I do get fed up with people who do not understand nuance when it comes to things or that I might only focus on the Jewish and Israeli side of things because there are already so many great voices there speaking out for Palestine. Adding my voice won't do much more for palestine so instead I lend it back to my community, trying to fight antisemitism and xenophobia.

And the thing is, antisemitism deserve to be spoken about. It deserves blogs which only speak about it or is the main focus. I've experienced a lot of it in my life. I'm not gonna just trauma dump right now but I have been hate crimed before. It was not fun. And when I see levels of antisemitism which is worse than during the time I was hate crimed and a lot of the rhetoric being said that I was hate crimed for, I can't help but to not want to lend my voice to speak out about antisemitism.

Onto your last point, I have never justified any Palestinian civilians deaths. The closest I have ever gotten to it was on a post talking about the hostages where I say it is a difficult situation as Palestinian civilians have died during the hostages rescue and that Palestinian and Jewish and Israeli lives are all equal in value. And that its also hard because if the hostages were not rescued, they would likely have been killed at some point in the future and it's just a hard situation as my heart goes out to all the Palestinians who died that day as well as that I am happy that 4 hostages are home. In that post I also mentioned that my ideal scenario is no one dead, both in the operation and in the war in general and for everyone to be safe.

The other thing which I get a lot of anons about is whenever I bring up the war crimes done by hamas, such as in that same post about the hostages, I mentioned how it is a war crime for hamas to have the hostages in a civilian area and that in the eyes of international law, those Palestinian deaths are due to Hamas.

I honestly don't think that either of those things is justifying the IDFs actions. What I do think is that you, and so many others are afraid of nuance. As soon as someone like myself goes "these are all the factors at play and it sucks that things have turned out as they have" and not "idf bad no nuance ever" you get uncomfortable. And its fine to be uncomfortable. But what isn't okay is taking that feeling of uncomfortableness and directing it into misreading jews online to try and feel secure in your world view again.

I honestly hope that you have read all of this, as I know it's a long post, and you consider everything I have said.

#antisemitism #israel #i/p #jumblr #palestine #i/p war #gaza #am yisrael chai #ask clownie

[lem0nademouth]

thinking about how fucking resilient Jews are.

thinking about my great grandparents in romania, raised in a land colonized by the same empire that sent them to the balkans, still working as tailors and butchers like their ancestors had for generations.

thinking about them stowing away on ships to america so their children could live to see adulthood.

thinking about how many other five foot two bookworms have been in my family. i know i’m not the first, and i certainly hope i won’t be the last.

thinking about how many seders my family has held throughout history, how many “next year in jerusalem”s were shouted. it hasn’t happened yet, but maybe it will.

thinking about the women who passed down kabbalah to their children while witches burned in the next village over. how many mothers kept literal magic alive.

thinking about how every single person that lived before me, every branch of my family tree, had to choose to survive. living has always been in the present progressive for Jews; every breath they took was a choice to fight just a little longer.

i come from people who survived the spanish inquisition, the soviet union, the Shoah, the judeo-roman wars, ottoman imperialism, the rise and fall of so many empires i cannot name them all, and the only uniting factor is them. they taught their toddlers the sh’ma and lit candles and read books and sewed clothes and spun linen and cured meat and davened and smiled and laughed and they did that for two thousand years. ten years ago i became the first bat mitzvah in my family line. the first woman in my family to read from the torah.

i hope they’re proud. i hope i was worth it for them.

#jumblr #big feelings! #jewish joy #i refuse to assimilate for goyische comfort #i am jewish and i will always be jewish and i always have been jewish and my children will be jewish and their children will be jewish #we will not disappear because our existence complicates your worldview #i am not a jew with trembling knees #ngl i cried while writing this #im just so tired of proving my humanity day in and day out #i keep telling myself that we will outlive them #we will outlive their hatred #i will keep my door open like avraham and sarah and i will let them sit at my table when they are ready #i will not let their hatred make me hateful

[thebewilderer]

my jewish friend is doing her final math project on the structure of the israeli governmental system

one of the people in our group is very staunchly and vocally pro-palestine anti-israel

we're presenting our projects next friday

i am scared.

