#jewish diaspora

[fromgoy2joy]

I’m still nearly crying laughing from this interaction that happened yesterday.

I wore my Magen David in French lecture. It is 8:30 in the morning. I sat down next to this random girl that I’d never really seen before.

She looks at me for 0.7 seconds before starting to avidly sketch palestenian flags on her notes for the next hour and a half. Like pages and pages of the symbol, glancing at me the entire time.

Whoaaa, you really showed me up. I’m deeply offended and don’t know what to do with myself ! Help! I’m meeeeelting! The supposed Zionism in me is burning!!

Like I have no opinions on that flag. No grudge or resentment. But what makes someone go angry bird attack mode when seeing a symbol that’s Jewish adjacent?

#fromgoy2joy thoughts #jewish #jumblr #jewblr #jewish tumblr #jewish conversion #jewish convert #tw antisemtism #antisemitism #jewish humor #judaism stuff #jewish diaspora #dark jewish humor

[hindahoney]

Jewish prayer book from Kaifeng, China, written with Chinese and Hebrew characters

#jumblr #judaism #jewish #frumblr #jewish history #jewish art #jewblr #judaica #jewish diaspora #keifeng jews

[tikkunolamresistance]

It’s almost Purim!

#purim #jumblr #jewish diaspora #jewblr #jewish holidays

[applesauce42069]

when i went to poland for the first time last year for a seminar everyone i knew really pushed this idea that i was returning to my homeland. I didn't like it because I knew they could never understand what I felt. In some ways, poland did feel like a homeland to me, mostly because of the rich Ashkenazi history there and the knowledge that my family lived there for centuries, all the way up until the 1968 ethnic cleansing. There was very little left there for me today, the Jewish civilization there was destroyed, but the ground felt special to me, because I knew that generations upon generations of my family walked on it.

It, in some ways, is my country but, it's not my homeland. I am not a Pole and no one in my family has ever been. We were Jews who lived in Poland, and then we were Polish Jews. Poland is special to me but is not where I come from and it is not where my people come from. Hell, it's the last, not the first place, in Europe where my family lived. It's not even where we got our European genes from.

But it is one of those things that you just can't expect people to get.

#jumblr #jewish identity #jewish diaspora #polish jew

[socialist-microwave-laser]

the main thing that "leftist" goyim need to understand is that there isn't one definition of the word "zionism." "zionist" is not an insult, and it does not beget genocide or colonialism, because zionism for jews has many different meanings, each with their own interpretations of the state of israel and action points regarding palestine, with only a tiny portion of those advocating for any sort of violence against palestinians. if i had to boil everything down to brass tacks, i'd say zionism is the feeling that jews have a connection with eretz israel.* but there's so much that falls under that umbrella. there's christian zionism (which jewitches just did a wonderful episode discussing it and its genocidal roots with a very good bibliography [link here]), there's theodore herzl's definition that's like "yes i love colonialism let's do that!!!" (but also he was also toying with the idea of all the jews moving to argentina?). there's some (very few of whom are jewish) zionists who are uncritical of the israeli govt, there are some that want to see it dismantled immediately, and obviously there are many that lie somewhere in between the two. there are some jewish zionists who see medinas israel* as a miracle, and there are others who see it as blasphemy (either because of the belief that am israel* should not return from diaspora until the arrival of the moshiach (messiah), or because medinas israel has been doing a lot of monstrous, heinous, honestly un-jewish shit supposedly in the name of jews and judaism)

it is impossible to quickly sum up the wide scope of zionisms that exist today within judaism, not to mention those outside of it. however, it is important to note that for many jews, zionism is a word that merely describes longing, or even a longing for the ability to long. to quote my rabbi: "for me, zionism means i wish eretz israel was a place i longed to live." (the reasons why it isn't are the same reasons why any one of us critiques medinas israel—it is a horrid state doing horrifying, unspeakable things. to my rabbi and to many others, zionism means the eradication of medinas israel as it exists.)

