#jewish ya
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Kate In Waiting Review
Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli
CW: Swearing, Cyber-bullying, Bullying, Underage Drinking, References to Sex, Homophobic Parent, Mentions of Divorce, Mentions of Transphobia
4/5
Delightfully Jewish and wonderfully queer - that’s exactly what you can expect from most of Becky Albertalli's books! It did get off to a rough start, though. Albertalli is one of my go-to authors, so it was no surprise that I was at least going to give Kate In Waiting a chance. I stuck with it because I felt like I wasn't getting enough Jewish content lately. However, it's possible I'm starting to get to the age where contemporary realistic-fiction teen novels are too young for me. That sounds like hearsay, but the two main characters got on my nerves until I gave them a second chance and I am glad that I did.
Kate in Waiting is centered around Kate, Anderson, their crush, and the school play. Kate and Anderson have an odd habit of sharing crushes. They don't like a boy unless they are both into him. It's normally more about having something to gush about together than actually being into someone. When their mutual camp crush moves to their school and joins their musical, real feelings start to arise. Kate and Anderson's friendship may be in jeopardy. As they work on the musical, both characters will gain revelations regarding themselves and others.
It was the dynamic of shared crushes and Kate's hyperactive personality that turned me off. I ended up taking a break, listening to some music, and then turning it back on about an hour later. Immediately I heard references to Judaism in a hilarious bathroom banter scene, so I knew I was going to stick with it. Despite Kate and Anderson's mutual crush on the character Matt, I started shipping Kate with Noah from the moment he appeared. They aren't exactly enemies (as my favorite trope would ask for), but they do banter a lot. Having this potential other crush allows the audience some hope for Kate AND Anderson. We can just be along for the ride.
Albertalli tends to write a non-practicing, but culturally Jewish character. I also tend to be drawn to non-practicing, but culturally Jewish characters. I understand that doesn't provide my readers with a lot of temple-going books, but I gravitate towards the books that I can relate to. I did grow up going to temple, religious school, and being very involved in the youth group, but in my adulthood, I'm more just proud of and interested in my Judaism than practicing. Kate in Waiting is no exception to these things. There are several Jewish characters in the book (both confirmed and suspected), Shabbat is observed once, Kate and her family use Yiddish, and Kate and Noah used to play with their Challah and sing in the temple choir. These and other culturally-Jewish things made me happy with the overall Jewishness of the book.
As far as books of this genre and books by Albertalli go, it's average. It isn't bad, it isn't great. It was sweet, funny, and played with a dynamic I've never seen before. Judaism is very saturated within the book, something I'm always looking for more of. The side characters are enjoyable, but I didn't feel like I knew them very well. I both liked and disliked that I related to Kate. Some things hit too close to home, but others I relished reading. I also enjoyed references such as Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Tangled, and more.
Kate in Waiting is a mixed bag, but overall a worthwhile read. If you choose to pass, you won't miss anything. If you opt to pick it up, you won't be disappointed. Make the choice that feels right to you!
Happy Book Lovers Day!
#jewish authors#becky albertalli#jewish ya#ya books#bookblogger#queer books#book blog#rom com books#queer characters#jewish books#black representation#nerdy teen characters#book lovers day
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#really think about this one lol#before you choose#passover#pesach#plagues#egypt#torah#history#polls#jewish humor#jumblr#frogs will probably be most popular bc ya know. tumblr lmao
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(source: The Central New Jersey Home News, December 11, 1921.)
#typhus - dysentery - frost bite#just give me all the gritty details santa#point of interest: Lillian was Jewish#I'm curious if her family incorporated Santa in their Hanukkah celebrations#or if she just decided it was worth a shot#also 'Lillian Reuer and the Books of Knowledge' is my new ya series#1920s#dear santa#new jersey#history#christmas#weird little girls#(affectionate)
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I hate to have to state the obvious, but people know hating/'getting rid of ' Jews won't fix the world somehow - right? Believe me, that one's certainly been tried and tested
#actually jewish#jewish#jumblr#antisemitism#kind of dark humor#people really be like 'jews = bad' is a super cool new idea that will solve all our problems#insert eye roll#jew hatred is not 'valid political criticism'#you can discuss politics without spreading hate and violence ya know
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As someone who is the only Jew in their town, I can't tell you how important the jumblr community was/is to me. In many ways, at times, it was my main educational resource when it came to Judaism and the only place I could interact with other Jews. Seeing other people proud of their Jewish identity, instead of feeling like they had to hide it, was an almost revolutionary idea to me and has encouraged me to be proud of my Judaism in every facet of my life. I know that many others are in a similar situation, and I just wanted to highlight that if you're running a Judaism-centric blog, you're almost guaranteed to be a resource for other Jews who do not have access to a community.