#to be clear she's not doing the project on anything related to the war she's just modeling the parliamentary system but #the pro palestine guy ALWAYS asks questions about peoples presentations #and hes definitely a nice guy (nothing on the level of ''from the river to the sea'' at least from what he been saying in the group chat) #not a violent man in general but i am. #still not convinced he wont ask 'as an extension how does this apply to the genocide' type questions #we've talked to him about saying that stuff in the group chat but #i have no idea how to shut it down if he says anything to her ANY suggestions are welcome PLEASE #last thing i want to happen is a big ole fight during finals time ykyk bc she will feel guilty and unsafe forever #cards on the table obviously im backing my jewish friend if that happens but i think she would rather it not happen at all.. #genuinely asking for advice on shutting him down politely and nonconfrontationally if he speaks btw #ih #pers #my school is not as bad as colombia by a long stretch #but i still have had to peel 'down with israel' 'free palestine' stickers off the jewish part of the interfaith center multiple times

[jewishdainix]

Most of the i/p related posts ive reblogged are very much aimed at international audiences (which unfortunately means its mostly usa centered. Like half of the posts I see israel are talking about the us. For some reason) but despite being considered by some a Nich Internet Microcelebrity me just posting stuff on tumblr isnt doing much so I am starting to look into activist groups within here because after everything that have happened I can not imagine my future not at least somewhat involving taking part of activism

#After a conversation with an arab woman that works in the kindergarten I volenteered at over summer I already been messing around with the #idea of going like. working in a kindergarten in an arab area #we were talking about languages and she explained that she learned hebrew by going to work in a kindergarten in a jewish area #and Im in an arabic class in school and want to learn the language #and Ive always wanted to be involved in a humanitarian cause #so honestly. its not much of a change. its more of being more specific in what I am looking for #arabic class is kind of on a slight holt like the rest of my school because everyone from that area had to evacuate #but I might be temporerily going to school in here. where weve evacuated to #and the school were looking into is the one where my dad was in and where he learned arabic from. and he speaks very fluenetly #I really hope I get into it. Were missing so much school and the little we do over zoom is very hard for me cause I cant study over zoom #and most schools are working again so we wont be taken into acount and itll be like it was after covid lockdown. which still non of us have #properly recocered from #so I really want to be able to actually go to school. even if its with people i dont know in an enviroment im not familiar with

[baekuras]

Anyhow regarding the whole genocide deal

I still can not believe that "oh we definitely won't do nazi times again, it was a great tragedy that has to be renounced and never repeated again"-germany is STILL supporting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people just because they belong to a specific "group"

i do not give a shit if a christian, a jew, a buddhist, an aesthetist or whatever believing that the moon is made of cheese would be as a religion is the one throwing bombs at civilians-I'll still renounce the whole throwing-bombs deal...not that difficult really

#txts #just saw a reminder of that whole bit on twitter and tbh #it breaks me #our WHOLE lives we have been taught about the holocaust #and to never let that happen again #and that its OUT responsibility #specifically as germans which tbh i always found weird bc i wouldnt like idk the french to do that either but ok #don't murder ppl is generally a good thing #and now...that just flies out the window #bc i guess helping jewish ppl(aka israel) murder people is fine #bc then we aren't antisemetic #bc we support jews kill other jews #i am just tired about this being about religion #it isn't #it's colonialism really from what i can tell #driving ppl out and painting their land red with their blood #to take it over #palestine #rant #i rly just had to let this bit out somewhere #bc god knows we have idiots at work i can't share this around with #i also recently learned israel has recovered -3 hostages #the -3 are the ones they themselves killed bc they just like doing that so badly apparently #truly amazing

[no-face-no-shame]

Something that really surprises me in Belgium is how many "active" Christians are here. Like, go-to-church-every-sunday kind of people. I thought Western Europe is way more secular. I'm from Eastern Europe, from a very Catholic country, but I'm starting to think that less people in Poland go to church and are actual believers than here. Ngl it's a bit of a cultural shock. I'm not used to being around religious Christians. I knew that a very visible religion in Belgium is Islam and that there are large groups of orthodox Jews, however the fact that Christianity here is treated seriously, rather than being something people claim to believe in but don't actually practice (often the case in Poland), is really surprising.