there is currently a problem of people talking past each other, where some say anti-zionism is antisemitism and others say all zionists have blood on their hands. many of those in the camp of the former are often so broad in their definition of anti-zionism that that phrase is rendered nothing but unhelpful (at best), and many of those in the camp of the latter have such a narrow understanding of what zionism is that it completely turns off anybody who does have a more complete understanding of that word

this post is not intended to even scratch the surface of describing the meanings of all the different zionist movements and beliefs that haven't coalesced into any movement on any wikipedia page. rather, this post is to show non-jews who identify as leftists that are still open to learning about jewish experiences that zionism is not what the snappy, tens of thousands of note posts will lead you to believe. to those who say "death to zionists" please know that jews will not trust you, because you're calling for the deaths of a lot more jews than you think

eretz israel = the land of israel

medinas/medinat israel = the state of israel

am israel = the people of israel (jews)

these are all terms that are frequently used in jewish spaces and liturgy, especially the first and third. i have made the personal decision to use them in my daily conversations, because in liturgy that i interact with daily, "israel" means the third one, and i am very conscious to delineate the three, and especially to draw a distinction between the state of israel, the land that is so central to jewish liturgy, and the jewish people

#i made important text colorful bc i know big blocks of text can be hard for some people #also for the last time there are more zionist christians in the united states than there are jews on this planet #christians are using jews and muslims as pawns in their little game to summon the second coming of jesus #result in the complete eradication of all jews and muslims. we are their cannon fodder #and jews who have decided to side with them need to stop voting for the fucking leopards eating peoples' faces party #medinas israel #jumblr #zionism #anarchist #anti zionism #palestine #christian zionism #jewish zionism #jewish diaspora #tsiyyonus definition

[stealth-liberal]

So, a small bit of good news. I live in a small city in a conservative area of the Southern California Sonoran Desert. I've written a lot about how right-wing antisemitism has impacted my life and my children's lives. I've written about how my area has solidarity between lots of marginalized groups... including the Jewish and Muslim communities. We're both small enough that we don't have the privilege of not uniting against larger threats.

My daughter is the leader of the Jewish Student Club at her high school. She is also a member of the women's empowerment club, the Pride club, and joined the Black Student Union as an ally. She works HARD to build bridges and to maintain reciprocity. On Friday, she and the leader of the Muslim Student Club met and hammered out a joint statement. And it was something to be proud of.

Both girls maintained that there is absolutely no reason for ANYONE to be holding Jewish and Muslim students accountable for events happening in a foreign country on the other side of the world. That Antisemitism and Islamaphobia in the wake of this war is unacceptable and not conducive to academic settings. I won't go through it point by point, but they really went into the safety concerns both groups have, the wounds from past events both groups have and the very real fear that is ruining lives right now.

They didn't make a statement of support for either side in the Israel/Hamas War, they did something better. They acknowledged that they weren't geopolitical experts and couldn't make fully educated statements. At least not without far more education than either girl has right now. These two teenage girls did something more mature than just about every hate choked idiot I've seen online and out in the world.

I am proud of both these girls, I've met the leader of the Muslim Student Club's mother, and we both think we raised our daughters right.

#sl speaks #jumblr #jewish #israel #jewish diaspora #there is another path #after this war i hope we find it

[edenfenixblogs]

Fellow white/white passing Ashkenazim:

Did you also have trouble identifying your race as a child? I ask because I was talking with another Jewish person recently, one who I know personally and have known for several years. Do you recall being actually physically darker skinned as a child?

Because I’m home visiting my family right now and all the photos of me as a child… I was just straight up brown. And I remember everyone always commenting on my “tan” that was just how I looked. But now I’m pasty AF. And I remember it happening. At some point in high school the shade of foundation I wore drastically lightened. And I thought I’d just been spending too much time inside and needed sun. But it never darkened again. I also remember my mom commenting on how “pale” I was getting. And my friend was telling me that she also had the same experience.

And I have this theory that many (idk if it’s most or all or just a minority but a lot of people) Ashkenazim also have this experience.

In many ways, “whiteness” was thrust upon many of us without our consent as a result of centuries of oppression, expulsion, genocide, and abuse in European countries. As such, I wonder if this is a legit genetic quirk we share or if anyone has ever studied or looked into this.

Im not trying to negate the privilege we get as white passing people or trying to step on anyone’s toes here. I’m just curious how many other people have experienced this?

#jumblr #race #biology #evolution #jewish diaspora

[mental-mona]

#jumblr #jewish history #jewish diaspora #jewish interest #history books

[lovingdread]

Telling myself that if I already picked up the language for a ceremony I actively fought against as a kid, nothing can stop me from learning modern Hebrew as an adult if I wanna be fluent someday..

