#Jewish Embosser

[acornstamps]

Add a meaningful and elegant touch to your documents, stationery, or gifts with the Star of David Embossing Seal – Handheld Embosser. Designed for both beauty and ease of use, this embosser creates a crisp, raised impression of the iconic Star of David, making it ideal for religious ceremonies, bar and bat mitzvah invitations, personal libraries, or Judaica collections. Its compact, handheld design offers convenience and precision, perfect for at-home or on-the-go use.

Product Highlights:

Distinctive Design: Features a detailed Star of David symbol for a traditional, refined look.

Professional Quality Impressions: Leaves a clean, raised mark on paper without smudging.

Handheld and Portable: Lightweight and easy to use, ideal for home, school, or travel.

Durable Construction: Built with sturdy materials for long-lasting performance.

Customizable Options Available: Personalize with a name, date, or text for a unique touch.

Perfect for Special Occasions: Great for religious events, family heirlooms, or as a thoughtful gift.

[cameronsbabydoll]

I loveeee jewish!reader and rafe smmmm! could u do a little bit about reader’s birthday? love ur writing, tysm!!

you wake up in silk sheets, in your penthouse bedroom, with the sunlight pouring in — and rafe is already awake, already in a white t-shirt and sweats, hair messy, standing at the foot of the bed with a tray of breakfast from your favorite spot on the upper east side.

“happy birthday, baby,” he murmurs, bending down to kiss your shoulder as he sets the tray beside you. there’s a gold-embossed card with your name on it and a box from rebag already waiting.

“i got you the smaller birkin too,” he says, like it’s casual. “so you don’t have to carry the big one when we go to dinners.”

he already planned your whole day:

a blowout at your favorite salon

lunch at the jewish country club with your friends (he picked up the check)

and a surprise dinner in the Hamptons — where your family and his are already waiting at a private chef’s table.

he booked a driver just for the day, sent your favorite flowers to every room in the house, and ordered a cake from that one tiny bakery in Paris you mentioned once in passing last year. yes, he had it flown in. yes, it was stupid expensive. no, he doesn’t care.

and when you come home — tipsy from wine, glowing from attention, in heels and jewelry and a new dress — rafe’s waiting with his arms open and his voice low:

“birthday girl still wants her real present?”

[anonymousewrites]

Burden of Truth Holiday Special

Father Figure! Marc Spector x Teen! Reader

Father Figure! Steven Grant x Teen! Reader

Holiday Special

            “(Y/N), was your family—I mean, are you religious?” asked Steven.

            “Smooth,” said Marc sarcastically from the mirror.

            Steven winced.

            “I don’t think about that a lot,” said (Y/N), shrugging. “I learned that gods of different pantheons existed before I had a chance to grow into my own religious beliefs, so I just didn’t think about it.”

            “So you never celebrated any holidays?” said Steven, frowning.

            “Ma’at didn’t think about them,” said (Y/N) straightforwardly. It wasn’t that Ma’at scoffed at them, it was that she forgot about them since they didn’t apply to her in any capacity so she had no reason to pay attention to them.

            “Like any? No Hannukah?” said Steven—he and Marc were Jewish, after all.

            “Or Christmas?” said Marc.

            “My parents celebrated when I was younger,” said (Y/N).

            “…What about your birthday?” said Marc.

            (Y/N) paused. They tiled their head. “Huh.”

            “You don’t remember your birthday?” said Steven, eyes widening.

            “Is that bad?” said (Y/N).

            “Yeah, kid, it’s one of those ‘definitely a traumatic moment’ things we talked about that isn’t normal,” said Marc.

            “Oh,” said (Y/N). They gathered their plate from lunch and headed to the kitchen. “Well. I can’t change it now.”

            “Marc,” said Steven, looking at the mirror.

            “I know,” said Marc, sighing.

            “We should do something,” said Steven. “The holiday season is coming up for us, but they haven’t gotten any holidays in years.”

            “We can get them something,” said Marc. “We’ll take care of them.”

            “Good,” said Steven. “They deserve to have someone watch out for them.”

            (Y/N) deserved to have parents people take care of them. They were still a kid, after all.

l

            “The kugel was delicious, Marc,” said (Y/N).

            A few days had passed since the previous discussion, and it was “family dinner” as Steven called it playfully. He had said it once and, instantly, (Y/N) and Marc had gotten strange, so Steven never said it again. Secretly, though, (Y/N) called it that. Just in their own mind, but it was there. They liked the idea of a family dinner. They hadn’t had one in so long…

            “How did you like the brisket?” said Steven from the reflection in the fishtank. “I made it today.”

            “That was also good,” said (Y/N).

            “Good job, Steven,” said Marc.

            Steven grinned. “Now that we’ve eaten and the candle for the night is lit—” the menorah on the shelves of the room gleamed in the evening air “—we have something to show you, (Y/N).”

            They blinked. “Really?”

            “Yeah,” said Marc, standing and going to a chest of drawers. He opened it and pulled out a box wrapped in blue with a lopsided bow. “Here.” He held it out.

            “Is that for me?” said (Y/N).

            “Who else would it be for?” said Marc.

            “Of course it’s for you,” said Steven. “(Y/N), you deserve gifts for the holiday season! I mean, we only have one—”

            “I love it,” blurted out (Y/N), taking the present.

            “You don’t even know what it is,” said Marc.

            “I know I’ll like it,” said (Y/N). Just the fact that Marc and Steven had gotten them a gift made them smile. No one had thought about them and even what they might want or enjoy in so long.

            “Go on, open it,” said Steven encouragingly.

            (Y/N) nodded and pulled the ribbon off. Then, they unwrapped the gift. Excited, they lifted the top of the box off. Inside was an old book with a worn cover. The title was in an old language, embossed in the leather. (Y/N) ran their hand over it in awe.

            “We know your family loved history, anthropology, and archaeology,” said Steven. “And you’ve been going to lots of bookshops around London, so when we saw that…”

            “We thought of you, your family, and your languages,” said Marc.

            “Is that alright?” said Steven.