Another thing is that all of those people I've met are young! In their 20s! I get that older people tend to be more religious, however the young generation (especially in Western countries) used to seem way more secular to me

#i find the topic of religions generally fascinating #and recently i've been discovering more about my jewish roots because i've always felt connected to judaism in a very special way #before i even knew that i very likely have a decent jewish ancestry #but being around religious christians is confusing since i have a lot of criticism for this religion #idk where is this going. just something that has been on my mind lately #i am in deep confusion when it comes to the topic of religion #faceless

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

never felt so good being a mini man. being a fun size guy. representation matters and fob is giving me that 😊

#myevilposts #every time i remember 3/4 of them are within two inches of my height i feel crazyyyyy....... #what do you mean i'm fine the way i am?????????????????????? #maybe i'll never be 6'1 but at least i get the honor of being a manlet............. #wait i'm valid in my identity no matter how i look? always have been :^) #SLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #fall ou tboy....... if u even care.............. #fall out boy #also jewish emo guy rep means a lot to me too ofc ofc...... #gabe might be tall but he counts for that too.

[wixibaby]

Happy holidays everyone! I have something good coming out in a bit for the holidays!

#wixi talks about shit #merry christmas and happy hanukkah #happy holidays in general #if you’re a christmas fiend you did both #people always look at me like whar arent you jewish #like yea but i fucking love the holidays #regardless hope you had fun and salute to the retail workers who were working today #accept my love even if you didn’t have a great holiday season #and happy holidays to the one mutual who i haven’t geeked out with in forever (you know who you are i am sorry i have been so busy) #(i also forgor tumblr dms existed so we haven’t talked in ages but hmu frr) #okay bye love you

[sarishim]

rudimentary tag drop, i'll add more as i think of them!

— the man dressed in linen‚ who was standing above the river; visage. — hebrew nonsense (affectionate); ooc / jewish stuff. — always some kind of fucking temperature; ooc / misc. — how will you hear my words and pleas; ooc / psa. — the current hyperfixation; ooc / research. — adinah's ramblings; ooc / tbd. — my sword has been sharpened since the sixth day of creation; muse study. — i have stretched out my hand‚ and no one regards; psyche. — from endless lights‚ I come back to thee; dash games. — i was born to pave the way‚ to let the masses hear; prompts / memes. — i am the spark that sets the flame of truth alight; prompts / opens. — i am the prince of fire‚ i will perform a miracle within a miracle; musings. — through fire and water‚ i shall walk with thee; aesthetics. — i shall be with thee through good and bad; verse / main. — g-d grant me the serenity to know i had to do it to 'em; pinned / DNI. — on all levels except physical‚ i am hugging you / promos. — take my hand and let us walk for miles / playlist. — the golden wine follows through my veins‚ i know the holy words; threads. — thy empty words shall avail thee not; headcanons.

#— the man dressed in linen‚ who was standing above the river; visage. #— hebrew nonsense (affectionate); ooc / jewish stuff. #— always some kind of fucking temperature; ooc / misc. #— how will you hear my words and pleas; ooc / psa. #— the current hyperfixation; ooc / research. #— adinah's ramblings; ooc / tbd. #— my sword has been sharpened since the sixth day of creation; muse study. #— i have stretched out my hand‚ and no one regards; psyche. #— from endless lights‚ I come back to thee; dash games. #— i was born to pave the way‚ to let the masses hear; prompts / memes. #— i am the spark that sets the flame of truth alight; prompts / opens. #— i am the prince of fire‚ i will perform a miracle within a miracle; musings. #— through fire and water‚ i shall walk with thee; aesthetics. #— i shall be with thee through good and bad; verse / main. #— g-d grant me the serenity to know i had to do it to 'em; pinned / DNI. #— on all levels except physical‚ i am hugging you; promos. #— take my hand and let us walk for miles; playlist. #— the golden wine follows through my veins‚ i know the holy words; threads. #— thy empty words shall avail thee not; headcanons.

[punkwasp]

Free Palestine - ceasefire now!