#goosebumps #jumblr #jewish diaspora #i'm sick of being monolingual! dammit! #chroniccoffin

[fromgoy2joy]

This has been said before, but the once striving community that was Jewish Tumblr is a ghost town. I scroll past blogs that have been empty since November 2023. Stupid jokes I post get barely any interaction, abnormally low compared to even just a few months ago. Everyday, I have a mutual message me “hey, it’s gotten too bad on here, I’m deleting this app for my sanity. Here’s my discord to keep in contact-“

And.. all I can think about is how isolating it is. How I post funny little anecdotes that won’t reach people now because they’ve been chased off a platform they’ve probably been on since early teen-hood. It’s not about likes or reblog on my stupid little account here. The rampant unquestioned antisemitism enforced as a near-law on this site is abysmal and should terrify all of us.

What happens? After they take our voices and stomp on it, uncaring? Chase us off one of the most social justice oriented platforms there is? What is this a sign of what’s to come?

And most of us- most of us know the answer to that.

#fromgoy2joy thoughts #jumblr #jewish #jewish convert #jewblr #jewish tumblr #antisemitism #tw antisemtism #jewish diaspora #jewishness

[theculturedmarxist]

In a speech at a World Jewish Conference at Geneva in 1934, Wise attacked the Labourites who had become the dominant force in Palestinian Zionism: One leading Palestinian put it over and over again at Prague: Palestine has primacy. This conference must clearly state, that while Palestine has primacy over all other factors in the equation, its primacy ceases when it comes into conflict with a higher moral law. [28] Wise had identified the rot in the WZO: the land of Israel had become far more important than the needs of the people Israel. Labour Zionism had become, in the fullest sense, a utopian cult. They saw a new Jew in the old Jewish land as the only way for a Jewish nation to continue to exist. The real Jewish people, the millions of Jews of the Diaspora, were no more than a reservoir from which they would pick young immigrants to build their state. The Diaspora, as such, was doomed: either the Jews would be driven out, as in Germany, or assimilated as in France. With this strange perspective that Jewish survival stood or fell with them in Israel, the Zionists were driven to seek more from the Nazis to make their vision into a reality.

Lenni Brenner — Zionism in the Age of the Dictators

#israel #zionism #jewish diaspora

[tikkunolamresistance]

Howdy, big fan… but worth noting though that only 10% of Israeli citizens have dual citizenship. The Brooklyn apartment assumption is a major dog whistle to be frank

Hi! Wasn’t intentional at all and if you have more resources to share on this dog-whistle then we’re happy to read and obviously forward that education. There’s always going to be mistakes made even within building revolutionary framework.

To explain the post in question; we used Brooklyn, NYC as an example as the land itself is home to a larger Jewish population, and that same land is Lenape land. The recognition of this is just a fact— NYC is home to a large Jewish community, and there is a beautiful history there of intercommunity relations and solidarity. So much culture and tradition has grown and intertwined in the Jewish communities there. With that, it was a joke at recognising our own community too are settlers on Indigenous land— and though our diaspora have cultural ties to these cities, it is strictly still anothers indigenous land.

A lot of anti-Zionists Jews recognise they themselves are still settlers on Turtle Island (the Americas) but the bigger issue itself is that, what progressive conversions are being had by Jewish spaces to recognise they themselves as settlers on another land in the United States, Australia and other colonies? What work is being done to aid Indigenous liberation? We cannot sanctify the Jewish community from this movement.

We must recognise that for as much as the State Israel is a settler-colonial state, as is the United States. As is Australia. Jewish diaspora are included in the conversation of Land Back. The uprooting of the Israeli State must take the United States with it.

Regarding the 10% of settlers with Dual-citizenship — that’s still a huge amount of people! A huge amount of people who have the luxury to relocate, the same luxury Palestinians are not offered as they are placed in apartheid on their own land. Citizens who only hold a singular citizenship that is not internationally recognised.

Apologies if it seemed insensitive, but as a Jewish collective, it’s important to bite the bullet and address issues in the diaspora. Jewish people are not absolved from citicism, either, but we will and should always call out blatant Antisemitism and bigotry against us. We’re open to criticism always!