            (Y/N) sniffled and wiped their eyes. They smiled at Marc and then at the reflection with Steven tearily. “Yeah. It’s alright.” This was a true gift for them. It reminded them of their parents and all that they had bonded over with their mom and dad. And now they had Marc and Steven. “Thank you.”

            Marc hesitated before hugging (Y/N). “You’re welcome, (Y/N).”

            “We’re here for you, (Y/N),” said Steven.

            After all, as comfortable as (Y/N) felt being hugged by Marc and cared for by Steven, they also cared about (Y/N). They were their kid.

Taglist:

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@severussimp

@dmitrytherat

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@alexpangender

@thewittyfanficreader

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[lepertamar]

Since it was buried deep in a long esoteric fandom post, i kinda want to extract and expand on this comment as its own post

There is an ancient, global, historical and cultural meme: a ton of christian concepts of Satan, and of Hell, and satanic-ness, is based on antisemitic interpretations of jews. but also, and i mean this in the coolest possible way, as a Jew, much of it also has very strong similarities to real actual Jewish imagery -- in particular, to Jewish G-d.

take the explicit, overwhelming, absolutely ubiquitous association of G-d with fire, to the point where it is the overwhelmingly primary attribute of G-d, and any invocation of fire in the jewish tanakh hints at connotations of....obviously, well, G-d. (To be clear re: hell and fire: the technical likely origin of one of multiple components of the development of hell in metaphors of the new testament is gehenna/gehinnom, a valley outside jerusalem that acquired legends around it, at least a couple of which are fire-associated, but i'm obviously not making a Motive-Origin argument here (that would be for really hardcore archeologists) -- the real point is that in the text it's such a casual and passing set of imagery compared to eg 'the entirety of exodus and leviticus' that the very comparison makes the cultural eliding of this dovetailing/eliding of the 'g-d-as-fire' imagery while holding onto a instant connotation of 'hellfire' imagery pretty head-tilting in its own right). Blood dashing and blood marking, and flesh sacrifice by slaughtering and burning of offerings is religiously jewish, throughout the jewish Tanakh, especially in Exodus. The frightening imagery of fire and brimstone that in the tanakh marks G-d’s presence (in Sodom, at Sinai, at the red sea, in the ark of the covenant) has entered basic western vocabulary in the opposite direction, where this imagery -- imagery that in the sources characterizes all of G-d's and the Jews' presence and religious behavior in Exodus and throughout the rest of the Tanakh -- is casually described as hellish and satanic. Volcanoes' lava fields are 'hellish', fires of natural gases producing pillars of flame and smoke (that led the tribes in the desert and out of egypt in exodus) are 'hellish'. rituals of fire and blood and burning and heavy costumery and ancient crumbling scrolls hidden in arks embossed and engraved with strange tongues (all according to direct unsubverted tradition and commandment) are satanic.

and the devil obv has a characterization echoing judaism’s depiction of jewish G-d: as a challenging and frightening and alluring figure who straddles fae-adjacent borders between tricksterish disruption and extreme legalism, who makes deals and bargains (covenants, even) with humans.

In mainstream christianity it's a distancing game -- a forcible identification of all these recognizable attributes of G-d and judaism with the non-god, christian figure of the devil and the non-godly place of hell; and simultaneously an identification of jewish g-d with christian god (after all these attributes are stripped out), and of christian god with extremely different attributes, or at least opposition to the devil. But not always.

It's found in exactly as many words in foundational early Gnostic theology that had a great amount of influence on the development of early christianity: it explicitly and actively (rather than the implicit coding above that mainstream christian imagery does) identifies Jewish G-d, as in the exact God of the Jews who is depicted in the Torah, as a false god, the archon and demiurge, who should not be, who is responsible for creating the material world as an illusory, fallen, sinful, inherently corrupted world as an intentional prison, rather than an incomplete starting point a la grapes-but-not-wine, and whom Jews evilly or deludedly follow to maintain the existence of this sinful world rather than escaping to the neoplatonic purity of true forms, where the True God, the New Testament god who includes Jesus Christ, rules instead.

It's pretty ~normal as a process goes! (it in fact totally mirrors some stuff in judaism, where we identified various things as treyf because they had connotations of a canaanite pagan thing LMAO. semiotics using ingroups and outgroups in this way is very very common, and normal! and jewish g-d, of course, with Its troubled, complex heart, in many ways originates from israelite religion folding the hearts of many different canaanite gods into one person). but in this case it's maybe unique in scope and subtlety, for contingent historical reasons. mainstream christianity didn't like it, but this exact sort of rearrangement of identification repeats in several sects afterwards (catharism of the albegensian heresy fame being a well known one). mostly because well it's kind of obvious in terms of imagery, personality, and opposition, even if obviously totally dull and bland in terms of which direction is supposed to be the 'correct' or 'godly' one. but as i said, mainstream christianity always suppressed these heresies plenty even though mainstream christianity was obviously also very antisemitic, which is interesting: a case of the sign outstripping the signified to an incredible extent and of mainstream christianity being more invested in the project of backdooring-in identification with the god in question (eg the designation of gnosticism as a heretical sect by christianity, because mainstream christians preferred to recontextualize/repurpose jewish g-d in a supercessionism way, rather than break from It and allow jewish g-d to be defined by/identified with jews, even if in the gnostics’ explicitly evil way).

it does also have a weird and funny? consequence more modernly, among ppl who backlash to christianity with eg [demonic imagery is cool] stuff and don't realize what it looks like to people who have a slightly larger camera aperture: just skipping over the entire existence of judaism in terms of why the hell-stuff exists or is a hell-thing in the first place (there are a few reasons, and this is the big one). like, it DOES feel bizarre when there's like, ppl trying to be edgy and subversive by embracing christian demonicness that [checks notes] is just aesthetics and attitudes that are just very traditional jewish imagery and ritual. yk it just feels a bit....'hm....do they....uh.....know...'. when the old satanists 'inverted' the jesus pentagrammaton with uh, just the sigil of baphomet, as if the hebrew lettering etc is originally christian. like….

