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#synagogue leader
dwuerch-blog · 1 month
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Our First LINE of Defense
In February 2021, I moved to Austin. My son tried to persuade me to take a fourth-floor apartment because the wildlife habitat next door had a beautiful view. That view didn’t matter to me. I didn’t want to wait for an elevator, and I wanted an apartment easily accessible to my car. I’m glad I followed my instincts. Within a few months living here, I heard the clamor of the loudest earthmoving…
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rotzaprachim · 7 months
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fundamentally a horror beyond words happened to my people and some people swore it didn’t happen and a bunch of other people who include also my people decided that terrible things would happen to civilians and idk how to be a part of my own culture atm in any way we should all be filled with shame I found out everyone hates Jews this week in particular white Americans I also found out there were Jews who would use what happened to us to commit ethnic cleansing everyone is screaming someone needs to die
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random2908 · 1 year
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At services tonight, there was a guy--I didn't get his full story, but I think he must have found some Jewish ancestry in a genealogy search or something. So he's shopping around at different synagogues in the area (of which there are... really not very many), trying to find what kind of Judaism suits him best, and looking for adult-ed classes with the goal of conversion. He said his nephew had just finished converting at a Reform synagogue, and had told him Reform would probably be a good fit for him, too, but he wants to look around for himself, of course.
He said he was aware of Yom Kippur and Passover from having had Jewish friends, but had learned at a Reconstructionist synagogue last week that actually there are a lot more holidays than that, which he's excited about.
He also was looking for podcasts with Jewish historical trivia, that seemed like it had become a major interest for him. We were all just like, idk, but the rabbi should definitely know, so ask her.
Anyway, no real point to this post, just the world is full of people!
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umabloomer · 6 months
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I got a job at a Ukrainian museum.
On the first day someone asks me if I have any Ukrainian heritage. I say I had ancestors from Odesa, but they were Jewish, so they weren’t considered Ukrainian, and they wouldn’t have considered themselves Ukrainian. My job is every day I go through boxes of Ukrainian textiles and I write a physical description, take measurements, take photographs, and upload everything into the database. I look up “Jewish” in the database and there is no result. 
Some objects have no context at all, some come with handwritten notes or related documents. I look at thick hand-spun, hand-woven linen heavy with embroidery. Embroidery they say can take a year or more. I think of someone dressed for a wedding in their best clothes they made with their own hands. Some shirts were donated with photographs of the original owners dressed in them, for a dance at the Ukrainian Labour Temple, in 1935. I handle the pieces carefully, looking at how they fit the men in the photos, and how they look almost a hundred years later packed in acid-free tissue. One of the men died a few years later, in the war. He was younger than I am now. The military archive has more photographs of him with his mother, his father, his fiancé. I take care in writing the catalogue entry, breathing in the history, getting tearful. 
I imagine people dressed in their best shirts at Easter, going around town in their best shirts burning the houses of Jews, in their best shirts, killing Jews. A shirt with dense embroidery all over the sleeves and chest has a note that says it is from Husiatyn. I look it up and find that it was largely a Jewish town, and Ukrainians lived in the outskirts. There is a fortress synagogue from the Renaissance period, now abandoned. 
When my partner Aaron visits I take him to an event at the museum where a man shows his collection of over fifty musical instruments from Ukraine, and he plays each one. Children are seated on the floor at the front. We’re standing in a corner, the room full of Ukrainians, very aware that we look like Jews, but not sure if anyone recognizes what that looks like anymore. Aaron gets emotional over a song played on the bandura. 
A note with a dress says it came from the Buchach region. I find a story of Jewish life in Buchach in the early twentieth century, preparing to flee as the Nazis take over. I cry over this.
I’m cataloguing a set of commemorative ribbons that were placed on the grave of a Ukrainian Nationalist leader, Yevhen Konovalets, after he was assassinated. The ribbons were collected and stored by another Nationalist, Andriy Melnyk, who took over leadership after Konovalets’ death. The ribbons are painted or embroidered with messages honouring the dead politician. I start to recognize the word for “leader”, the Cyrillic letters which make up the name of the colonel, the letters “OYH” which stand for Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN in English). The OUN played a big part in the Lviv pogroms in 1941, I learn. The Wikipedia article has a black and white image of a woman in her underwear, running in terror from a man and a young boy carrying a stick of wood. The woman’s face is dark, her nose may be bleeding. Her underwear is torn, her breast exposed. I’m measuring, photographing, recording the stains and loose threads in the banners that honour men who would have done this to me. 