#org responses #jewish diaspora #jumblr

[ouroboros8ontology]

The anomalous position of the Jew in the modern world is but a latter-day version of the fate that has dogged his footsteps ever since he wandered forth among strange and hostile peoples. In no time and place, however, was his status—and his plight—so manifestly unique as in medieval Europe. The essence of that uniqueness lay in his ambiguous relationship to the Christian society in which he led his precarious existence, on the one hand influenced by all the objective forces which molded his environment, on the other, shut off from that environment by insurmountable walls of suspicion and animosity. His willful persistence in his religious cultural “difference” from the intolerant Christian civilization of the day, the dogmatic enmity fostered by the Church, his minority status coupled with an effective economic competition with his non-Jewish neighbors, all these combined to create an attitude of envy and hatred. But these alone do not tell the whole story; we must admit a further element into the psychological complex which determines the attitude of Christian toward Jew—an element which today has lost its force in the composition of [antisemitism], but which in the Middle Ages loomed very large. For it contributed the emotion of fear, even of superstitious dread, in an age when superstition was the prevailing faith not alone of the masses, but of many of their leaders as well.

Sorcery was a very real and terrifying phenomenon in those days, and many medieval Christians looked upon the Jew as the magician par excellence.

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Legend of Jewish Sorcery

#joshua trachtenberg #jewish magic and superstition #jewish magic and superstition: a study in folk religion #the legend of jewish sorcery #antisemitism #jewish diaspora

[koshercosplay]

ayo, i currently just remebered a story concept i had that has a lot of jews in it and i was wondering if you knew any good recorces about diffrent practices between diffrent groups of jews all over the world?

im familar with basicaly only ashkenazi practices so i think that could be useful.

you'd probably get the most information by searching for specific practices, as opposed to searching broadly. like searching specifically for "moroccan jews" "ethiopian jews" etc. depending on who you want to write.

that being said, you might find some helpful information on JPR's website, as well as the Jews Around the Globe Archives from myjewishlearning.

I know that you probably already know this, but I'm going to put this here in case others find it useful/don't know what you mean by ashkenazi:

generally, the large categories of jewish experience will be grouped geographically into ashkenazi (european), sephardic (originally meant just spain and portugal, now also includes africa and the middle east), and mizrachi (mena - middle east, north africa). please note that these categories don't encompass everyone: ethiopian jews tend to be their own category, among others. but broadly speaking, these are the big groups.

good luck in your search!

#i hope those links help you somewhat! #and I'm sorry for taking so long to answer this #as always if anyone has more information or knows some good sources feels free to jump in #asks #answers #jewish diaspora #jewish diversity #writing #jewish tradition #rose-icosahedron

[havatabanca]

#puerto rican jews #jewish puerto ricans #jewish diaspora #caribbean jews #west indian jews #latino jews #jewish latinos #anti semitism #israel #palestine #israel hamas war #israel hamas conflict #hamas terrorism #takes

[fromchaostocosmos]

Home

Tell me please, what is the time limit

How long does it take for home to long be your home

The places you built to be determined not have been built by you, decided by a council of your murders

How long after you stolen from, beaten out off, take in shackles from, your home. A home you return time and time again. A home you haven't left ever and home you couldn't return because to so would cause the death of everyone you know and everyone you love.

How long after they have taken your name and call you something else and you stop fighting back and go with.

How long after they have stolen the your tongue, your language, the words passed generation to generation. Until you clawed it back from its death rattle.

How much time passes that you considered to longer belong to your no matter what history says, science says, your DNA says, archaeology says, what you have said for thousands and thousands of years.

How much time must pass when determined that enough has passed and you are long indigenous and native to your land. Your home. That you yearn for. You cry out for. You dream of. Where ancestors are buried, where your bones wish to buried too. Your soul aches for.

At what point is it decided that now you are the colonizer. You are the same as those you stole you, beat you, raped you, used you, took you, abused you, took everything you held dear, took your name, took your family, and left nothing, but pain, chaos, devastation, destruction, and death wherever they went.

And who gets to makes this decision. Who gets to decide these things. About you, without your say so, without your consent, and without any care for the deep lasting scars they have left gouged in you.

So I ask you again, please tell me what it the time limit and who decides?

When you have your answer I must ask why? Why?

#jewish pain #antisemitism #jewish diaspora #diaspora mood #jewish feelings #jewish things #poetry #sort of #just feeling things