#i commute an hour to my job every day#and the town my job is in has a larger jewish population#but for a while ya girl was the only one lol#jumblr#judaism#jewish#jews#jew stuff#i love judaism#jewblr#frumblr
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What headcanons do you have about the young Strade?
i think i've thought more about strade's background than gato has so woe. massive lore/headcanon dump be upon ye
born june 26th 1980 and raised in germany
youngest of two brothers
jewish! mother married a non-jew and tried to continue practising, but due to (obvious) stressors, stopped when the boys were still young
doesn’t practice but picked up on yiddish and has a few ethnic features (darker skin tone/hair, dark body hair, etc) that give him away to those in the know
lived in a small town in east germany and his childhood home was rural as fuck (like had to walk two miles just to go to school, rural).
didn’t see a city until he was in his late teens. would retain a preference for smaller cities and towns into adulthood (likes the privacy it gives him)
small family, not in contact with any extended relatives (due to mum immigrating to germany in the 70s).
parents divorced when he was about six or seven, and he lived rurally with his dad while his mum travelled back to the city to get away from east german politics and find new connections (got remarried while she was at it)
his older brother died when he was four (brother was eight) and strade watched him die by falling out of a tree and a branch puncturing his throat
even though it was an accident (and it was, strade had no desire to kill anyone at that age), he definitely wasn’t that sad about it
the death of his brother woke up something. weird in him and he poked and prodded the dead body (who didn't immediately die) for hours until his parents found him in the forest
remarkably well-adjusted other than that.
good upbringing, good relationship with his dad. they weren’t particularly close by any means but because he was the masculine standard that young boys were in the 80s and 90s, so his dad was like “ah. good. no worries here” (not knowing his son was a massive fag lmao)
did okay at school but left it without further study (no university or college) to work as a physical labourer + carpenter with his dad
father passed away when he was twenty-one (lung cancer), leaving him the house, the land where they worked and a chunk of change to fuck around with
he sold the house (now regrets it) and the land and moved to the city to try and build up a relationship with his mum (didn't work out, hence the lack of contact in his older years)
MORE HEADCANONS HERE about strade being a berlin party gay and how he got introduced to his line of work :)
#once again. if gato said anything to contradict this. no she didn't#strade btd#strade ykmet#grease trap#qs#headcanons#boyfriend to death#also my jewish strade headcanon. be normal about it or I'll block ya <3
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Sorry to be a bother, but I (mid-conversion) have a request, if you aren't too busy and don't mind.
Could you please reccomend some great fiction books, YA, Adult, other, where the main character just happens to be Jewish? And preferably not made a victim or a villain by the author, written by a jew would be even better.
Thanks for your consideration:)
Omg yes absolutely yes. When The Angels Left The Old Country is absolutely amazing. It's so completely Jewish that I honestly feel like it'd be inseparable from Judaism. If one is to take everything Jewish out of that book then that book cannot exist anymore. The writing and representation is absolutely incredible. It does have some antisemitism portrayed in it due to the historical setting of the story, but it isn't the main focus of the book.
Black Bird Blue Road is also really really centered on Judaism, also to the point where the book couldn't exist without it. It's definitely meant for a younger audience, but even so it is an absolutely fantastic book that I believe can be enjoyed by anyone.
Anya And The Dragon was by far one of my favorite books by a Jewish author that I've read. It's set in imperial Russia, so there is also some antisemitism, but it isn't the center of the story. This book is significantly less centered on Judaism, but even so the author does not let the reader forget that the protagonist is Jewish. There's even a scene where the protag is at an event with food and ends up barely eating anything because nothing was kosher, which I'd honestly never seen addressed in a book before. While both of the previous books were written about Judaism in big ways, this book (and its sequel) were focused on the seemingly smaller things that still ended up being big things. It is also worth noting that this book had a strong focus on Russian folklore and I'm not sure if some references to it would make sense to those who are unfamiliar with it, but those details would seem like interesting bits of world building anyway, so don't let that dissuade you from reading it!!
What I Like About You is definitely a book I'd recommend. It's solidly in the YA category, as opposed to the previous two. The protagonist is Jewish, but part of the book is her connecting with Judaism a bit more. If I remember correctly, antisemitism isn't really addressed in this book, but there are representations of panic attacks and anxiety about dying, so if those may be an issue then this is a book to skip. The book is centered on romance, and I have read it like five times. There's also representation of very observant Jewish characters, as well as mixed Jewish characters, so the protag isn't the only Jewish character.
As If On Cue is so so good. It's by the same author as the previous recommendation and it does have a scene or two where antisemitism I'd addressed, but it is done so well. Both protagonist and love interest are Jewish, but not very observant. Even so, the author portrays how their Jewishness affects how they interact with the world in some parts of the books. This book is the ultimate rivals to lovers book and I highly recommend.