Every day I can’t stop looking at my phone, looking up the news from Gaza, tapping through Instagram stories that show what the news won’t. Half my family won’t talk to the other half, after I share an article by a scholar of Holocaust and genocide studies, who says Israel is committing a genocide. My dad makes a comment that compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. This gets him in trouble. My aunt says I must have learned this antisemitism at university, but there is no excuse for my dad. 
This morning I see images from Israeli attacks in the West Bank, where they are not at war. There are naked bodies on the dusty ground. I’m not sure if they are alive. This is what I think of when I see the image from the Lviv pogrom. If what it means for Jews to be safe from oppression is to become the oppressor, I don’t want safety. I don’t want to speak about Jews as if we are one People, because I have so little in common with those in green uniforms and tanks. I am called a self-hating Jew but I think I am a self-reflecting Jew.
I don’t know how to articulate how it feels to be handling objects which remind me of Jewish traumas I inherited only from history classes and books. Textiles hold evidence of the bodies that made them and used them. I measure the waist of a skirt and notice that it is the same as my waist size. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Jewish homes during pogroms. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Palestinian homes during the ongoing Nakba. Clothes hold the shape of the body that once dressed in them. Sometimes there are tears, mends, stains. I am rummaging through personal belongings in my nitrile gloves. 
I am hands-on learning about the violence caused by Ukrainian Nationalism while more than nine thousand Palestinians have been killed by the State of Israel in three weeks, not to mention all those who have been killed in the last seventy-five years of occupation, in the name of the Jewish Nation, the Jewish People — me? If we (and I am hesitant to say “we”) learned anything from the centuries of being killed, it was how to kill. This should not have been the lesson learned. Zionism wants us to feel constantly like the victims, like we need to defend ourself, like violence is necessary, inevitable. I need community that believes in freedom for all, not just our own People. I need the half of my family who believes in this necessary “self-defence” to remember our history, and not just the one that ends happily ever after with the creation of the State of Israel. Genocide should not be this controversial. We should not be okay with this. 
Tomorrow I will go to work and keep cataloguing banners that honour the leader of an organization which led pogroms. I will keep checking the news, crying into my phone, coordinating with organizers about our next actions, grappling with how we can be a tiny part in ending this genocide that the world won’t acknowledge, out of guilt over the ones it ignored long ago. 
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foxxsong · 8 months
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#i miss going to shul a lot but I'm. conflicted.#my medical stuff that was preventing a lot of it has been improving to the point where i think i technically could again#but the only synagogue that's easily accessible for me is... i dunno. i love the community there#i really do. but they don't have a Rabbi or even offer Judaism 101 classes so i can't progress in conversion like i desperately want#and on top of it they always - at least when I've gone - have some sort of pastor or preacher present who is encouraged to participate#disregarding my distaste with them having Christian leaders present but no Rabbi because i know they're hurting financially#(the previous one retired RIGHT before i was able to start attending. i even got to meet his last conversion student on my first trip. ouch)#i have such severe Christian trauma that the last time i went and the preacher started talking about the bible i nearly had a full blown#panic attack that would've sent me running out of the room if i wasn't trapped in place by how mortified i would've been by doing that#so while i applaud their outreach program stuff and do agree with its necessity because of the size and area they're in#i just. don't feel safe going. but i can't get to the other nearest ones without having to make multiple people drive me.#and it's so close to the High Holy Days that i don't want to scare anyone or be a bother. and i can't get over the feeling that#I'd be abandoning the first community that welcomed me despite them pointing me in this direction since they know they can't help me convert#because i don't know if I'd be able to bring myself to go back even if i wanted to#but at the same time... i can't as easily get to the others. so what would i be meant to do after finishing my conversion?#assuming i even COULD because of the distance.#sigh...#no one said it was gonna be easy but of all the possible hurdles did it really have to be these?#(i wonder sometimes how much their struggle to get more than a handful of people to show up regularly#might also have to do with the fact that I'm not sure how many Jews want to listen to Christian interpretations of the Torah on Shabbos...)