EDIT: the strike is over but I am leaving this post up in case any of these resources are helpful

There is currently a strike for Palestine taking place from February 18th, 2024, to February 25th, 2024. During this time, I will only be posting about Palestine on this account and doing what I can to spread awareness. If you are able, I highly recommend participating in the strike in whatever way you are able - something is always better than nothing. Staying home from work and/or school, not buying anything that isn't strictly necessary, using your social media platforms only to boost posts about Palestine, etc., are all ways to help the efforts!

Below are various links for ways you can help Palestine, including educational resources, petitions, fundraisers, etc. If you have any to add on, please do, these are just the ones I've found so far.

Palestine Red Crescent Society

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

eSims For Gaza

Decolonize Palestine (Patreon)

Jewish Voice For Peace

Help Gaza Children

Islamic Relief Canada's Palestine Emergency Appeal

Medical Aid For Palestinians

Gisha (Israeli organization working to protect Palestinians' rights to the freedom of movement)

Click to help Palestine daily

Palestine Action

Attend an upcoming protest for Palestine (remember to mask up if possible, COVID isn't over)

Sign a petition to urge governments to invoke the genocide convention to stop the war on Gaza

Sign a petition from Amnesty calling for a ceasefire

Check this list of ways to demand a ceasefire in Gaza

Sign the petition for Canada to take urgent action for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza

Download these posters to print out and put up in your area and/or share on socials to build awareness

Join the BDS boycott

Check out resources and ways to help from Justice For All

Donate to the Gofundme for medical expenses for Hisham, a Palestinian-Irish-American who was shot in an anti-Palestinian hate crime in Burlington, Vermont

The Palestine Academy's Palestine 101

Palestinian literature recommendations

Check out Independent Jewish Voices Canada and their campaigns to help Palestine

Join Palestine Action to help bring down Israel's weapons trade

Shop Palestine (online store where your purchases support artisans in Palestine and in refugee camps in Lebanon, proceeds go to Middle East Children’s Alliance's work supporting Palestinian children)

Donate direct aid to Gaza (run by a longtime activist and volunteer who has been carrying out donations and humanitarian projects in Gaza since 2021)

Buy from the Hirbawi factory (this is the last kufiya factory in Palestine that is still active, purchasing helps support the Palestinian economy, which has not been in a great state for a while)

Spreadsheet listing mutual aid

#i speak #free gaza #free palestine #strike for palestine #strike for gaza #palestine genocide #palestine #gaza #ceasefire now #ceasefire in gaza #all eyes on palestine

[ljf613]

Alright, Chanukah starts tonight, which means it's time for me to finally make a post about different kinds of menorahs.

This right here? This is the Temple Menorah:

There's some debate over whether the branches were straight or curved, but here's a few things we do know:

It had seven branches of equal length.

It was made of one solid piece of gold

It was at least five feet tall.

It used pure olive oil.

The Temple Menorah is what people mean when they talk about The Menorah. It's what you'll see on historical or commemorative artifacts such as the Arch of Titus in Rome or Israeli currency:

During the time when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the High Priest lit all seven flames on this Menorah every day (using the aforementioned pure olive oil):

No one lights this on Chanukah.

This is a Chanukah menorah:

There are countless variations, but here are the important things:

It has eight branches of equal length, plus a ninth "helper" branch, known as the shamash, which is set apart from the rest of the branches and used to light the others.

It can be made of any material.

It is usually used with wax candles or oil, but, if necessary, one can use anything that burns.

In Hebrew, this kind of menorah is called a chanukiah.

Some Chanukah menorahs, like the one shown above, have the shamash in the middle. Others have it on the side:

Regardless, this kind of menorah is the one that has been lit by Jews on Chanukah for thousands of years. It's the menorah you'll seen in photographs of Jewish households, including this famous picture taken in Germany in 1931:

(The message written on the back of the photo reads: "Death to Judah"/ So the flag says/ "Judah will live forever"/ So the light answers)

On Chanukah, whoever is lighting the menorah will first light the shamash, then the number of candles corresponding to whichever night of Chanukah it is. The first night, only the rightmost candle is lit, the second night the two rightmost, etc. (The newest candle is always lit first):

Again, a valid Chanukah menorah has eight branches of equal length, along with a shamash. There is no such thing as a Chanukah menorah with six branches of equal length and a longer seventh branch, and no valid Chanukah menorah has eight branches of completely different lengths.

