#my jewish childhood

[wahlpaper]

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda: A Jewish Lens

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

CW: Homophobia, Blackmail, Coming Out, Being Outed, Microagressions, Underage Drinking, Sexual Thoughts of Minors, Cyberbullying

5/5

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is an immensely popular book and put Becky Albertalli on the map. With a movie adaption and both spin-off books and a show, this book does not necessarily need another review. However, I see very little discussion of the Jewish elements within the story nor Albertalli's Jewish background's impact on the writing. I am someone who grew up in a Reform synagogue. I was active in my youth group and went to religious school through 12th grade, but I have mostly embraced Judaism culturally as an adult. I am well aware of the complaints against Albertalli's work stating that the books "aren't Jewish enough". I can relate to Albertalli and her books. I can also relate to the other YA Jewish authors that are writing these types of stories and characters. I fully believe and appreciate that these represent a valid Jewish experience.

I put off reading this book for quite a while. I had read The Upside of Unrequited in 2020, knowing it was by the same author but not fully registering they were in the same universe. It was the Judaism that drew me into that book and the nerdiness and queer characters that kept me reading it. That and I rarely pick up a book that I won't want to read all of. I may be a book blogger, but I do not have time for books I do not enjoy. Luckily the connection was minimal, enough for me not to pick up on it. While The Upside of Unrequited was a wonderful book and I recommend that everyone should read it before its movie comes out, it is not the subject of this post.

For a while, I had put off engaging with the rest of the Simonverse because I had heard that the movie did not live up to the hype. I am slow to get around to things, even when given enough evidence that I should give whatever it may be a try. I knew I was in love with Albertalli's writing, especially after reading Yes No Maybe So, and yet the Simonverse remained mostly untouched by me. Finally, several months ago I decided to watch the movie. It was very cute and romantic, it made me want to read the book at some point. From there it was only a matter of finding a lull in my other reading. Thanks to Overdrive's waiting list system, in March I had several books coming soon but none that were available. Thus I caved and found exactly what I could expect from Albertalli. I found a beautifully woven story with great pacing and understandable characters. I also found the Judaism that was missing from the movie.

That's not to say there was a complete lack of Judaism in the movie, but comparing the two, there is a significant difference. Both Nick Eisner (Simon's best friend) and Blue (Simon's mystery pen pal) have Judaism as a part of their identity. I think Nick being Jewish lends itself well to Nick's interest in philosophy. I have always regarded Judaism as being a scholarly religion. We enjoy theory and semantics. I also had a good number of Jewish guy-friends in high school that were glued to their guitars. These things may not be overtly Jewish if you aren't looking for them, but I know what it's like to be a Reform Jewish teen around the time this book was being written, and I know Albetalli as a Jewish writer. She wrote Nick wonderfully in this book.

With Blue, it was more about the experiences than the essence, but that makes sense when most of his page time is dialogue. The comment about Hannukka candles in a hotel setting off the sprinklers was noteworthy. Hannukka may not be the most important Jewish holiday, but when you're growing up in a community that prominently celebrates Christmas and you do not spend much time with a particular parent, the holiday can seem much bigger. While I've never set off sprinklers with candles, I remember not lighting candles in college thanks to them being banned in the dorms. I likely could have asked for a religious exemption, but as I mentioned previously, my adult life has been less religious than my childhood.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is certainly worth the read. Whether you've already seen the movie, are holding back because of its popularity, want a book that is queer and Jewish, or have your own book goals in mind, I recommend it. I understand the characters more than I did in the movie. It seems more likely that Martin does not fully grasp that he is blackmailing Simon, for one. Although, I am upset that neither the book nor the movie saw Martin getting in trouble with the school for his actions. It also seems more likely that Simon would agree to Martin's terms without considering Abby if it was just to help the two spend more time together. Finally, Leah's jealousy of Abby's friendship with Simon from the book works far better than her having a crush on Simon in the movie.

If you're looking for two anonymous pen pals divulging all of their innermost thoughts to each other while eating Oreos and Resse's, you've come to the right place. Fair warning to the adult readers, the sexual thoughts of Simon and Blue may be uncomfortable to read due to the age difference between you and the characters. Their thoughts are natural and valid, but not meant for all readers.