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vague-humanoid · 2 months
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protestors against the selling of Palestinian land were attacked by an armed Zionist.
Pro-Palestinian supporters are calling for a second real estate event planned north of Toronto to be called down over concerns it involves the selling of land in the occupied West Bank.
On Sunday, dozens of people gathered near the Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., to protest an event that organizers say was aimed at helping people in the Toronto area buy property in Israel. They were met with pro-Israeli counterprotesters and Jewish leaders took issue with the Sunday protest taking place outside a synagogue.
But pro-Palestinian protesters say companies associated with the event market property in the West Bank, where over two million Palestinians live under Israel's military occupation, according to the United Nations (UN).
A similar event is expected to take place Thursday at another synagogue in the area. It is unclear whether the two events are connected.
"We weren't there because it's a synagogue, we were there because we were protesting against a real estate show," said Ghada Sasa, who was at the protest over the weekend. 
"[These events] shouldn't be allowed to happen when they're explicitly advertising land on occupied territory."
@el-shab-hussein
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teeforhee · 2 years
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the amount of time it took me to figure out that we're one of the only denominations who print it as the tifilah and everyone else calls it the amidah. so that's why the internet recordings of the amidah sound like our tifilah
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yall goyim need to understand that antisemitism isnt just people being mean online and Ms. JK transphobia rowling having antisemitic tropes in her books. This is shit that happens online of course, just like any other form of bigotry, but it also happens to us in real life. antisemitic incidents can include, but arent limited to:
Defacing jewish symbols
Grafitti of antisemitic symbols
Insults appearances
Using antisemitic slurs
Stalking
Workplace discrimination
Housing discrimination
Education discrimination
Discrimination in mental health spaces
Discrimination in physical health spaces
General attacks on synagogues, chabad centers, and other jewish gatherings
Increased attacks on jewish gatherings during the high holidays
Bomb threats
Shooting threats (this may be a USA specific one if it is please let me know)
Sexual harassment
Sexual assault
Rape
Stabbings
Beatings
Bullying (physical, emotional, sexual)
Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)
Being called pedophiles, rapists, baby killers, nazis, etc. (simply for being jewish not because we have shown any signs we are those things)
Insults based on various antisemitic tropes (blood libel, dual loyalty, Jews controlling the world, etc.)
doxxing
threatening family members and friends
property damage
a lot of other physical violence I didn't mention
targeting of jewish community leaders (esp rabbis)
isolation from the goyische world
chased out of our homes
forcing jews to assimilate
murder
desecrating jewish graves
mocking jews who have died
refusing to believe jewish victims of sexual assault
kidnapping
and probably more that i forgot! if you have anything to add and you're jewish pls do so
these are not rare occurences at all. I have had well over half of these happen to me personally or to a jew that i am very very close to, and I at least distantly know another jew who has experienced one of the others. This is a fucking terrifying thing to deal with and yall don't need to get it but you need to try to understand how bad it can get for us
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Pro-Palestinian supporters are calling for a second real estate event planned north of Toronto to be called down over concerns it involves the selling of land in the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, dozens of people gathered near the Aish Hatorah synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., to protest an event that organizers say was aimed at helping people in the Toronto area buy property in Israel. They were met with pro-Israeli counterprotesters and Jewish leaders took issue with the Sunday protest taking place outside a synagogue. But pro-Palestinian protesters say companies associated with the event market property in the West Bank, where over two million Palestinians live under Israel's military occupation, according to the United Nations (UN). A similar event is expected to take place Thursday at another synagogue in the area. It is unclear whether the two events are connected. "We weren't there because it's a synagogue, we were there because we were protesting against a real estate show," said Ghada Sasa, who was at the protest over the weekend. 