as most peopel know, the association of judaism with satanism is both extremely a longstanding Thing in antisemitism, but also smth jews are Super dystonic and jumpy to disclaim for obvious reasons.

now ofc jews's flat statement that this association is just 'fake' is like.....'true', in that while judaism certainly developed in the past 2 millennia with an awareness of christianity and in the same world as a variety of other cultural influences, judaism is obviously not about christianity. as in, it doesn't categorize its elements and framework of the world according to christian elements and frameworks. reversed or otherwise. but 'it's fake' is not like...a complete or interesting answer i guess. (like, it implies all hell aesthetics were totally independent and preexisting and judaism was only associated with it post-hoc); it's also kinda, giving up ground? in the going straight to 'hdu say we're freaks! we r normal!' rather than 'is that supposed to be an insult? this is awesome and also your instinct to categorize us this way is telling and interesting'

this isn't unique, similar reactions happen alot where there's a marginalized culture trying to avoid violence lol, but it's sort of. lame. why not lean into this attempted dunk. the material universe as a delicious as well as incomplete and perilous mass of bursting universeness, whose materiality is what brings about both fortune and misery, brought to material existence by jewish g-d who is scary and bizarre and fiery and has a great deal of weird opinions/ideas about a bunch of detailed specifics about this-worldly life and the this-worldly material of the universe, who makes deals with the particular people who engage with them -- who is a recognizable germinating seed of the surface of christian hell and satanic aesthetics and ideas, is metal and interesting!

and it's not like. idk. a set of frames that are incompatible with christianity either, afaict some traditions lean harder than others, but i'm jewish and obviously not exactly an expert in those aspects of christianity lol.

a friend of mine regarding their conversion to judaism said:

like g-d as a... person, for lack of better terms. g-d who is a bit of an unknown quantity? sort of devilish, smirking at you when They offer a deal and you are not aware of the legalese (or maybe you are! ) and it's just like. this is how g-d is. g-d is just being g-d, g-d is this rascal who is quite particular but also endlessly enamoured with what people will do...

i didnt (& still dont!) care for satan in the christian sense because ....i don't find a god who is unchangign and eternal and sort of... impersonal.... in any way interesting. & thus an anti-god who is.... there and personal but like just to "tempt" you or w/e is also boring in comparison.

but g-d who is playful, who is tempting and trying to seduce you and be seduced, who you can bargain w and get into a contract w which might seem "unfair" in some ways (fucking halakhah right wwww) and like bullshit legalese but it's like....you are agreeing to it! you are taking that on bc you find that worthwhile. like how someone sells t heir soul to the devil, because they think it's worthwhile; but ig in this case you're not rlly getting like, "be able to play the fiddle better than any mortal" type just a... you have the option and you want to take it! that is all far more compelling to me and far more godlike. bc it transforms g-d into an active participant

[estera-shirin]

Bukharan Jewish Bridal Jewelry

"Bukhara, a city in Central Asia and a former Emirate, has come to refer to all the Jewish communities in Uzbekistan. The jewelry of the Jewish bride in Bukhara – made of embossed gold plaques stuffed with bitumen and studded with emeralds, rubies, and tourmalines – reflects the wealth of her community. Brides and affluent women adorned their head ornaments with a fragrant rose and their temple ornaments with the feather of a peacock (ketshak). The jewelry typically features sun motifs, lotus flowers, dragon heads, birds, fish, and hearts. At the end of the 19th century, silversmithing was a common occupation among Jews; after the Russian conquest of the area, however, many turned to trading in jewelry."

https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/378390-0

[denimbex1986]

'For nine weeks at London’s High Court at the turn of the millennium, historian Deborah Lipstadt had to keep uncharacteristically schtum – ordered by her lawyers to let their expert witnesses do the talking.

The 78-year-old American is making up for lost time today as she holds forth in the middle of her former solicitors, Anthony Julius, 68, and James Libson, 58, in their offices at Mishcon de Reya in central London, to mark 25 years since their landmark legal battle.

British author David Irving had sued Lipstadt for libel for describing him as “an Adolf Hitler partisan” and Holocaust denier in her book Denying the Holocaust.

Julius and Libson were determined to keep the focus on Irving’s wilful twisting of history, following his paper trail of footnotes to reveal a “tissue of lies”, including that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.

It meant that neither Shoah survivors nor Lipstadt herself were called to give evidence. Julius – previously Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer – describes the burden on his client, “essentially to be a spectator in her own trial”.

“That was very difficult. I was passive,” says the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta (whose silence was characterised by a friend as “an unnatural act”).

“I meant to tell you guys,” she quips to the men either side of her. “Because this is the first time I heard it,” deadpans Julius.

While Irving stood in court 73 representing himself – as Jonathan Freedland reported at the time, delightedly “rolling around in swastika-embossed paper” – Lipstadt found a way to respond to his daily affronts, including once addressing the judge as “mein Fuhrer”.

“Well, you took out your frustrations by hitting and pinching me in the court,” recalls Libson, who had fractured his arm in a bike accident at the start of the trial. “That’s right,” Lipstadt says with a chuckle. “[Irving] would say these terrible things and I would hit the broken arm.”

Julius had previously worried that Lipstadt’s publisher Penguin would accept Irving’s last-minute offer to settle the case for £500 and an open letter withdrawing the allegations. Taking no chances, the solicitor pointed out that Lipstadt’s team would respond by suing Irving for defamation – and moving to have Penguin bound “back in as defendants to our claim”.

“If you say of Irving that his criticisms of Deborah were correct and that’s why you settled with Irving, you don’t leave the battlefield, you’ve just changed your allegiances.”

Of the trio’s level of confidence that they would win the case, Lipstadt says: “I wasn’t, they were.” But the Jewish establishment in the UK was nervous too. At a dinner, a leading figure from the Board of Deputies urged Lipstadt to silently retreat.

“There was a segment of the leadership which was very scared, worried. My read was that they saw this as the Americans descending on Britain, oblivious to the mess we would leave behind, and the better thing was to be quiet and settle. It was emblematic of the different approaches of British and American Jewry. Thank God, I found these two guys who were not emblematic of British Jewry – then. I have to say, they came around.”

