geekyjewishprincess

[geekyjewishprincess]

The FCC: Why would you want to save the internet?

ME:

[geekyjewishprincess]

Thanks Misha! <3

[geekyjewishprincess]

Busting out a set of super-heroic Hanukkah illos I put together last year (I think), featuring some of comics’ greatest Jewish super-heroes (and creators). Happy Hanukkah! 

(For those who’ve asked, the characters are: Ben Grimm aka The Thing, Ragman, Judah The Hammer, Arthur, Kitty Pryde, Batwoman, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)

[geekyjewishprincess]

HanukkahTrooper #draw #drawing #digitalpainting #painting #sketchbook #sketch #starwars #stormtrooper #parody #art #artwork #instaart #instaartist #jewish #hanukkah #illustration #digitalart #character

[geekyjewishprincess]

“There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light get in…” #happyhanukkah #darthvader #light #art #artwork #draw #drawing #sketch #sketching #sketchbook #illustration #instaart #instaartist #comics #starwars #parody #character

[geekyjewishprincess]

Jewish Holidays in one sentence

Rosh HaShannah - Happy new year, now eat this apple with honey.

Yom Kippur - Sit quietly at home and contemplate your mistakes

Sukkot - Build weird huts and buy weird lemons.

Hannukah - Lights and oily food.

Tu BiShvat - Eat dried fruits and fight deforestation.

Purim - We avoided a genocide, go put on a costume.

Passover - We kinda avoided a genocide, stop eating bread for a week.

Lag BaOmer - Celebrate this failed rebellion with bonfires.

Shavuot - Dairy foods and Moses.

Tish’a BiAv - Romans fucking suck.

Tu BiAv - Jewish Valentine’s Day

[geekyjewishprincess]

NinJewGo: the story of my son’s induction to the fandom life

We have all seen that meme that says, “you will soon learn that mommy is a nerd. One day I will teach you all about muggles, the one ring, and the ways of the force.” My husband and I have an agreement, I am in charge of teaching the children about fandom life and he is in charge of the Judaism. He tells my boys Parsha stories while I read them the picture book version of “Star Wars.” I have worked to instill them with knowledge of Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Pokemon, and Doctor Who. I’ve even sprinkled in knowledge of other fandoms like the Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Rick and Morty (we proudly hang lulav Rick in our sukkah). While my son likes these things, he has never really latched on in a fan boy way. He has a Star Wars room and he think it’s cool. He has superhero toys and he thinks they’re cool. He has played Pokemon go with me and gets Pokemon cards and that’s pretty cool too.

For a brief time he was obsessed with the Incredibles and told everyone who would listen that he was Mr. Incredible. It was really interesting to see the reaction of rabbis when he said this because it appeared that they had no idea what he was talking about. This, however, was at 3 and super cute because, ya know, 3 is a super cute age. Now, he is 5 and in kindergarten and despite my best efforts to steer him away from things that I think are lame, i.e. any fandom that I didn’t grow up with, he has now selected his first fandom all his own; Ninjago. We tried so hard not to let him watch it. We told him it wasn’t for him, that it didn’t teach anything, but for whatever reason, the idea of Ninjago spoke to him, grabbed him and latched on. It reminds me of the quote, “I didn’t choose the fandom life, the fandom life grabbed my hand and whispered run.”

Everything that isn’t Ninjago comes second place in my child’s heart. Yes he likes the other stuff, but he LOVES Ninjago. He loved it even before we allowed him to watch it. He wanted to know everything about it. He wanted to play it on the playground. He asked us every day if he could watch it. Ultimately, he wanted to be a Ninjago expert. It was interesting because before we thought about it as his first fandom we were worried. I mean, the kid wouldn’t shut up about it and he wasn’t even familiar with it! But a lightbulb hit me and once I realized that just like I have my fandoms he has his. So we decided encouraged the obsession. If this is what lights his fandom fire, then I am going to teach him how to do it right. When he wanted to skip straight to the movie, I told him that he had to watch every episode leading up to it. We don’t bench, eat challah, and then wash. Do it in order or you’re not yotzei all the mitzvas. It’s just plain not Jewish to watch shows out of order. We start at S01E01 and move forward in suspense. We’re not animals.

Despite my resistance, I have now embraced that my son has a fandom that I simply don’t get. I’ve already got some of the Ninjago Lego sets waiting for him for Hannukah and ordered the books for him to work on his reading. We even watch with him to make sure that we can follow the story lines and help him keep the facts straight; wouldn’t want him to commit a fandom crime and get a timeline wrong! My husband also watches in the hopes that he can relate Ninjago to the Torah and further inspire my son, but we have yet to see anything of Judaic value in the show, those Ninjas just have terrible midos!  