Continue Reading
Tagging @politicsofcanada
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thejewishlink · 2 years
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World Organization of Orthodox Synagogues Calls on Leaders to Condemn Hamas Leader Sinwar After he Calls to Attack Synagogues
World Organization of Orthodox Synagogues Calls on Leaders to Condemn Hamas Leader Sinwar After he Calls to Attack Synagogues
By Aryeh Savir/TPS • 1 May, 2022 Jerusalem, 1 May, 2022 (TPS) — The World Organization of Orthodox Communities and Synagogues called on world leaders to condemn Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar after he apparently called to attack synagogues around the world. Speaking in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Sinwar stated that “those who allow the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be desecrated have in fact made…
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tanadrin · 5 months
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It is also common to hear criticism of Israel described as antisemitic, a fact that has resulted in the paradox of the German state actively suppressing those Jewish voices that do not conform to their expectations. A state-owned cultural center, Oyoun, faces defunding by the Berlin Senate for hosting an evening of “mourning and hope” put together by Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, a Jewish organization. On November 9, the city of Frankfurt on Main forbade a planned rally called “Never again fascism – remembering Kristallnacht, fighting anti-Semitism,” apparently due to the organizer’s past support for Palestine. The police continue to selectively enforce bans on such phrases as  “stop genocide,” “free Palestine,” and “stop the war,” often with no prior announcement. A sanctioned protest in Berlin on November 10, organized by a coalition of Jewish and Israeli groups, resulted in several arrests due to the sudden mid-protest banning of some of these phrases. They included the arrest of a Jewish-Israeli woman who held a sign that read: “As a Jew and Israeli: Stop the Genocide in Gaza.” The war in Gaza comes at a moment when every major political party in Germany is lurching rightward on the issue of migration, embracing xenophobic and Islamophobic policies once reserved for the marginalized far right. “Germany cannot accept any more refugees,” Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, the party of Merkel, said. “We have enough antisemitic men in this country.” Scholz, a Social Democrat, appeared on the cover of Der Spiegel in a determined portrait framed by the quote: “We must finally deport on a grand scale.” The specter of antisemitism has proved opportune for mainstream parties, which are threatened by a surge in popularity for the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, whose platform is proudly anti-immigrant. ... Just as reports of attacks on mosques have risen since October 7, recent incidents of antisemitic crimes have produced fear among Jews in Germany. Stars of David have been painted outside Jewish homes; a synagogue in Berlin was firebombed, albeit with no injuries or property damage. These are not isolated events; the number of antisemitic incidents in 2021 was the highest since authorities began tracking them. Yet politicians’ focus on Muslims and migrants as their source runs contrary to the facts. According to the federal police, the “vast majority” of antisemitic crimes – more than 80 percent — are committed by the far right.
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pettytiredandjewish · 3 months
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So uh… to the “pro-Palestine” crowd
- harassing random jews on the streets (and online) isn’t going to help Palestinians
- swarming and blockading college campus buildings (and hospitals) and chanting genocidal slogans at jews isn’t going to help Palestinians
- defacing synagogues and jewish owned stores isn’t going to help Palestinians
- displaying antisemitic signs and waving nazi flags isn’t going to help Palestinians
- chanting for intifada isn’t going to help Palestinians (Hamas would love that though)
- spreading Hamas propaganda isn’t going to help Palestinians
This doesn’t help Palestinians- but it sure does help Hamas who’s goal is to wipe out Israel and all jews. Also Hamas could care less for Palestinians- why do you think they are being used as human shields???
Doing all of these things makes you antisemitic (some of y’all were probably already antisemitic, and is using the I/P conflict to go fully unmasked). You doing this is causing harm to so many people. And to be honest- doing this shit shows that you actually don’t care for Palestine. In fact you are using this conflict to go fully unmask and be raging antisemitic little asshats.
Instead of doing something that could help those who are affected by this war, you are harassing jews, defacing synagogues, and calling for intifadas. Why is that? (I know the answer- but humor me). Why is this acceptable? How does harassing and harming jews help Palestine? And how does supporting Hamas (a terrorist organization) help Palestine?