#simonverse #becky albertalli #simon vs thsa #jewish books #jewish authors #queer jews #reform judaism #my jewish childhood #the upside of unrequited #simon and blue #queer teens #teen rom com #bookblogger #hannukah

[sombraluna]

some of my fellow leftists need to understand that your opinions on how the government should be overturned mean nothing if you dont set up community and mutual aid and that the easiest way to do this, at least in appalachia, is through the church. churches feed the poor and preach to them. its real fuckin hard to hate trans people or POC or minorities and preach hate against them if they volunteer to help your community

#like dude. im jewish and still spent most of my childhood volunteering to lead vacation bible school at my local church #and that meant that everyone knew me and knew that preaching hate against me was a big no no #leftist #anarchist #mutual aid

[steevbuckk]

FAVORITE STUCKY FICS | 59/100

I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go) by @voylitscope

[Christmas fic, 48 785 words, Explicit]

Summary:

Bucky Barnes jumps at the chance to take a job opportunity hours from home. He's expecting a fresh start and a decent salary jump. He's not expecting to run into his childhood best friend, Steve Rogers, on his first day. The years since they last talked have been hard ones for both of them, but falling back into their friendship is shockingly easy. Despite their time apart, December in this small town might bring them closer than ever.

(Or, a holiday romcom in which Bucky reads to children, Steve teaches art, new friendships are made, difficult conversations are had, cookies are baked, way too much coffee is consumed, home is found in surprising places and, eventually, feelings are confessed.)

more fics

#100stucky #stucky #stevebucky #fic rec #my recs #christmas #christmas fic #christmas time #steve rogers #bucky barnes #marvel #stucky fic #stucky fic rec #steve and bucky #fluff #domestic #childhood friends to lovers #friends to lovers #childhood friends #jewish bucky barnes #stucky fanfic #steve/bucky #steve x bucky #moodboard #stucky moodboard #steve rogers x bucky barnes #steve rogers/bucky barnes #stucky fics #stucky fanfiction #mcu

[gxlden-angels]

I love getting validated on small things that I didn't even consider like it's always a treat and this time it's Gender

The Fundie Baby Voice™️ has been popping up a lot in ex-christian spaces lately and I actually had one in middle school and part of high school! I learned when and where to use it and how to turn up my southern accent just enough. I can still do it but it sounds weird after 3 years on T. The main place I used it was at church cause it made me sound sweet and polite. I used it for old ladies when I worked at a grocery store too. My family didn't like it when we were just all together cause they said it sounded like baby talk, but loved it when I used it at church cause everyone would tell them how sweet and soft-spoken I was

My therapist said it actively made him feel uncomfortable when I used that voice. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it made him uncomfortable (other than him only knowing me on T) but he very much did not like it and he's so so right for that

#he's a cishet white jewish man so it's always a treat when I talk about something like this #cause it started off about how I felt like my gender is a performance and I will use it to my advantage #I usually talk fairly neutrally and monotone so people find it uncanny when I change it up #especially if it's the way I talk to my family and the church folks that ask about me #Now that I'm on T and had top surgery I love fucking with ppl via my gender presentation #I like the chaos of not correcting ppl and watching them fight amongst themselves over what my gender is #My previous gender was Weird Little Girl #and now i'm Just Some Guy #I don't feel like I was always a guy I feel like my gender at the time was Weird Little Girl #and it changed over time but I loved the performance of being a weird little girl #I was not a girl I was specifically a WLG #And well I still know how to use my old performances even if I'm no longer a weird little girl #I consider myself a guy but not a man and a girlie but not a woman #my gender is whatever is funniest at the moment #My gender is whatever you project onto me. My gender is a mirror to your childhood trauma #anyways I kinda lost the plot but yea I can kinda still use the fundie baby voice but it sounds a lil off #cause I've been on T for over 3 years now #ex christian #religious trauma

[ben-man]

Text:

"you hate this photo, your mother kisses it when she goes to sleep, she kisses it like a rosary. she holds it like a prayer. she asks herself where you went. she tries to forgive herself for not knowing one day would be the last you smiled wide enough to scrunch your nose up. she forgives herself for not remembering it. you hate yourself. you hate the way the fat on your body rolls and undulates, you know the flesh on your bones in this picture must be an illusion, its unbefitting of g-d."

"your father asked you to do a second photo 'with a nice smile this time'. you want him to be happy, and smile when he sees you."

"when they bury you it is in a closed casket, they tell your mother what you have done. she can't hear them over the way you laughed in 1991. her baby is 5. 5 and still growing."

#light yagami #death note #death note fanart #my art #tw: fatphobia #tw fatphobia #tw internalized fatphobia #tw: internalized fatphobia #I like light yagami a lot #I wanted to draw a childhood photo of him #and write about his mom #and the way he smiled big and ugly as a kid #and him having a closed casket #im very normal about him #also for any confused goys wondering why g-d is censored #im very jewish #also he looks at himself when hes five and can only think about how imperfect and ugly he looks #when he was barely old enough to count and still climbed into his mothers bed when he had nightmares #anyway hope my abnormality about him is appreciated by someone #I was originally going to have the final text be 'my baby what have you done?' #I just think he had a lot of self worth issues as teen. I mean what teen doesnt but cmon. he looks like a supermodel and it just honestly #makes more sense if thats because he has some terrible issues and also hes light yagami #he cant be fucking normal about anything #its all the mask and the illusion #not to make the overdone patrick bateman comparison #but ya know