Julius remembers that sentiments quickly reversed once the judge’s 355-page verdict delivered Irving a thumping defeat. “After the judgment, they were absolutely ferocious for the fighting of the case, on the principle that victory has many generals while defeat is an orphan.”

Libson is satisfied the ruling that branded Irving a racist and pro-Nazi polemicist remains a “line in the sand”. “That old-school Holocaust denial with the veneer of scholarship around it doesn’t really exist in the same way.”

“It’s the difference between what I call hardcore and softcore Holocaust denial,” explains Lipstadt, who was until January President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism. “Usually we use that in relation to pornography and I do that advisedly, because it’s sort of pornographic history, Holocaust denial.”

But while they obliterated the former: “What we couldn’t demolish is the Holocaust inversion, the ‘Jews are like the Nazis’, ‘Why are they complaining so much?’, ‘Why do we have to hear again about the Holocaust?’ That’s much squishier, much harder to fight.”

Lipstadt understandably declines to respond to a 2017 quote from Irving, who remarked that “the traditional enemy” – his phrase for Jews – does not “have a handle” on how to deal with a new generation finding denial online. “He took six years of my life,” she says. “Enough.”

But Julius rejects the idea that the hydra-headed threat of social media means we are living in an era where truth has ceased to matter. “This is not a post-fact world. The facts are the facts. In every historical period, there are particular challenges. In the early Middle Ages, the challenge was the destruction of libraries.”

But he adds: “There’s now an [online] archive at Emory for anybody actually interested in establishing the facts for themselves. People who are not interested have to live with the unhappy knowledge that other people will be able to go and ascertain how utterly worthless the denier’s statement of the position is.”

On the lessons the wider community can learn, Libson says: “There are times to fight. And we’re in a period where it is a time to fight and organise ourselves to protect our interests.” He adds: “There’s more fighting spirit than there used to be.”

In 2016, the case was turned into a Hollywood film, with Rachel Weisz starring as Lipstadt, Andrew Scott as Julius and Jack Lowden as Libson, introducing the episode to a new generation. All three are clearly proud of the trial’s enduring significance, a quarter of a century on.

“This was a victory for truth,” says Lipstadt, “and this was the demolishing of a man who had made sport of Jewish tragedy. Not just denied it, but made sport of it, and with glee.

“So for one shining moment in April 2000, the bad guy really lost.”'

[cosmicgoods]

Antique Ornate Embossed Gilded Victorian Book Disraeli TANCRED : THE NEW CRUSADE

Antique

No date - but this is late 1800s

Beautiful, ornate, embossed cover!

7.25" T x 5" W

I package well and ship out daily!

Summary of Tancred

Published in 1847, Tancred is the third novel in Disraeli's "Young England" trilogy, following Coningsby and Sybil. The trilogy critiques the social and political landscape of Victorian Britain and presents a vision for a more spiritually and morally rejuvenated society.

Main character:

Tancred, Lord Montacute – a young English nobleman who is deeply disillusioned with the superficiality and materialism of Victorian high society. He seeks a spiritual awakening and wants to understand the divine purpose behind his role as an aristocrat.

Plot overview: Tancred, frustrated by the lack of moral and spiritual depth in Britain, decides to travel to the Holy Land to seek divine truth directly at its source. He believes that a return to religious roots—specifically, Judeo-Christian values—can save Britain from its moral decay.

In Jerusalem and the surrounding regions, he encounters a variety of characters, including Jewish, Christian, and Muslim figures. These encounters shape his views on religion, imperialism, and the idea of a renewed spiritual crusade—not one of military conquest, but of moral leadership and unity among the Abrahamic faiths.

The book combines philosophical musings, religious themes, and political commentary, often reflecting Disraeli’s own ideas on the role of religion and aristocracy in modern life.

It’s part satire, part spiritual quest, and part political manifesto. Disraeli's own background—being of Jewish descent and a major political figure—adds an extra layer of intrigue to his exploration of identity, faith, and power.

[acornsalessealsstamps]

Customized Name and Library Embosser

Elevate your professional space with a personalized touch! 🌟 The Customized Name and Library Embosser is perfect for Jewish business owners, featuring a 1-5/8" size for clear, elegant embossing. Ideal for Torah stamps, personalized nameplates, or marking books with distinction. Durable, unique, and made for professional use. Make your mark with style!

[the-firebird69]

Going to start to work here I do it here what he's saying the updates are every few minutes these people are forcing it we need to stop them they're juvenile idiots they worked a little on the deal and they can't handle it all we need them out

Thor Freya

This is the i7 and we are going to build it and we're going to issue it and sell it and we are frustrated just like Thor and Freya yeah they keep on having them else similar stuff it's frustrating everybody and they're not seeing the lies held back a bunch of stuff and blabbed other stuff that led to it I mean they're just really imps and they're cheesy. But this car is not it's very nice it's going on full size sedans all sorts of chassis it's a great idea and it's his idea and he started off with it and we left it for a while then we made it expensive and now we're going to make it cheap and work and he's got a great idea he says New York or California the chaps and Japs actually our Jewish American princesses and we're going to sit down with them and talk to them without the fake one and it's a Kardashians and they want to talk about it already and what he says is you can have a perfume and jewelry kind of associated with it so they love it they say how do you do that it's a different interiors or even paint schemes and Hera says it and rims and so forth and embossing you can have like a Kardashian version nothing it's all your stuff but heck you get there's a lot of funds that come from this and so they want to do it and we're going to get it ready and see if they want to go forwards they take a trip to Utah I guess and not really sure what this is about one of them is his mom partly and she's mad at him and saying that we're not your whipping people and stuff and it's business and business is tough and if you get $200,000 out of a 30 million dollar business as your share you have 200,000 more than everybody else on the planet she looks up and says I can't help it I said I know I just told you that. She says what about him is he's sitting there inspiring it still always kicking his own ass same with the other one and we can't have it we can't go on with them doing that but someone has to have something so she's appreciative and it's not one of our cars they're in but it looks like it so people are examining it and we want to see if they have factories and they do and they're just sitting there and they're Auto factories it's a great idea and a great pic and Biden has an ownership of some too out there in Cali we're going to go together with them in a meeting shortly and requested do not invite the idiot and it won't but we're going to formally request it