If you see either of the above designs (or anything similar) on Chanukah-themed decor, it tells you the creator has absolutely no idea what they're doing and couldn't be bothered to do more than two seconds of research to make sure their product was accurate. Anyone who knows anything about the holiday will laugh at these. (They may buy them anyway, especially if that's all that's available-- my new Chanukah sweater has an invalid menorah pattern, but it's adorable, so I'm still going to wear it. But I am also laughing about it and invite you all to do the same.)

Anyway, have a happy Chanukah, everyone!

#real life #jumblr #thoughts #menorah #chanukah #hanukkah #arch of titus #history lesson #the more you know #all queued up

[spacelazarwolf]

apparently a bunch of ppl on social media are trying to call for a boycott of rick riordan because of this statement in a blog post:

Becky and I are just back from a busy weekend with events at the Boston Book Festival and New York Comic-Con.

Before I get into that, however, some words to acknowledge the ongoing horrors in Israel and Gaza. As many of you may know, I am no longer on social media. My accounts post only updates on my books and related projects. I do not read posts, reply to posts, or share my thoughts about world events on those forums. That doesn’t mean I don’t have strong feelings and reactions. It means I am offline as completely as possible, except for the occasional blog post like this one.

I will say this: Over the last eighteen years, I have received many fan letters from young readers, both Israeli and Palestinian, who often told me that my books helped them escape the fear, grief and anxiety they were dealing with at the time. Some had lost family members to violence. Some were writing while in the distance they could hear explosions, gunfire, and the launching of rockets. They used my books as a way to escape into another world, where the monsters were fictional, and where demigods usually saved the day. While I am always glad that my books can help young readers find joy during difficult times, my heart breaks every time I hear about the things they have to deal with. I am grief-stricken by the horrific events now unfolding, especially because I know that they are part of a long historic pattern that has been robbing too many children of their childhood and perpetuating hatred for far too long.

I am also quite aware that when anyone, myself included, tries to speak about this issue, the reader is waiting to pounce, thinking, “Yes, but whose side are you on?” That is exactly the wrong question. If there are two sides to this issue, those sides are not Palestinian/Israeli or Muslim/Jewish. The two sides are humanitarian and dehumanizing. Dehumanizing has a long evil history. It is appealing and easy to buy into, because humans are tribal animals. We are hardwired to think in terms of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are the real humans, the good guys, the ones with God on our side. Those other people are evil monsters who don’t deserve empathy. Hate mongers have thrived on dehumanizing for as long as there have been humans. It provides them with a purpose, a way to rally support, power, and scapegoats. It is easy to point to atrocities committed by our enemies, while justifying or minimizing the atrocities committed by ourselves or our allies.

Humanitarianism is a much harder sell. It requires us to empathize, to see other groups of people as equally deserving of dignity and quality of life. It requires not always putting ourselves and our needs first. But in the long run, humanitarianism is our only hope. If violence could end violence, if we could put an end to “those other people” once and for all, human history would read very differently than it does.

So yes, I am appalled by the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. I am appalled by the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Both things can be true. Both things must be true. My thoughts are with all the people who have died, who have lost loved ones, who have had their worlds and their lives shattered, especially the children. More death and violence will not break this cycle, which has been going on for generations. There is no military solution. Even since I first wrote the post, only twenty-four hours ago, the Israeli government’s brutal retaliation against the entire population of Gaza has reached genocidal proportions. This is not only an atrocity. It is folly. Answering misery with misery only creates more fertile ground for extremism, dehumanizing the “other side,” letting hate mongers thrive, stay in power, and reduce us all to our most monstrous impulses. The only real solution is treating each other like equally worthy human beings, and negotiating a peace that allows all parties a chance to live in security and dignity, with hopes for a future that does not include bombs and rockets and gunfire. This means security and support for Israel, yes. It also means a secure Palestine which is allowed to get the international aid and recognition it needs to build a viable state.

Do I think that will happen? Unfortunately, no. Humans are simply too selfish, too ready to blame “the other” for all their problems, too ready to dehumanize, though I also believe, perhaps paradoxically, that most people just want to live their lives in peace and have a chance for their children to have a brighter future. The problem is when we don’t allow other people to have those same hopes and dreams — when it becomes a false choice of us versus them.

