#progressive jews

[agentfascinateur]

"Nothing anti-Semitic about opposing genocide"

- Lela Tolajian

To us, progressive Jews, it appears elected officials who proudly stood by Donald Trump after he refused to condemn neo-Nazis and dined with anti-Semites value our voices only when they can tokenise a select few to fulfil their political goals. Conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of a modern apartheid state is dangerous historical revisionism. 

#palestine #palestinians #gaza #genocide #israeli apartheid #israeli occupation #free palestine #free gaza #war crimes #justice #progressive jews #protests #pro palestine #tokenism #usa #us politics #biden administration #netanyahu the madman #benjamin netanyahu #right wing extremism #settler colonialism #settler violence #idf #idf terrorists #iof #iof terrorism #civilian deaths #ww3 #anthony blinken #pentagon

[eretzyisrael]

JTA and Andrew Lapin

Almost as soon as the piece appeared online, it began drawing criticism from within the Guernica staff. Founded in 2004 partly in response to the Iraq War and named after Pablo Picasso's famous anti-war painting, the nonprofit magazine has long married literary bona fides and left-wing politics.

Joshua Gutterman Tranen, an anti-Zionist Jewish writer who has published in Guernica in the past, specifically pointed out a passage he found objectionable in which Chen briefly pauses her volunteer work after October 7, writing, "How could I continue after Hamas had massacred and kidnapped so many civilians, including Road to Recovery members, such as Vivian Silver, a longtime Canadian peace activist? And I have to admit, I was afraid for my own life."

"The moment in the Guernica essay where the Israeli writer – who never considers why Palestinian children don't have access to adequate healthcare b/c of colonization and apartheid – says she has to stop assisting them getting medical support because of 'Hamas,'" Tranen tweeted. "This is genocidal."

Chen's essay is not the first time progressive Jews and Israelis have been condemned for being insufficiently critical of Israel. The official movement to boycott Israel, for example, called for a boycott of Standing Together, an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence group that opposes the war, saying that the group promotes "normalization" of Israel. And when Haymarket Books, a left-wing publisher, recently announced a book co-authored by longtime leaders of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, it drew sharp criticism on Instagram – in part because one author, who supports boycotting Israel, is married to an Israeli and has family members in Israel.

For some Jews who have questioned their place in progressive and literary spaces since October 7, Guernica's retraction offered new evidence of a toxic discourse in which no Israeli or Jew can pass muster.

"THIS is what was beyond the pale? This essay of nuance, lived experiences, fears, hopes, and continuing to strive in her own way for peace?" tweeted Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a historian of modern Israel who has written about her own struggle to sustain her liberal Zionist outlook after the attack, after reading the retracted piece. "Obviously this is just a bigoted decision about an Israeli and Jewish author … This virtual burning of books is bareknuckled antisemitism."

Emily Fox Kaplan, a Jewish writer who had shared the essay before it was retracted, wrote that she saw the criticism of Chen's essay as part of a much wider dynamic.

"The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human," she tweeted. "The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance."

Some non-Jewish writers also lamented the piece's retraction.

Matt Gallagher, a war correspondent who is also a veteran and who opposes the Israel-Hamas war, said his own work had benefited from reading thoughtful authors whose perspectives were different from his own.

"If you want the war in Gaza to end, as I do," he tweeted, "shouting down calm Israeli voices mulling the ruin of it all isn't going to help."

#guernica #guernica magazine #progressive jews #joanna chen #israel #hamas #gaza #jews #jewish writers #boycott #antisemitism #israelis as human

[jewreallythinkthat]

Something I really don't understand is this obsession the anti-Israel crowd (in the West) have with death and martyrdom. All they care about is dying, and often killing for their cause; I see nothing about building a better future that isn't based on the murder of 9 million Israelis.

It's easy to die for a cause. The challenge is living to make a better tomorrow.

#jumblr #antisemitism #i/p #killing yourself and others does nothing to promote peace. frankly killing others is just terrorism in this scenario #if you want peace then you should be workng with jews and israelis #deal with antisemitism islamophobia and the rot in the knesset to move towards a two state solution #anything other than a two state solution is discrimination and death #dying for your cause is not cute or progressive. its lazy because you didnt want to put in the effort to do real work moving forwards #jews are 0.2 of the worlds population. if you refuse to engage with them you are the problem #majority voice doesnt mean correct. it just means loud #if your voice is leading to people killing themselves then you need to take a long hard look in a mirror

[nonbinary-vents]

There’s been a distinct shift in how leftist Jew haters are starting to express their Jew hatred and it’s… very back to the old days, to put it lightly. It’s two specific things that I’ve seen. The more moderate stance of ‘it’s so terrible that the bad Jews are playing into Jew hating canards, how dare they!!’ which, just… ugh. And then you have the extremes, the ones who say ‘yeah, I hate Jews, but it’s their fault because of them being the scum of humanity’, it’s the ‘Hitler hated Jews for shit they didn’t do but I hate Jews for shit they did do!’ (a direct quote taken from someone who I can only describe as completely deranged)