Frank Castle Hardcastle

What an idea and it's to talk to them and to include them and to add things because it's their type of image and they're not extremely wealthy by comparison to Max and other foreigners or less and they love it just are famous and they can use it and they get edgy and they sound like Ken and he would probably be invited for different vehicles these these would be like Mercedes and beamers and Audis and we probably have a knock off of Cadillac 10 kids have his character Ken could have his character. So we're going to head with this it's a great idea it says he has some different factories too he defunct ones and victory too and we'd like to start that up again and we're moving out and we're going to get this done and we really have to it's necessary and Trump will try and spy and figure out how to do it that's fine

Duke Nukem Blockbuster

I have to say that that's very rewarding that feeling and I know it's a lot of work and you're trying tons of stuff it may not work but I appreciate the idea and effort and I will see tomorrow how it goes and you're saying the contact in the agent of mine I see so it won't be intrusive and formal and we'll try and get a deal going I'd like them to be my factories and we do have a way of doing that and there's a few ways but only talk to them about it and they're saying that's the wife thing to do and they're open to all sorts of things they just don't want to do everything with just them now it's starting to see some it's got ridiculous so if you're like in a fleet unlike the Warhammer video we're probably on board with you and she says that stupid but okay so I'm going to get on board with this idea and we're going to have to stop associating with these crazy mac people good God it won't leave me alone there's such idiots. What did I do it's a wonderful idea the same size almost BMW I'm sorry to see something it's kind of funny cuz people do that and he says you put red and white instead of blue and white I'm actually laughing cuz that's his style and I know who he is is my son finally he's going to try and help and he's got a whole bunch of chassis and there are tons of in California this is a great idea I have certain models I like too the i5 the i7 like this one and the I-9 it's just huge it's wonderful so he says he didn't try and find it and put it up but he's tired so he wants to put up the interior he's probably won't make it but we will put these out and the interior will look the same they're wonderful cars we drive them all the time and they're safer to handle better and they'll have a little bit better no but the tires and rims will sometimes be the same but sometimes you change them out and those are inexpensive but work I'm looking forward to this this is a great idea and I'm going to try and make it work so he says he's going to have his lawyer contact my lawyer that stupid too and dad didn't leave you much it's like $200,000 and you're saying to me that's food for 10 years so I will get consumed with hatred of My own by myself I do now get what you're saying you can cruise around and did your whole life using $3 like we're seeing but the problem is if you get 200,000 for me Max will put money in the bank and you can't do it not yet and I do understand something foreigners will start and we will and then you'll be able to and that's perfect

Camilla I traced your brother and sister-in-law my son and daughter-in-law same people to Egypt and then they disappeared and I think you're right I think the Giants took him in there part of our race and they're having problems with him what you think is they're having problems with Dave and it's going to go on for a while and we also say we can't really have that cuz he was kind of mean to us very mean and it was collecting eggs I have to tell you that was upsetting and what you say is Bambi the only movie I cried in for the most part when I was young and more stolen and he said that he was stalling or solid and he was crying in the movie and Bambi is real and it's him who got hurt him in trouble it's a boy dear and now I'm starting to feel a little sad too he was very sad but it's these are about deer but they're still saying it's me and stupid s*** like that and I didn't see it happen nor did the other me what a sad story he has he's laughing cuz I have tied to it and I have no choice that's terrific and he's going to find Dad it's probably in New Hampshire somewhere no I do know his technique and I get it and we have a little bit of time but he's doing the same thing with each one and we looking for the pyramidian

[astriiformes]

Poked at the Little Free Library in front of our apartment on one of my now fairly rare detours out into the neighborhood and discovered this beautiful 1960s entomology textbook, complete with someone's highlighting and annotations (which I always love to see).

As someone who loves collecting old science books it's a fantastic find to begin with, but also, as someone with a biologist grandfather I never really got to know who focused on entomology for his own degree (and who I inherited one of my other treasured old biology books from) there's something extra special about this one.

[hawtchocolate]

I was asked to customize these little notebooks with the title of the Jewish Women’s class I signed up for through my local synagogue :) feels good to be requested!

[alexlibris-bookart]

Embossed star of David onto a blue leather...

[jewishmuseummd]

#FridayFeature: Every Friday we’re featuring a new, recent accession to the collection! 

Seal Embosser; the seal reads “Jewish Convalescent & Nursing Home Society: Maryland: Incorporated Nov. 6, 1936.” Gift of Michael Moranz, JMM 2018.18.1.   

[gliklofhameln]

The Jewelry of Jewish Women in Bukhara

Bukhara, a city in Central Asia and a former Emirate, has come to refer to all the Jewish communities in Uzbekistan. The jewelry of the Jewish bride in Bukhara – made of embossed gold plaques stuffed with bitumen and studded with emeralds, rubies, and tourmalines – reflects the wealth of her community. Brides and affluent women adorned their head ornaments with a fragrant rose and their temple ornaments with the feather of a peacock (ketshak). The jewelry typically features sun motifs, lotus flowers, dragon heads, birds, fish, and hearts. At the end of the 19th century, silversmithing was a common occupation among Jews; after the Russian conquest of the area, however, many turned to trading in jewelry.

[shakespearefreak]

A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Work to Be Done

NOTE: I had a lot of trouble balancing the Victorian language with modern understanding of disability and cultural/religious differences. I wanted to use wording that fit with the Dickensian storytelling, without carrying into it Dickens' period-typical prejudices (which he most definitely had) or using words that had different connotations in the 19th century. If you belong to any of the groups mentioned and find my wording offensive, please let me know so I can try to fix it!

Also, I understand there are potential underlying issues with inserting Muslim and Jewish characters into a Christmas-themed story, especially as background characters. I want to be clear that the message isn't that Christianity is all-encompassing of other belief systems, but instead that all the belief systems of the world are parts of a greater whole. I hope I managed to convey that.