What can I do? I will continue to write books that I hope will give young readers some joy. I will resist the urge to demonize entire groups of people. I will call for less violence, not more violence. And when asked whose side I am on, I will tell you I am on the side of humanitarianism.

So with that said, I return to the world of books . . .

honestly, if you have a problem with this statement, it’s probably because he’s talking about you. this is exactly what legitimate activists (as in not just random westerners who share social media posts but on-the-ground activists who are doing real work) have been saying for decades. and i think all this really speaks to just how disconnected a lot of westerners who claim to be pro palestinian are from those activists.

if you can’t read a statement that says “i am on the side of humanitarianism and less violence” without immediately jumping to cancel them, you are the problem being discussed in the above statement.

#ip

[fairuzfan]

- Sephardi Jew here. Thank you for your posts concerning Palestinian Jews. Jewish people who are ethnically North African/West Asian are consistently left out of these conversations. Make no mistake - the word "Mizrahi" was invented by Israel to literally strip Palestinian Jews of their identities during the beginning of the occupation. The message was to either assimilate with the Ashkenazi, or die as a Palestinian. The entire reason people struggle to find resources about the history of Palestinian Jews is because it has been purposefully obscured by the occupation. While I am not Palestinian, (that I know of, the other funny thing, diaspora members of the Sephari community often have trouble pinning down our exact heritage, I'll let you guess why) my ethnic background is Moroccan, Libyan, Maltese. Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Sea have always been here, will continue to be here. You don't have to answer this publicly or anything, btw, I just really try to reach out to people who elevate the voices of the Jewish people from this area of the world. It profoundly touches my heart.

of course, no need to thank me. an aspect of the occupation is a lot of palestinian jews have been erased from palestinian history which is pretty heartbreaking as someone who makes it their lifegoal to preserve palestinian cultural heritage and spread it to people.

it is really difficult finding resources on jewish history in SWANA before it was touched by the occupation despite it being a fundamental part of swana history.... and part of that is from european colonialism and the other part of it is collaboration with european colonialists and swana governments.

if anyone has sources on swana jewish history (i know of hadar cohen and avi shlaim rn), please do let me know so i can look into it!!

[fdelopera]

Yo Goyim! Looks like I'm going to need to give some of you a crash course on what antisemitic language looks like, because I've been seeing entirely too much of it from some of you here on Tumblr.

Now, I think it's time for a Jewish history lesson, because I've been seeing way too many Nazi-related conspiracy theories going around. If you hear contradictions to the basic information that I am about to share (i.e., if you hear someone saying that the Jewish people are "a race that originated in Europe"), it is likely that you are hearing a white supremacist, anti-Jewish conspiracy theory.

So, here's the basics of Jewish history. Jews are indigenous to the Levant have been there for thousands of years. The Levantine people that Jews descended from have been in that area of the Levant since the Bronze Age. Jews as a distinct people have been there since the Late Bronze Age. Before it was Palestine it was the Kingdom of Judah, then Judea, and then Judaea, and that is literally where we are from. The word Jew means "a person from the Kingdom of Judah." The Romans renamed the area Syria-Palaestina (which they borrowed from the Greek name Palestina) in the 2nd century CE after destroying the Second Temple in Jerusalem and leading another campaign to try to eradicate the Jewish people (guess what, we're still here, motherfuckers).

And even after the Romans tried to annihilate us, even after they scattered many of us into European diaspora, many Jews came back, again and again over the ages, and there have nearly always been Jewish communities in the region throughout history.

And if you come for me or try to dispute any of this history with white supremacist bullshit, I am a Jew who has studied way more Jewish history than you. And as politely as possible, you can take your white supremacist conspiracy theories and fuck off into the sun.

Okay, with all that out of the way, let's get into it!

Gloves are coming off, because this is just a sampling of the Nazi dogwhistles I've been seeing here on Tumblr about the Jewish civilians who were tortured, murdered, and worse:

- If you say shit like, "The Jews got what they deserved"...

GUESS WHAT? You're talking like a white supremacist, and you need to fucking check yourself.