And, honestly, seeing this shift has kind of broken me

At this point, there is no denial left. There is no going back. The pretences are starting to be dropped, people are becoming more and more comfortable with their Jew hatred being about Jews, and they’ve realised that it’s acceptable to say that out loud. All they need to do is say it’s our fault, and they get a free pass. We are fully back in the nineteenth century, all we’re missing is the ‘no dogs, no Jews’ signs (oh wait— what’s that about a bar in America banning all (((Zionists)))?) and the pogroms that go with it (oh no, what’s that about Russia, Dagestan, an airport, and a hotel?). We’re back in mid twentieth century Iran, where Jews are stuck between a country not yet legally aggressive to us, and all of the people in said country who want us dead

I don’t think things in the west are at the level of nineteenth century Europe yet, just in the style. But I’m also smart, I’m also connected to my history. My safta left Iran in 1951, at the age of ten, because her family saw what was happening. Ninety thousand other Jews in Iran saw it too. They caught on and they left. And then two decades later the revolution happened, and now our family can’t even visit without being executed. Many Jews have convinced themselves that we’ve assimilated, that were just like everyone else, that were safe. But we’re not safe. We are a people who have been persecuted and expelled and massacred for over two thousand years, it’s not going to suddenly stop now. And now that the people who are supposed to be fighting to keep us safe have started killing us, we have nobody but each other

I don’t think everyone should pack up and leave their countries right now. But I do think you should have a suitcase ready

#I feel like something has fundamentally broken in me #and seeing the progression of the emotional states of the other Jews on this site over the past few months shows me I’m not unique for that #Jewish stuff #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #jew hatred #jumblr #I feel kind of bad tagging jumblr because it’s supposed to be a happy place #but I just need a community right now

[gay-jewish-bucky]

A high-quality edit of Keshet's Jewish Progress Pride Flag

#jumblr #jewish #judaism #i love this version of the jewish progress flag so much #pride #pride month #queer jews #jewish and queer #lgbt jews #queer #lgbt #lgbt+ #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #lgbtqia #lgbtqia+ #I could only find it in 480p #so i made it myself dslga;sdjlghkjdas #also made the colours more vibrant

[gay-otlc]

Sure you hate nazis but do you, like, actually respect Jews?

#me @ internet progressives #'fuck nazis! anyway all jews are personally responsible for the actions of the israeli government' #or 'fuck nazis! anyway religion is inherently bad and the world would be a better place with no religious people' #hating nazis isn't enough you also have to not be a dick to jews #jew crew #antisemitism

[rotzaprachim]

imho the left had just as much issue with philosemitism as Christian Zionists but in different ways and it’s become super obvious with the open season on the Jews. Like there’s been years of posts treating Judaism like the ultimate liberal self-help book rather than its own complex and varied set of traditions and cultures with their own cultural inter community complexities and problems (right wing tziyonut, the political actions of medinas yisrael, and colorism among others) as the oppositional Good Religion that was everything Christianity was not. Like people kept holding up Judaism as the Good Ones when it came to abortion, birth control, lgbt rights, trans rights, and so forth and it’s true many Jews (though not all) do hold progressive opinions on those topics including those who consider themselves religious but treating a whole group as either a moral positive or negative is so strange especially once after some Jews in a specific part of the world started doing something really bad, people everywhere have decided that Jews as a whole and Judaism as a whole are morally corrupt and impure and at the heart of the worlds problems

#It’s so conditional and fakeeeee #All the punch gd in a dennys people now just openly saying how they dislike Jews #The simple reality is that a lot of Jews who hold very very progressive opinions on the economy income inequality blm and abortion ALSO #Consider themselves supporters of the state of yisrael and this is called human beings have a complex relationslity to the world and #Political platforms

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

In the midst of rich kids screaming “fuck the Jews” and “burn down Tel Aviv”, proof of life was offered for Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Not that those kids will care.

The hostages were fake, but then the hostages fell in love with their captors?

They want Israeli women to speak out about the rape to believe them, but the women were lying when they spoke out anyway?

Hamas are just innocent freedom fighters for the liberation of Palestine, but also “fuck the Jews” and “burn Tel Aviv to the ground” “by any means necessary”.

There was no real violence on Oct. 7th, but also we have a video of a man’s arm blown off before being taken into Gaza. And his proof of life was released yesterday with a mangled arm and shaved head.

Just know, in your desperate search for oppression, you have alienated every Jewish person in the world. You have shown us your true colors. We will never trust you again. You began these protests before an Israeli response was even started. You don’t protest for people in any other part of that region. You don’t even protest for Palestinians when it’s their own people killing them.