...

Ebenezer Scrooge looked around, wide-eyed, as they entered the massive room. Jacob had called it “The Counting-House,” but it looked more like a library, only many times larger than any library he had ever seen. St. Paul’s and ’Change would have both fit many times beneath the soaring vaulted ceiling, which reached so high that looking up at it was dizzying. He expected if he’d still had a mortal body, he might have passed out merely trying to comprehend the immensity of the space. Uncountable high shelves divided this area into corridors, and tall rolling ladders and a system of winding bronze stairs and walkways allowed workers to access the higher levels. The shelves were filled with books, which Scrooge immediately recognized as ledgers, each one bound in leather and embossed with a different name on the spine. Some of the names were common enough, and he even thought he spotted one or two names of people he’d known personally, but others seemed strange and unpronounceable to him, and others still were printed in complex, swooping calligraphy that was utterly foreign. Ebenezer, who had an eye for such things, quickly realized that while neatly organized, the ledgers were not alphabetical; he couldn’t find any rhyme or reason to the filing system as Jacob led him past the shelves, but at the same time, it was clear there was a precise order. But to Ebenezer, the most interesting part of all was the workers. After living in London, where so many kinds of people lived shoulder-to-shoulder — rich and poor, young and old, healthy bodies and those twisted by nature or accident — he’d thought he was familiar with the variety of mankind, but now he saw how limited that view had been. They passed a woman whose entire form was covered by a long veil, only her dark eyes visible, chatting animatedly with a young woman whose dress would have been in fashion perhaps five hundred years ago. A man in a costume he associated with the ancient Orient stood beside a dark-haired woman on a ladder as she handed books down to him. Ebenezer saw a silver six-pointed star glinting on a chain around the woman’s neck. A little boy, surely no older than seven, ran barefoot past him carrying a stack of ledgers. The boy reminded Eb of Tim, back when he’d first met him, though this child had the brown skin and fantastic garb of far India. As they walked along, many they passed greeted Jacob with familiarity and obvious pleasure. A young man called out cheerfully from several rows over, and Jacob returned his greeting with a wave and a grin. Several times, they stopped for Jacob to converse: he asked how so-and-so was getting on with such-and-such, laughed at some shared joke, offered advice or a sympathetic ear. It reminded Scrooge of his walks to and from the countinghouse. Once, he had hurried along, warding off any attempt at conversation with a growl; but in the final stretch of his mortal life, he had stopped every few steps to enquire after someone’s health, drop a few coins in a blindman’s tin, pet a dog or cat, or have a snowball fight with some neighborhood children. He had found his life infinitely enriched by these small interactions, and was gladdened to see that on the other side of the veil, Jacob had also discovered this joy. At the very heart of the hustle and bustle sat an old man, shaped rather like an overstuffed armchair, with a face like a bulldog. A flurry of papers was spread haphazardly over his desk, and he hunched over to read them so that his nose nearly touched the worn wooden surface. Every so often, someone would approach him and he’d listen thoughtfully, sometimes nodding, other times furrowing his brow and frowning, occasionally scribbling a signature on this form or that. He had an ink stain on one cheek, and his hair was untidy and frazzled, but when he looked up to greet them, the eyes behind his spectacles were bright and sharp. “Jacob!” he boomed in a voice that reminded Scrooge of Fezziwig, his genial old employer back in his ’prentice days. Jacob offered his hand, and the old man shook it warmly. “Returned from your holiday, I see! Well, we’re very glad to have you back; always so much to do, as you well know, and your talent was much missed!” Those sharp eyes turned to Scrooge, and he had the peculiar sensation that the bulldoggish old man was looking through him, taking in his whole history in a glance. It made him feel naked and vulnerable, the way he had felt that long-ago night with the Spirits. Then the old man smiled, seeming to approve, and turned his gaze back to Jacob. “Have you brought us a new recruit?” “I hope so,” Jacob said, with a wide grin. “This is Ebenezer Scrooge.” Scrooge stepped forward, politely but nervously. “Mr Scrooge! I’ve heard so much about you, and I’m delighted to finally make your acquaintance! I am — well, you may call me the Record Keeper. Has Jacob told you a little about what we do here?” Ebenezer nodded, feeling unsure. He hadn’t interviewed for a position for a very long time indeed, and whatever else this was, it was a job of sorts, that much seemed clear. “Yes. As I understand from Jacob — Mr Marley — you are in the business of, well, keeping records of mortal lives; balancing the cosmic books, in a manner of speaking.” The little old man gave him another piercing glance, and Eb thought his eyes seemed cooler now. This made him even more anxious. “Yes,” the little man said, “but that’s not all there is to it, as I’m sure Jacob has explained —” “Yes, he did,” Eb hurried to agree, worried now that perhaps whatever misstep he seemed to have made could have consequences for his husband. “He was very clear on that. You also, well… you help people settle their debts. As you did for me.” This last was very quiet. “Yes.” The old man nodded. “Though mortals aren’t often as… aware of our agents as you were. Most times, we simply influence, planting small suggestions, pointing the right direction. They don’t even know we’re there. There are many different departments, but this specific department is, not to put too fine a point on it, for people like you two were.” “Hardheaded fools hellbent on digging their own graves, in other words,” Jacob put in, amused. Ebenezer shot him a slightly annoyed glance, feeling he was taking this whole thing too lightly. “So… redemption,” Scrooge said thoughtfully. “In essence, my dear sir,” said the Record Keeper. “Now, I suppose I’ll turn the floor over to you.” He sat back expectantly, waiting for Scrooge to say something. This took Ebenezer rather by surprise. He cleared his throat nervously. He knew he couldn’t actually be thirsty — the dead don’t need to eat or drink — but his mouth felt dry somehow anyway. “Well, er…” He was already off to a bad start. He gathered his thoughts and tried again. “I think I would be useful to your organization because I understand how the people you work with think. I understand the logic, flawed though it is. I also have experience working in a mortal establishment which bears some similarities to your business structure, and. Well. I mean…” His words trailed off. The Record Keeper was looking at him with a politely blank stare, not cold, but certainly not warm either. He seemed ready to get back to his papers. Ebenezer didn’t know what he’d done wrong, but he was suddenly quite sure that the interview was over. He moistened his lips. “Well, thank you for your consideration —” he began, but Jacob stopped him. “Would you please give us a moment?” Jacob asked the Record Keeper, and the old man nodded and returned to the forms on his desk. Jacob drew Eb aside. “Ebenezer… I understand what you’re thinking, but this… it isn’t like any form of employment you would be familiar with.” “So what should I say? What does he want me to say?” “I can’t tell you that,” Jacob said mildly. “But if I could make a suggestion, I’d try telling him what you told me about being useful. He knows your background, the best and the worst of it; he knows your talents and how they could prove useful. Your motives are what’s important here.” “Wouldn’t he know my motives already, too?” Jacob smiled. “Yes, probably. But what I think matters is that you tell him, and how you tell him.” Ebenezer took a deep breath — he no longer needed to breathe any more than he needed food or drink, but it helped steady him — and once again approached the desk. Jacob hung back slightly, but Eb felt his husband’s gaze on him, and that gave him courage. “Excuse me, sir?” The Record Keeper looked up, his face still blank and noncommittal. Eb closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then opened them and spoke slowly. His voice was unsure and lacked the formality he’d used earlier. “I want, desperately actually, to help. Much of my life, I would have said that there was nothing I could truly do for anyone else, even if I’d wanted to. That I could toss coins to beggars and feed the poor all day long, but there would still be a hundred more needy ready to take their place. But Jacob helped me realize that there is so much that I — that anyone — can do to make the mortal world better.” He paused. “Maybe our world too, actually. There’s so much I don’t know, but I would like to learn, if you would have me.” He gave a small, uncomfortable chuckle. “I’m afraid I’m not very good with words — that was always more Jacob’s talent — but please believe me when I say, I want this more than I can express.” The Record Keeper was looking at him with increased interest and attention now. “Why?” “Why?” Eb echoed, honestly confused. “Yes, why do you want it so much? Are you hoping to earn your own redemption by helping others to theirs? Balance the scales more in your favour? Because as you already know, the chains were only part of it.” With dawning comprehension, Ebenezer said thoughtfully, “The evils I did, I can never undo. Doing good works won’t change that, not for those I hurt.” The Record Keeper listened, seemingly waiting for more. Ebenezer searched for the words and found them: “Simply put, I want to help because it feels good to help.” The Record Keeper’s crinkled face burst into a wide smile. “Ebenezer! There you are!” Eb found his hand engulphed by both the old man’s own and pumped enthusiastically. “You had me worried for a moment, my dear sir, but you found your answer.” Scrooge, shocked at this sudden turn of events, gaped. He could barely believe it. “Are you saying…?” “The position is yours, dear boy! Jacob, you’ll show him the ropes, I trust?” Before Jacob could answer, Ebenezer had all but tackled him in an embrace. After a moment, he released him, looking sheepish. “I’m… I’m sorry,” he told the Record Keeper. “It won’t be repeated —” and then Jacob’s lips were on his own, kissing him deeply. “Jacob!” he said breathlessly, scandalized, when his mouth was free again, but he saw the Record Keeper was beaming. “My dear Ebenezer, your Jacob knows our business is, at bottom, the business of love. Expressions of it will never be inappropriate or out of place here… up to a point, Mr Marley!” he added with feigned sternness in response to Jacob’s slightly wicked smile. Jacob laughed heartily. Ebenezer looked between them for a moment, uncomprehending, and then a hot flush spread over his cheeks. Jacob saw it and kissed him again, more gently this time, caressing his face briefly, tenderly. “All right, all right, back to work!” The Record Keeper clapped his hands briskly. “That means everyone!” he added, and Scrooge noticed that they had attracted a small and amiable audience. As the Record Keeper turned back to his piles of papers, Eb’s hand was shaken over and over as he was introduced to his new coworkers. There was, as Jacob had told him, as the Record Keeper had echoed, and as he himself knew, so much work to be done, and he was eager to begin, with his partner and these new friends at his side.