Also I may get hate for this but I don’t care: anti Zionism is antisemitism. The term anti Zionist was created during the soviet era by one of the soviet leaders. The Soviet Union hated jews and wanted to stamp them all out. One of the ways that they “succeeded” was “persuading” jews that their culture and religion was dirty. That they- the jews should be ashamed of their “Jewishness”. And that was how anti Zionism came to be.
I said what I said. If you don’t like it then maybe you have some thinking to do.
Also as another fucking reminder:
Stop fucking spreading vile antisemitic shit (and stop harassing Israel citizens) !!! This includes:
- blood libels
- organs harvesting
- holocaust denial
- “hitler was right”
- “gas the jews”
- lizard people
- “jews are rats”
- “jews are rich”
- “jews control the media”
- “jews are landlords”
- the majority of conspiracy theories
- Zionist occupied government
- Zionism is racism
- stop fucking reading protocols of the elders of Zion
- “from the river to the sea…” is a genocidal chant.
- stop calling Israel a “terrorist” state and stop saying that all Israelis are terrorist (people are not their fucking government)
(Just to list a few)
I said what I said and if you don’t like it- the doors over there.
Am yisrael chai! ✡️
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stealth-liberal · 2 months
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Whew, I have a lot to say, and I know for a FACT that not a single non Jewish person on here will give a shit... but I have to vent.
Antisemitism in America is so bad that I honestly don't know if it's safe to send my daughter off to college in 2 years. She doesn't know either. Both of us have discussed her staying home and doing as much of her university education online, so as to keep her safe. She has sensory issues and an anxiety disorder... and already she has been rejected all over the place in her high school campus since 10/7.
The Women's Empowerment Club? The club leader has made it so that no female Jewish student feels safe there, and all of them quit. The little leftist neo nazi in charge of it probably cheered as they left and patted herself on the back for her "praxis". Maybe she can start goose stepping and yelling "Heil Hitler!" while she's at it. But she's not unique. Feminist organizations the world over deny mass rape of Jewish women. Why? Because it's Me Too Unless You're a Jew. They want us all raped and in the grave. Period.
The Pride Club? Forget it. All queer Jewish kids are persona non grata there. Apparently it's cool if Jewish queers are the subject of violence... and I can't say more or I'll start wanting to kill people. I am bisexual, my husband is bisexual, our daughter is lesbian. I have been part of this community since I was 12 as an ally and since I was 15 as a bisexual (took me some time to figure out what I was). My daughter came out in 4th grade for G-d's sake. We've been there, fighting the fight and now... queer organizations all over the world are abandoning us. They honestly hope we will all die, the more violently the better.
I was a proud intersectional feminist and a proud queer woman my whole life. Or at least ever since I could make decisions about that sort of stuff and what I believed. And I have been abandoned, my daughter has been abandoned, for blood sport. Her friends are pulling away from her and we all know why... because she committed the unpardonable sin of being Jewish.
Funny part? The Muslim Student Union has done nothing to her or the other Jewish kids on campus. Ponder that thought leftists if you will.
My son is in 8th grade and for the entirety of his 6th and 7th school years he was relentlessly bullied for being Jewish. We live in a red town and it was right wing antisemitism. It was so bad that I had to remove him for his safety from the school for a while. Now? It's left wing as well, he's catching it from both sides and I don't know how to protect him.
No one cares. Frankly, if my 13 year old son committed suicide to get away from it all... they would throw a party. Another dirty Jew/Zionist down... am I right? None of you give a fuck.
I marched, I protested, I voted, I phone banked. I lived my beliefs in action, and the left betrayed me. They fantasize about me and my children being raped and murdered. The more graphically it could happen, the better for them. Frankly, I think they get off to the videos Hamas released in the privacy of their rooms at night.
There's nowhere to run. Israel isn't an option. I know everyone thinks Jews are dripping in wealth... but I frankly do not have enough money to move my family to the other side of the planet. My husband is in IATSE, the stage hand local. There are no jobs waiting for him there. There are no jobs waiting for me there. I have no family there. Neither does he.
Actually, my husband isn't Jewish. I am, our children are, but he is not. He supports us in our Jewishness 100%, but he is not a Jew and he never wanted to convert. Which is fine with me... but how the hell does that work in a country where there is no civil marriage?
