conversionsideblog

[conversionsideblog]

Converting to Judaism and Transness

So as a yeshiva student, we learned a bit about how one is supposed to act towards converts/gerim, and those were, among others

1. Don’t ask what their name was before they converted

2. Don’t ask them about what their life was like before they converted, and don’t talk about it unless they bring it up

3. Don’t single them out/out them as converts

4. That converts have a Jewish soul and are drawn to Judaism by a sort of need, a homesickness, if you will

And I feel like this is also a really good way to look at/interact with trans ppl? 

Any trans Jews (convert in-progress or no) have anything to say on this?

@jewishconvertthings ?

[conversionsideblog]

“An “angel” is anything that carries out a mission for God. This includes forces of nature. […] Photosynthesis? That’s an angel. Gravity? An angel. Magnetism? Angel. The Midrash in Bereishis Rabbah (chapter 1) says than an angel only performs one job. That job doesn’t have to be destroying Sodom; it could be peristalsis, centripetal force or condensation.”

— Rabbi Jack Abramowitz, Angels (via torat-chesed-al-lashona)

[conversionsideblog]

I’m not an adult I’m 3 Jewish opinions wearing a trench coat.

[conversionsideblog]

Do you know what this is? This is The Heart from Auschwitz.

An act of defiance. A statement of hope. A crime punishable by death.

On December 12, 1944, locked inside Auschwitz, Polish teenager Fania turned twenty. After spending a year in a concentration camp, Fania didn’t expect her birthday to even be remembered - but her best friend, Zlatka, risked everything to make her a birthday present, a paper heart. 

Simply making the heart - or carrying it - could get either of them killed.

The heart was signed by many of their friends, bearing notes in Polish, German, French, and Hebrew that announced "When you get old, put your glasses on your nose, take this album in your hand and read my signature again,“ and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” It was an act of great sacrifice and love for a friend.

Less than 40 days later, they began the Death March from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck, and from Ravensbruck to freedom. Fania carried the heart under her arm the whole time. And survived.

Fania donated the heart to the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center in 1988, where it is a featured piece of their exhibit. You can read more about the story of Fania and Zlatka Meg Wiviott’s Paper Hearts, coming September 2015.

[conversionsideblog]

This is it. This is my relationship with G-d!

[conversionsideblog]

Jewish people who align with Conservative Judaism and are confused with politcal conservatives are braver than any U.S marine.

[conversionsideblog]

“What is it that the child has to teach?

The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everybody should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness. The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not.

And the child is right.”

— Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

[conversionsideblog]

Challah! I love working with yeast.

First time using the 6 strand braid and I think it turned out pretty good!

I’d never made challah before so I researched some recipes online and used those to smoosh together this recipe, and I’m overall happy with it:

2.5 cups warm water

1 tbls active dry yeast

¾ cup honey

3 tbls vegetable oil

1 whole egg + 3 egg yolks

1 tbls salt

7 cups bread flour, plus one cup to work in when kneading

I let it rise for just under 2 hours, punched it down, braided two loaves, and let that rise a bit over one hour.

I topped them with an egg wash and poppy seeds and baked for 35 minutes at 375 F

It came out really sweet and soft with a crunch crust. May try again with all purpose flour to see how it affects the crumb. I think it may be better with AP than the bread flour, but this batch was still pretty good!

[conversionsideblog]

Kashan, Iran @Mohammadreza Fallah

[conversionsideblog]

“Don’t get into pointless arguments with jerks on the Internet” –the rabbis

[conversionsideblog]

A Jewish perspective on reproductive justice and birth control access from twitter user @lechatsavant.

[conversionsideblog]

i’m here for the jews that don’t feel jewish.

for the jews that don’t look jewish. who are torn between rejecting or embracing a stereotype that never fit them in the first place.

for the jews who don’t speak hebrew. who fumble over prayers or can’t remember the last time they’ve stepped foot into a synagogue.

for the jews who don’t keep kosher. who text on shabbat. who love cheese burgers and especially bacon. 

for the jews who have just converted. who feel out of place. who find themselves lost during services, overwhelmed, and unsure of who to ask for help.

for the jews of color who constantly feel othered. who have their jewishness scrutinized and their opinions dismissed. who deal with antisemitism outside of their community and racism within.

for the jews who are patrilineal. who feel like they constantly have to prove their jewishness. who are looked down upon and shunned for something completely beyond their control.

for the ethnic jews who grew up detached from culture or religion. who never got to have a bar mitzvah. who have to google the meanings of holidays and prayers. who learn about their own people from wikipedia pages.

for the disabled jews who can’t participate in services. for the lgbt jews who wonder if hashem still loves them. for the atheist jews who struggle to connect. 

for any jew who has ever doubted their jewishness. 

you are important, you are not alone, and you belong in this community.

[conversionsideblog]

please do not force an lgbt label onto anne frank. she died before she had the chance to explore her sexuality and if you need to think of her as lgbt to have empathy for her you need to reconsider how you think of holocaust victims. please do not vilify her father, a man who lost his entire family in the holocaust, for censoring the parts in anne’s diary where she expresses attraction for women. it was 1947. jewish girls were already seen as hypersexual. he was protecting her legacy as best he could, and you have no right to call him a villain for wanting what was period-typical best for his late daughter.

[conversionsideblog]

source x

[conversionsideblog]

someone explain the jewish holidays to me like i'm 5 years old

[conversionsideblog]

tbh the book of esther is such a good story in and of itself like?? kickass female protagonist singlehandedly averts the genocide of her people??? set in ancient persia just for the sheer aesthetic of it all?? a dastardly slimy antagonist so fun to hate that dunking on him is the best part of purim?? fuckin political intrigue feat. a foiled assassination plot???? my ancestors LIVED for the drama

[conversionsideblog]

I think part of the reason we emphasize “Chanukah is a minor holiday” and “Chanukah isn’t Jewish Christmas” isn’t because we don’t make a big deal out of Chanukah or because we don’t recognize that it’s also a pretty-lights-in-darkness solstice-y holiday, but because we really wish people were aware of our more important holidays, like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover, and even the religiously-important-but-not-so-well-known ones like Sukkot and Shavuot. It’s not just that I think intercultural knowledge is good, but also that I think that maybe if people knew more about these other holidays, they’d be more accommodating. Maybe if employers knew about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they’d let Jews take off work then with fewer consequences. Maybe if the people running dining halls and events knew more about Passover, they’d include more food Jews could eat on Passover. Maybe if school administrators knew about Shavuot, they’d make sure to pick a different weekend for graduation. I don’t know, maybe I’m naive — plenty of people already know and either don’t care, or figure if we decide to be weird then that’s our problem. But maybe there are people who will be like “hey, you know what, I’ll make space for you.”