...

SPECIAL NOTE: This is the first installment since @wolfenm's passing this past February. Their "Conspiracy of Spirits" was what first got me into this ship, which is now my ultimate OTP. Wolfie was a talented writer, a wonderful person, and a very dear friend, and they are very much missed. Hail the traveler!

Also in this series: “A Joyful Reunion” “Fan” Marley’s Grave Tim

DISCLAIMER: A Christmas Carol is a public domain work. However, these vignettes were also inspired by several other works, including “A Conspiracy of Spirits: The Love Story of Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge” in The Solstice Tales by @wolfenm, Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennet, and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol by Tom Mula. All these works belong to their respective owners, not to me.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: This installment took most of its inspiration from Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, especially with the inclusion of the Record Keeper.

A quick shout-out to the new movie Spirited for pushing me into writing this! Funnily enough, I had only seen the first 20 minutes when I wrote this, and was amazed to see how much of it lined up with the film's messages when I finished the movie. It's almost uncanny.

Also available on AO3, DeviantArt, and FF.net

[wyattjohnston]

everything that we should be - jack hughes

note: this is part of the we don't have no time to waste series

word count: 1,378

summary: Jack and Daisy spend another Christmas together.

warnings: underage drinking but nobody gets silly

Daisy had been awake for nearly an hour, lying in bed on her phone waiting for Jack to wake up. She didn’t want to wake Jack up after he’d made such a big deal about sleeping in and not being woken by an alarm clock, so it was nearly half past nine and she had accomplished nothing other than scrolling through her mostly dead Twitter feed.

Ten o’clock arrived before Jack began to stir, first with a couple of twitches and then with a grunt as he screwed his eyes shut before they flew open dramatically.

“Do you always stare at me like this when you wake up first?” he asked, his voice slow and mumbled.

Daisy buried herself further under the covers, low enough that they were up around her ears. She shuffled closer to Jack, pressing her mouth against his and ignoring a healthy dose of morning breath just as he did for her.