I'm not Orthodox, I don't want to be Orthodox. I want full egalitarianism, so I go to Reform, Renewal, or Conservative synagogues, depending on what is closer to wherever I live. Israel is a VERY Orthodox country, and the options are Orthodox or completely secular. This is a criticism I've been laying at Israel's feet for DECADES.
And Jew Haters better not use this as a way to say how awful Israel is. Not when the countries surrounding Israel are either dictatorships or absolute power, divine right monarchies who kill dissenters constantly.
So... there's really nowhere for my family to go. So I guess I'll stay where I am being a liberal Jew and waiting for the sick marriage of MAGA and Leftists to come to my door and kill me and my family.
None of you care. All of you would cheer. I'll never trust any of you again for the rest of my life. Till the day I die... I'll never trust any of you in any part of my life (online or offline) again.
1 in 5 members of Gen Z think the Holocaust didn't happen. 2/3rds of Gen Z think stories of the Holocaust are exaggerated and that Jews were somewhat complicit in what happened to us. Blame the victim...amirite? The rates amongst Millennials are not as horrific... but they're still bad. You all are going to commit a 2nd Holocaust and pat yourself on the backs. And when history remembers you all as the Nazis part 2... you will babble in your nursing homes that you were "Just trying to save the world from the Zionist/Jewish scourge."
When that happens, I hope you die in a puddle of your own shit.
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matan4il · 6 months
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Daily update post:
Even more than two weeks after the massacre of over 1,400 Israelis, the worst for Jews since the Holocaust, we're still seeing a rise in antisemitism globally:
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A Jewish woman, who was also a leader in her community, was found stabbed to death right outside her house. Twenty seven hour later, the Detroit police still don't have a suspect or motive, but it's hard not to suspect a connection to the toxic antisemitic atmosphere of the past two weeks.
An Israeli elite unit (Maglan) has started using a new weapon, called "steel sting." It's a double guided smart bomb, meant to deliver a more precise impact when fighting in residential areas, so as to minimize damage to unrelated individuals.
There are currently so many Israelis evacuated or homeless, that Israel is expected to establish a "tent city" for some of them.
The following has been a developing story. First I heard about this Israeli Arab who had donated bikes to kids evacuated from the south, and it made me smile. Then I heard his shop was robbed and burned down for this. Now, it turns out there was as crowdfunding campaign to help him rehabilitate his business. If this isn't solidarity at its finest, in all directions, IDK what is. Feeling real emotional about the good that people ARE capable of...
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I keep going back and forth on whether to share the worst of the worst. As a Nonnie who wrote to me hinted, some people seem to be really enjoying the sight of bound, abused, butchered, raped, maimed and burned Jews. It also goes against the Jewish principle of preserving the dead's dignity. But then again, there's been so much denial of these atrocities. Also, I don't think that people can understand what Israelis are going through without sharing that to us, the information keeps coming out. To Israelis (and many people linked to Israel), Oct 7 has been happening for two weeks now. Here's my compromise. I have a link to a Mega folder with horror videos, including stuff like Hamas terrorists filming themselves beheading people. I will not share it. At least not for now. But I will share this link to an article about the forensic work and the evidence, with the fair warning that even though I've seen worse, some of the pictures are not easy to look at.
The moment I started writing about my pain as an Israeli Jew, I started getting hate. So from that place, where I've personally experienced how even our GRIEF is turned into an opportunity to attack us, I wanna share this message from Jewish actor Brett Gelman on IG:
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(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)
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how fucking hard is it to understand that people should not be murdered because of their religion or ethnicity or anything else?!?!
first a palestinian-american child gets stabbed to death and now a jewish american woman, a synagogue leader in detroit, is stabbed to death.
hatred and exploited fear hurt us all. people’s humanity MUST be respected.
end of story.
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ursa-the-stranger · 6 months
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Op had to restrict replies but I wanted to reblog so heres a copy paste of it sans op's name. I will take this down if they ask however.
I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.
At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.
Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.
When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.
We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.
But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.
I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.
You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run.
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