[momosweetpeach]

An important art 🐨🕎

#hannukah #momoart #koala #menorah #so i am neither Jewish or Australian #but my best friend's childhood bestie who is like my friend in law is Jewish and loves Australia #so I drew her this

[nerdfighterwhatevernumbers]

cartoon disney trios of color my beloved

#the ghost and molly mcgee #hailey's on it #i love that the human leads are all poc this is miles ahead of the token black friend most cartoons from my childhood had #if you're curious molly is thai/irish libby is jewish/argentinian and ollie is chinese #scott is filipino kristine is latina and hailey is from hawaii on her dad's side #the irish for molly is a guess because her dad's family is from boston she could be scottish instead #it hasn't been specified where Kristine's family is from but we know her family has latin roots- they could be from all over

[murderballadeer]

like idk how to express this without sounding like i’m saying interfaith kids are an oppressed class but like i think a lot of tumblr jews kind of forget that we exist. like believe it or not the purpose of cutesy christmas/hanukkah combined greeting cards and decorations isn’t exclusively for christians to misunderstand hanukkah and pat themselves on the back for shallow diversity. some of us have one side of the family who celebrates each holiday and/or grew up celebrating both ourselves. again i’m not saying this is a serious political issue or whatever just an observation and minor pet peeve

#soapbox #i mean i think in some jewish communities people also just don’t rly think abt interfaith kids & families #like i have a couple friends who until they met me didn’t know any interfaith kids #& still think it’s like a super rare exotic thing even tho like. almost all my cousins and five of my childhood friends are interfaith kids

[psychologeek]

counting cycle (remember the names)

Goyim and outsiders would talk about the Holocaust, as if -

They know a single thing about it.

(How old were you when you learn that eating after long time of starvation can kill you?)

Calling it "excuse" and "whining" as,

My Arab grandma fast on Tevet 10th, in the memory of her stolen family.

(fifty generations and continents apart. It doesn't matter.)

Talk about the holocaust as if-

You ever looked at the attic and thought

(will they find me?)

Teenagers, born after the 09/11, claim that Bin-Laden was right.

I've heard that,

Most of young Americans

Don't know what those numbers mean -

(6,000,000; 1,500,000, 1945)

I think about never ending things: the sand, and the sea, and a prayer.

(you won't get it)

I guess

Children memorize capital cities

(I was seven when I memorized: Auschwitz-Birkenau-Treblinka-Sobibor-Belzec-Chelmano-)

They say "Kill the jews, save Ukraine Palestine!" And the year is 1919 2023.

(Olga was three, Isac was seven, Fruma was twenty one-)

"Go back to were you came from!" My great grandfather heard in 1932, as he was fired.

The whole community came to say goodbye to the fools, going to Eraz Israel with 4 young children.

(The youngest was so small, he spent the voyage in a basket.)

My gradpa's family was the only one left.

(Mathel from Germany was 4 months, Sara from Poland was 1, Sara from Ukraine was 2, Annie Julie from Algeria was 3, Kaitl from Greece was 4, Rozher from Morocco was 8 -)

I don't have a point, I think

I just remember, as far as our collective memory can reach-

"שבכל דור ודור עומדים אלינו לכלותנו"

(עייפתי)

#poem #Israel #jewish history #my writing #holocaust #jumblr #palestine #history #hamas is isis #hamas #holocaust denials #history repeats itself #can you not #germany #poland #algeria #ukraine #morroco #israel #greece #shoah #mena jews #mena holocaust #holocaust in na #na #usa #children #childhood memories #generational trauma #trauma stuff

[animatedamerican]

Hey tumblr, particularly jumblr, question for you all:

Anyone remember these books?

The All-of-a-Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor? I loved these books as a kid, and I'm curious how many others did too. (Yes, I know there was a fifth; I couldn't find the cover I grew up with, and it just wouldn't feel right to post this with the Wrong Cover.)

#books #nostalgia #my childhood #all-of-a-kind family #weird jewish things #media representation

[honeysuckle-venom]

I have this ex-friend with whom I cut off contact a few years ago. And that was the right call for me, and I'm glad I did it. But sometimes I really miss them. We could talk about certain things that I can't talk about with most other people. And they were my only friend who came from a very very similar Jewish background to me. I have lots of Jewish friends and I love them all dearly. This friend just also grew up Conservative which is a distinct experience that we could talk about. And we had similar views on Israel and experiences with antisemitism and stuff. And it would just have been nice these past few months to have them to talk to as this has all happened. I can and do talk about it with other Jewish friends, and ultimately this specific friendship wasn't healthy for me. But still. Sometimes I wish we could still talk about this stuff together.