She said, without a hint of sarcasm, “Only when I’m waiting for a present.”

Jack’s eyes shut, so Daisy poked at his bare chest until he smirked. He tugged her until she was pressed up against him and her arms were pinned by his, leaving her unable to poke him at all.

“Are Ty and Luke up?”

“Someone is, don’t know who. They don’t have presents for me, though.”

“I don’t either,” he said, deadpan. “I’m Jewish. Don’t do Christmas.”

Daisy rolled her eyes and freed one of her arms so that she could facewash him, “Shut up.”

He’d been hyping up the present he’d bought her for weeks, since she handed over a present on the final day of Hannukah. It was the culmination of what was essentially an advent calendar with things like Christmas themed bath bombs, a new phone case that may-or-may-not have had a drawing of himself on it, a slew of scented candles and a colouring book set complete with a ludicrous number of coloured pencils.

Jack groaned dramatically, rolling out of the bed. Daisy followed him out into the living room, wrapping the blanket from the couch around herself as she sat down beside the tree. Jack disappeared into Ty’s room and came back with a decent sized box.

She sat up straighter and wasted no time ripping into the wrapping paper. Her expectations were along the same lines as what she’d already been given, something small and sentimental because that’s what he was good at. The Gucci logo on the front of the box was not what she had been anticipating.

“Jack…”

“Did I do good?” he asked, his face lighting up hopefully. “I saw it on your phone.”

She didn’t have to open the box to know what it was; honestly, she knew what it was before Jack even mentioned having seen it. Her fingers traced over the embossed logo, “I was saving up for it. It’s expensive, Jack.”

“I make NHL money, it’s not expensive.”

“You make entry-level money,” she countered.

“8 year and 64 mil extension, baby,” he said. The contract he’d signed at the beginning of the month was never going to be something Daisy could comprehend.

Daisy lifted the lid to the box carefully. She, like everybody else in his life, had been trying to drill some fiscal responsibility into him. It wasn’t like the black disco bag was going to break the bank, it just hadn’t been something she’d expected him to buy her.

“Thank you,” she said upon seeing the bag. “I can’t believe I own a Gucci bag.”

Jack stooped down to kiss her, saying, “You’re gonna own so many Gucci bags. And expensive dresses and shoes and whatever else you want, yeah?”

“Okay, Mr NHL Money,” Daisy mocked, her eyes barely leaving the bag.

It was Luke’s voice that cut through their moment, loud and disgusted, “Do you both still have your clothes on?”

“Yes, asshole,” Jack called back before he kissed Daisy again. “He’s never staying here again.”

Ty and Luke did have presents for Daisy, just like she had presents for them, so they all sat down in front of the tree together—it was more or less an exchanging of gift card than presents, which suited them all just fine—before they realised that they did need to start getting ready for their day.

It had been agreed sometime during November that PK would host Christmas lunch, and then unanimously accepted that that meant he was having most of the food catered. It was going to be amazing, nonetheless, and Daisy knew that for a fact because this was the second year, she was getting to experience it.

Daisy made everybody wait an extra five minutes so that she could swap everything into her brand-new bag. Jack stood in the doorway to their room, his shoulders pulled back and his chest puffed out while he watched.

An assortment of players and their partners were there, the ones who wouldn’t get to see their families. There were proper place settings on the table, purely for decoration, so Daisy picked up her own and placed it down in the empty seat beside Nico, moving Dougie down the table.

“You talk to those boys all time,” Daisy said before Nico could even ask, “We never get to chat.”

“Hello, Daisy. Schöni Wiehnachte,” he said cheerily.

“Merry Christmas, Captain. Have you spoken to Stef today? What’s she doing?”

“Sleeping. We do Christmas things on the 24th so she’s recovering.”

Daisy knew a secret, that Stef was most certainly studying and not sleeping because she was giving up valuable time for her master’s degree over the winter break to surprise Nico. Daisy just smiled and kept her mouth shut, though, because there wasn’t another soul in the room who knew about the plan she had concocted.

There was a lot of alcohol flowing throughout lunch, as well as multiple jokes thrown around at Jack and Luke’s expense for being too young to drink, that then led onto many light-hearted jokes about Jack dating an older woman—it was true, by a whopping eight months. Nobody cared if either of them had some a beer or a glass of wine, despite the jokes.

After they’d eaten, Jack and Daisy wandered away from the group into a quieter room, largely because Jack’s hand had been wandering up and down Daisy’s thigh throughout their meal. Though they were never shy about being all over each other, knowing what was acceptable in what environment was important so PK’s empty front room was where they ended up.

Perhaps it was inappropriate for Daisy to climb onto Jack’s lap, straddling him lazily as soon as he sat down. Perhaps a lazy but heavy make out session was inappropriate for a Christmas lunch. Perhaps they had been caught in so many precarious positions since Daisy moved to New Jersey that neither of them were bothered anymore.

Luke’s retching sounds were probably the most dramatic Daisy had ever heard; she couldn’t begrudge him, though, given their position. She looked back over her shoulder, wiping the back of her hand over mouth.

Ty was standing with Luke, neither of them were shocked at what they were seeing.

“You’re allowed to get a spray bottle, like they do with cats,” Luke told Ty, holding out an imaginary spray bottle and pulling the trigger in Jack’s direction. “You can’t get Daze, though, because he’ll lose his fucking mind.”

“I lost my mind because we were dressed up to go out and you fucked it all up—you never tried it again so shut it.”

“We’re at your teammates house. Mum would be so disappointed in you.”

“They’re mostly clothed,” Ty commented. “We’ve seen worse.”

Luke retched again.

Daisy turned back to Jack, kissing him once softly before she moved out of his lap and lamenting that they should probably head out and leave PK to his house. Jack couldn’t even nod before Luke was making a comment about getting back to their own house before they made a baby.

The short walk back took longer than the walk to PK’s, their limbs heavy with food and alcohol and their minds distracted by the Christmas lights and decorations in yards that had been turned on when the sun went down.

Please consider leaving feedback—reblog and write in the tags or send an ask, I’m not fussed. I just want to know what you’re thinking!