It was never about Israel. And we will never forget that.

#jewish #israel #jewblr #jumblr #pro israel #hamas is evil #antisemites #israel 🇮🇱 #israel is our home #we have no place else to go #jews are indigenous to israel #anti zionism is antisemitism #queer antisemitism #leftists hide their antisemitism challenge #antisemitism on the left #leftist antisemitism #progressives are the biggest antisemites atp

[hussyknee]

People declaring the Pope should excommunicate Joe Biden for genocide has me like??? Bro...what do you think the Catholic Church was built on...

#Pope Francis did call for a ceasefire and actually used the word ''cease'' even if he used waffly both-sides language #he's also been pretty progressive about recognizing and apologizing for the church's role #in the Canadian First Nation's and Rwandan genocides #but that's still bare minimum #and there was that whole deal with the Catholic Church helping save Jews in the Holocaust #but trying to help the people you helped victimize in the first place shouldn't be counted IMO #certainly doesn't erase centuries of Jewish persecution #xtianty #colonialism #Spanish colonialism #Portuguese colonialism #genocide #genocide Joe #free palestine #knee of huss

[uncanny-tranny]

At this point, talks about "mutilated bodies" tell me everything I need to know about people's politics. I truly don't believe you can combine the idea of mutilated or degenerate bodies with anything even slightly progressive in terms of autonomy. If you believe yourself to be progressive or anything left of an unapologetic fascist, you frankly cannot truly entertain the idea that some bodies and people are inherently mutilated or degenerate. It is an inherently fascist idea.

#politics #things like this make me almost lose some faith in people #because that is a FUNDAMENTALLY reactionary conservative or even fascist mindset #hate hate hate when 'progressives' want to redeem degenerative theory and imply it can be part of their worldview #and too often the 'mutilated body' refers to women/trans people/PoC even/disabled people... #...wonder why that is! it can't be because those ideas are FUNDAMENTALLY reactionary (sarcasm) #i know i've talked about 'degenerative theory' and its fascist roots before but this shit still goes largely unchallenged imo #you cannot be an anti-fascist fascist. i don't want to see these viewpoints given a platform in so-called 'progressive' spaces #(and too often the 'mutilated bodies' refers to jews too - addendum that is important to add) #ask to tag (genuine) #fascism tw #anti fascism #anti facist

[is-the-fire-real]

Me when they bring up Haman

#jumblr #judaism #purim #jew by choice #jew in progress #jewish convert #jewish positivity #all my shalomies hate haman #somebody asked for more joy and humor for purim so here you go

[spale-vosver]

After five years of beating around the bush, forcing myself into denial over and over again, I'm sick of ignoring what I've known I wanted since I first learned about it:

I'm beginning the Jewish conversion process.

This is a gigantic step for me, but I'm thrilled to take it, and I'm fully confident it's the right choice. I cried when I learned that converts are considered to have Jewish souls that were present at the Temple Mount, I feel unbelievably affirmed and at home when I'm at Jewish services and holidays, and I'm ready to make that official.

To that end, I'd also love to make some Jewish friends! I'm going to tag @vaspider to politely ask him to reblog this, and I'll tag this post up so it can be found naturally!

(note: my blog still has some old posts from when I considered myself Christian, and I'm still in the process of deleting them)

#jumblr #jewish tumblr #judaism #jewish #jew in progress #jewish conversion #jewish convert

[jewishboricua]

every time i see someone exclude, mock or ignore queer religious people's existence (whether from bigoted religious people or bigoted queer people) i think it should be perfectly acceptable for us to punch them in the face for that

#bonus points if the person is NOT christian (queer jew in progress here!) #yes i saw smth bigoted earlier btw #queer jews #queer muslim #queer christian #queer religion #queer sikh #queer hindu #queer buddhist #queer people of faith #also yes i love queer atheists and agnostics. that's for a different post though #lgbtq and religious #aggie talks #jumblr #jewblr #<- target audience

[transmascpetewentz]

*jigsaw voice* hello. in front of you is a haggadah. you have 1 month to learn it before passover starts. good luck.

#wentz.txt #jumblr #jew in progress #converting to judaism

[caitlinjohns77]

#antisemitism #israel #jewish #muslim #Judaism #arab superiority #arab supremacy #arab slave trade #arab israeli conflict #arab men #middle east #al jazeera #education #historical revisionism #history #jew in progress #propaganda #palestine #gaza #fuck sharia law #sharia #social issues #social justice #social commentary #free palestine #world news #war #news #politics #trends

[rotzaprachim]

This really is how it is these days

#Marking down why a progressive Jew gets cancelled but I will highlight this is a food historian and recipe blogger