- And if, on the other hand, you say shit like, "The reports were probably overblown. I think those were paid actors. I don't think those Jews were murdered. No Jewish children were killed. No Jewish bodies were desecrated" blahblahblah...

GUESS WHAT? You get to sit with the Nazis at their table for lunch.

- If you tell Jews "go back to Europe where you came from"...

GUESS WHAT? Not only are you telling the descendants of Jewish refugees to go back to the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, and the Nazi gas chambers, as I explained in this post, but you are also repeating a white supremacist conspiracy theory about the origins of European Jews.

Jews are a Levantine people from the area of the Middle East currently called Israel (formerly called the Kingdom of Judah, and then Judea). While there was some emigration to Europe during the late Roman Republic and the early days of the Roman Empire, the first mass migration of Jews to Europe was a forced migration. Gentiles from the Roman Empire dragged us there as captives after 70 CE, the year Rome destroyed the Second Temple.

- And if you're telling yourself that there are "good Jews" and "bad Jews," and those Jewish civilians were "bad Jews," so they deserved to be tortured and killed...

GUESS WHAT? You're spouting white supremacist ideology.

Antisemitism takes a long time to deprogram.

A lot of gentiles grow up with anti-Jewish ideology that they have never questioned.

And a lot of Christians are kept ignorant about Jewish history because preachers and priests fear it would make Christians question the many inaccuracies in the Bible.

But the first step in noticing antisemitic beliefs is to notice when you start singling people out *because* they are Jewish.

And I have been seeing some of you gleefully celebrating the murder of Jewish civilians *because* they are Jewish.

And that is antisemitism.

That is one step closer to the next generation of Jews getting shoved into the gas chambers. And there are only 16 million of us left in the entire world. We're 0.2% of the world's population. And we cannot afford another Holocaust.

And if your response to me saying that is, "Well, those Jews deserve it."

Guess what. You are making it easier for Nazis and white supremacists to spread hatred and commit acts of violence against Jewish people. And you will have to live with that blood on your conscience.

So...

If you are a gentile, and you see other gentiles repeating these kinds of white supremacist dogwhistles about Jewish people, here's how you can help:

1. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Help them direct their focus away from attacking random Jewish people online and towards helping Palestinians.

Actions that people can take right now are contributing to verified charities and relief organizations that help the people of Gaza. Only donate to organizations that are verified by CharityNavigator.org and CharityWatch.org.

2. Call that shit out. Tell people that they're being antisemitic, and explain that Jew-hatred is dangerous to Jewish people. Antisemitism gets Jews attacked and it gets Jews killed. In the US, many synagogues require round the clock security to protect against white supremacists who want to murder Jews. In Pittsburgh, my old home town, a group of Nazis from north of the city planned the murder of Jewish congregants at Tree of Life Synagogue, and so far only one of them (the gunman) has been arrested and convicted of the murders. The others are still at large.

3. Explain to them that it is antisemitic to celebrate someone's death *because* they're Jewish. ALSO, it is antisemitic to blame a random Jewish person for the actions of ANY government, whether that be the Israeli Government or the US Government.

4. Explain to people that they're not going to solve this conflict by posting antisemitic statements and memes online. All they will do is alienate the Jewish people in their lives and make those Jews feel scared and unsafe. And they will contribute to this current wave of antisemitism.

Antisemitic hatred doesn't help Palestinians. All it does is put Jewish people around the world in danger.

#tl;dr if you celebrate the murder of jews *because* they are jews you are an antisemite - end of story #just fyi - i will be monitoring the comments so if anyone posts anything antisemitic i will delete your comment and block you #antisemitism tw #jumblr

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Been thinking about why the argument that OFMD is inherently a bad show because it's based on historical slaveowners so often feels disingenuous to me as a person of color.

HUGE disclaimer up front: if you don't wanna fuck with the show because of that premise right out the gate, that's 100% valid and I completely get that. I'm not talking about that. What I'm specifically talking about is White fandom people in particular who argue that OFMD must be "problematic" because of this, especially when they say this as some kind of virtue-signalling trying to win points in fandom wars, stuff like that.