There are a few other books with Jewish protagonists that I could recommend, but I think these are the best ones that I've read. All of them are written by Jewish authors and are amazingly written.
This was such a great question to get though omg, I love books so much. Books are like most of my personality. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to rant about Jewish books!!
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In a social media graphic for the book, the author describes Imogen as having "queer discourse brainworms", which is a good way to put it. She tries to educate herself about queer issues, but just ends up thinking that there’s only one right way to be queer. She doesn’t feel the same way about girls as she does in her crushes on guys, so she concludes that means she doesn’t like girls at all. Even when faced with obvious evidence to the contrary, she convinces herself that she’s just trying to be bisexual for clout and that she’s a bad person for appropriating queerness.
Imogen longs to be part of the queer community, and while I’m sure there is some 100% straight and cis person this applies to in the world, it’s such a relatable queer experience. I was in middle school when I excitedly talked about looking forward to joining the Gay/Straight Alliance in high school, and how if I could choose, I’d be pansexual and panromantic. But, of course, I too was "hopelessly straight"…
The Enthusiastic Ally to Bisexual Pipeline: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli was reviewed at the Lesbrary
#queer books#sapphic books#bisexual books#LGBTQ books#bisexual#ya#young adult#reviews#becky albertalli#imogen obviously#Jewish#lesbian love interest#bisexual main character#bisexual author#coming out#queer friend group#queer community
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A happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate, and happy holidays to all!
#mario#luigi#bowser#bowser jr#me art#hanukkah#hiiii everyone i'm not dead!#most of my stuff has been og content that i've neglected to post hdfjghh#this is the first fanart i've made in a WHILE bc I wanted to make something a bit more for the holidays#but yeah! i associate mario w/ a jewish friend of mine & wanted some ugly sweater action#mario's sweater says challah at ya boy#i missed drawing them they're so fun
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oh if you ever are curious about non-maghrebi/egyptian african synagogues i highly recommend this website. they're unfortunately not as recorded in pictures as the other sorts of synagogues i post, but there is comprehensive information on them.
#jewish#info#my posts#also how interesting that there's such a marked difference between the ones for the 'black' and 'white' jews#like zimbabwe and south africa have synagogues for european jews that came but not one for the extant lemba jewish community#afaik they just didnt have them (and just prayed at peoples homes) but i could be wrong#(man the bullshit lemba jews have to go thru re: their 'legitimacy' reminds me of treatment of native americans w black ancestry in the us)#but ya synagogues in the maghreb and egypt are pretty well-documented so i dont include them#unfortunately info online on african synagogues everywhere that isnt those places is scarce
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there have been a lot of little coincidences in my life that just make sense for who i turned out to be, and i just think it's so interesting that i ended up running a blog where i fiercely combat antisemitism everyday and refuse to budge on it despite the disgusting asks i receive when my surname is an occupational name for a maker of cudgels and mallets and "maccabee" literally means hammer.
#g talks#and my maternal grandmother can trace her lineage back to israel#it's all just very inch resting ya know#stuff i like to think about sometimes#jumblr#mine#/mobile#/okay to reblog#(after thought: it's also interesting considering the times we're in that brought this on)#(like i was open-ish about my jewishness and antisemitism)#(but this horrible time we're living through really brought it out)#(and it makes me more pissed than ever when i see that shit)
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I don't know if I can explain the context behind this but do I really need to
(translation: the best medicine is revolution and amphetamines)
#jumblr#yiddish#jewish#adhd#labor#i mean come on its the labor bund ya gotta do it for the labor bund#jewish stuff
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New Release Spotlight: How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow
New Release Spotlight: How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow
Love light Sapphic YA romance? Love queer holiday romance? Excited to see a book mesh the two and be resplendent with nerdery? It’s got enemies-to-lovers! It’s got Jewish rep! It’s cozy and funny and basically exactly what you want to read as the fall turns to winter, and I loved it so much I blurbed it, so I’ll throw that in here too, because why not: “With wit and chemistry that crackle like a…
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#Christmas#f/f Romance#featured#Hanukkah#HarperTeen#Holiday#How to Excavate a Heart#Jake Maia Arlow#Jewish#Lesbian#Sapphic#YA
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#drew something for the first time in a long ass time#i don't rlly post art on tumblr but i want to save it to my phone easier lmao so here ya go#art#mine#itxt#isaacsartt#lgbt#ok to reblog#trans#trans art#gay art#trans jew#transfag#transmasc#jewish
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Genuinely baffling to me how so many people seem to conflate Zionism and Judaism, seeing as the vast majority of Zionists in the U.S. are Christian...
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just thinking about Her (Ariela Barer as Nina Zenik)
#Respect to Danielle but that really was one of the most Jewish coded characters of YA#And Jewtine Nina is so important. So revolutionary. Canon in my heart
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