#text post #my post #it really is better not to be friends i think #but also like. sometimes sharing certain experiences and viewpoints can be nice #i don't have any Jewish friends who grew up religious the way i did #which is fine! but it was a specific influence on my childhood that can't be easily explained #so it was nice to have someone who grew up the same way

[mossboys]

i’ve been trying to stay off social media in general but honestly nothing has radicalized me like this has. i think about it constantly. i’ve never been on the verge of tears almost constantly because of anything in the news before

#text #most of all i feel absolutely fucking insane seeing the videos i do #reading palestinian testimony in gaza and in diaspora #seeing raw grief and anger just all over my tl every single day is doing a number on me i don’t know what to do with myself #i have never felt a rage like this before i’ll be real. rage at my own country rage at the jews who do nothing and rage at my family #i have family in israel i will never see or talk to until i die. there’s been a permanent rift between me and my parents for years #i am so angry at american jews who have been fed propaganda since childhood and never unlearned any of it at their big ages #i found out what palestine was when i was 13 because i was raised so ultra zionist i did not even know what the land was called before #and when i found out i cut off most of my jewish friends slowly and then most of my family slowly as well #i’m no longer part of any jewish community and i have not been for a long time because of this. it is such a specific kind of heartbreak #and it’s hard to really put into words #mainly i just want to scream i think. #being an anti zionist jew should not be this lonely. where are all your hearts.

[werewolf-swag-competition]

Okay new rule, no Harry Potter characters

#yeah yeah it was a big part of my childhood and i did like that character but knowing now that it was a metaphor for aids #makes me not want to include any hp characters #also im jewish and all the recent hp stuff makes me upset

[apelcini]

it always feels strange saying that i had a shitty childhood because like. i did. but whenever i phrase it like that people always assume parental abuse or neglect and then i have to be like “oh no my parents were great it was just literally every other influence in my life that sucked” and we all just sit there silently for a minute while they freak out about accusing my parents of emotional neglect and i freak out because i said more than an off handed joke about my shitty childhood which is much too vulnerable and none of us enjoy it. so like what am i supposed to say then

#is there a word for i had my needs collectively abused neglected and/or misunderstood by every adult in my childhood to the point of #maladaptive behavioral patterns from my trauma that still affect my relationships to this day #it was a lot of ableism but there was also general lack of regarding children as people and also misogyny and homophobia #and just generally people being selfish and self centered and not caring about each other under capitalism #antisemitism is. a hard one to gauge for my area. lots of racial diversity but very few jews. lotta korean christians and other #demographics who have. very different behavioral values than my new york jewish family lol #yknow what actually. not gonna get into it at 3 am. that’s what you can call hashtag selfcare

[jesterguy]

I have so many posts in drafts about Palestine and I still just don't even know what to say or where to start

#how do i talk about my extremely zionist early education #how do i talk about my birthright trip at age 13 and the impact it had on me as a jew and as a human on this planet #how do i talk about my childhood rabbi reaching out the kids i grew up with offering support for those mourning the loss of history #and also those mourning the lives of colonizers (who ultimately are jews seeking a safe space after hardship at the great expense of others #my fucking guts have been clenched for days i feel like a shell #my mom is more worried about sending my transfem sister to college on her own in the inner city now not bc she's trans but bc she's jewish. #not to mention i always say im 'raised jewish' not actually jewish bc im not! im not jewish ive bever had a conversion. #what fucking right do i have #all i know is my upbringing and my ability as an adult to unpack it. #and how many things that i was taught are WRONG #i didnt get a christian brainwashing a got a zionist brainwashing #anyways all this to say theres always a lot of regard for Palestinian suffering on here as there should be in these situations #but young jews have a fucking weight on them right now like you just would not believe #not that its equal to or greater than the trauma of being palestinian. but just that its not mentioned right now #thats all ive got to say. idk yall are welcome to ask me more about this i just had to spew some of it #might delete #cam talks #if it isnt clear im fully pro palestine and my goal isnt to be any sort of devils advocate here. im just in a very complicated sort of pain #if i posted that email from my middle school rabbi here he would be doxxed and hate crimed. #and you know. i dont like the guy. but the fact that i know thats what would happen tells you a lot.

[lloveyouinsecret]

I’ve already just lamented about this to the entire gc and another friend but I found what seemed to be a super cool nonprofit working with people with disabilities and they had a specific part for young adults which is more of what I’m interested in and the people at the job fair were super nice and I got excited and one of them even gave me their email and said to email them directly but then I found out when I got home that the organization supports israel or at least they did at the end of last year I thought this could have lead to something 😭

#emma talks #i was even looking forward to maybe working with a Jewish nonprofit bc it’s been a while since I’ve #had any significant Jewish or jewish-ish community and while religion isn’t my thing it was a part of my childhood that was good and I like #reconnecting with every now and then:/