My big thing is that the resemblance the characters in OFMD have to their real-world namesakes begins and ends with having the same name. The show feels more to me like it's playing with the vague myths around these names, not the people themselves. Can you make an argument that they should have come up with original characters instead? Sure, but let's be honest, even people who study the irl counterparts have very little knowledge of their actual lives, and the average person has all but none. To add to that, this show has absolutely zero interest in historical accuracy; the moment they cast a Jewish-Polynesian man as Blackbeard that became obvious. No one is saying the real-life Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were good people, least of all the show itself; the point is that OFMD's versions are basically original characters already.

It always feels like an incredibly disingenuous claim to parallel the show to Hamilton, because Hamilton both did care about historical accuracy and also brought up the slave trade. Hamilton is uncomfortable for so many poc because it writes poc into the story of otherwise very faithfully portrayed racists, colonizers, and slaveowners and just handwaves the racism. In OFMD, racism exists, but the stance is always explicitly anti-racist and anti-colonialist in a way that is just so fun to see (whom among us has not wished to skin a racist with a snail fork?).

The other thing that sticks for me is...there's an appropriate amount of slavery I want to see in my romcoms, and that amount is none. I am so sick of historical fiction where Black characters are only there for trauma porn about the horrors of the slave trade. You can make a legitimate argument that OFMD is handwavey about the slave trade, but I'd argue that including discussion of the slave trade is something that should be done with such incredible care that it would leave us with a show that can't really be a comedy at all anymore. OFMD's characters of color are allowed to be nuanced, complex characters with their own emotions, and it's incredibly refreshing to see, and I'd much rather have that than yet another historical fiction show where the only characters of color are only there to make White audiences feel virtuous about how sad they feel for them.

In conclusion, I guess: every yt person who makes this argument to win points in a fandom war owes me and every other fan of color a million dollars

#ofmd #our flag means death

[borom1r]

hi i saw you majored in german !!!! i wanted to ask what that was like, cuz im considering getting a minor in it (havent started it yet cuz i tested out of all of my unis german classes except for two of them)

oh it was a ton of fun! i think itll depend on what university yr at, my department was technically "German, Nordic, Scandinavian and Dutch" and you chose either "German" or "Nordic, Scandinavian and Dutch" as your focus lol— I wound up taking a ton of really interesting courses beyond the language. The big thing is there'll be Major/Minor work as part of a course so you receive actual credit

like, I took a course on the Holocaust that was a joint course between the German dept and the Jewish Studies dept and for Major credit I had to do some extra work in the language in addition to the regular coursework. It's usually a short essay or you can do your discussion posts in German, sth like that (discussion posts depend on how many German majors/minors are in the class). Also, if your department is like mine where the Germanic languages are lumped together, you might really enjoy the "NSD" side of GNSD. took a Scandinavian Crime Fiction class that was INCREDIBLE.

if you enjoy the language + tested out of most of the German language classes anyways I'd say it's def worth pursuing. I don't know if minors have to do any sort of capstone so I can't speak on that, but for majors at my university we had the option to take a 5000 level course and use our final paper as our capstone— so I got to use my final essay for a course on "War in German Media" as my capstone project, and that was incredibly fun too

#i feel like im exposing myself as a war buff. im really not lol #my DAD is tho #ANYWAYS gonna take a quick sec in the tags to say; to ANYONE. if you have the opportunity to take a course on the Holocaust fucking take it #idgaf how much you know abt WWII/that era. learn abt it in a structured academic setting and hear from actual fucking jewish voices #i cant express how grateful i am that i got to take one that was joint between the german + jewish studies dept. #it is a hard course to take but that is the point + with the wealth of antisemitic bullshit spreading online. take the opportunity to #educate yrself. #also gonna plug Belonging/Heimat by Nora Krug bc as sm1 who.. not necessarily MYSELF as much but watched my dad struggle w/ being german #+ well. the goddamn nazis. that book is a very powerful fuckin read. #ALSO GOTTA FUCKING UHHH PLUG #WESTFRONT 1918 #MY SINGLE FAVORITE WAR MOVIE OF ALL TIME. GOD I LOVE THAT FUCKING MOVIE ITS HORRIFIC ITS TRAGIC ITS BITTERLY FUCKING FUNNY #ask #its been a hot minute since i graduated lol but im always down to answer questions!