[geekyjewishprincess]

He looks so happy!

Ever felt like life gave you citrus fruits and you had no idea if they’re lemons, oranges, grapefruit or limes?

[geekyjewishprincess]

shabbos

It was hard to be Jewish in deep space, reflected Dave. He’d been on the SSN-296 “Endurer” for six months now out of a two-year tour, doing his bit on the massive, silent wheel that kept watch on the outskirts of the Solar System.

He’d often reflected that there might be other Jews among the 15,000-man crew, but he had never laid eyes on them until today, in the depressing steel-walled multipurpose room where the folding tables had been set up in a feeble approximation of a heymishe Shabbos dinner. As he toyed glumly with the flimsy plastic knife, he looked around to see other faces, space-lined or battle-scarred, looking equally bored. He didn’t know what he had been expecting when PO4 Clements had brought the sign-up sheet to his station (“Hey Rosey, heard about this?”) but this wasn’t it.

Still, he reflected, it was better than cracking open a box of vacuum-sealed kosher rations (Menu KM-23 “Sabbath Eve Meal”) in his cabin, making a lonely kiddush, and putting on some Eitan Katz to pretend he was back home. And the chicken, while dry, was real kosher chicken. The knishes were gummy, but they were knishes at least.

The rabbi who had put this on had been sent from Earth to make a yearlong tour of the Solar System watch stations, bringing Shabbos to Jews very far from Jerusalem. He was a young guy with a bristly beard and way too much enthusiasm. So far that wasn’t taking.

They had bashed their way through a halfhearted Shalom Aleichem, an Eyshet Chayil that brought back too many memories of home, mumbled kiddush and netilat, hamotzi over dry and crumbly freeze-dried rolls. This, Dave supposed, was the best he could get out here.

And then somebody started Vezakeyni.

It was a nasal, slightly off-key voice, but it swept the room like a tidal wave. Someone else picked up, and then someone else, and soon the whole room was singing at the tops of their lungs, Dave included.

By the time they got to me’irim et ha’olam, Dave was sobbing. The walls, it seemed, were shaking with the strength of the song. His fist hurt from pounding the table. And as he looked through the tears, it was as if he could see for the first time. The Jews around him were beautiful!

Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Cochin Jews, Abayuda Jews of Uganda. Tall skinny women who wore the Argentine flags on their Working Suits. Stocky men with large velvet kippot and Russian accents. Afro-American Ashkenazi Marine officers draped arms over the shoulders of Benzion from Afula (Water Purity Tech, 09887) and belted out the lyrics. A small group of Daromi Jews, converts from an “earthlike planet” near star M33, ably provided percussion by clicking their mandibles in time with the song.

Dave was lost, lost in Shabbos and the pure, timeless joy it brings. As they moved from song to nigun to song again, the worries of the Engineering Department slipped away, and for a moment he could see the candles, and beyond them, the walls of Jerusalem.

Shabbos, he knew in that moment, will keep the Jews so long as the Jews keep it.

And out in the wilderness of spacetime, a vast and crystalline creature, almost living, observed the situation with a logical and discerning eye. As it rotated, it spoke, summoning from the void around it a deeply calming rumble, a rumble that said, in clear Hebrew “MAY THE NEXT SHABBOS BE AS THIS ONE”

The creature next to it, almost exactly like it but slightly more angular, spoke as well. Its voice was one that could be considered to sound almost relieved, if you were in the habit of imparting emotion to the Malachim, the messengers of the One God.

“AMEN.” it said. And so it was.

[geekyjewishprincess]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahagagahaha

[geekyjewishprincess]

In a Galaxy Far Far away, never in a Million Years: A Tale of Two Concerts

This past Sunday I had the ultimate Geeky Jewish day. In the morning I took my son to his first orchestral concert. I am not normally interested in live orchestras, but this concert was special; it was a Star Wars concert for kids. Before the show, my son got to meet Darth Vader, Storm Troopers, Gruido and R2D2. He told me that Darth Vader was just a guy in a costume, but R2D2 was real because it was too small for a person to fit in. We had the best time and it was amazing to see my son’s face light up when the first note played. This experience in and of itself was incredible and worth writing home about. What made this day even more special, however, was that in the evening we had another concert to attend: Nissim Black, the Hassidic rapper! The juxtaposition between these two experiences and the two sides of the identity I have and the identity that I am working to create in my son is highlighted by having these two events in one day.

What one wears to a Star Wars concert is easy! What one wears to a Jewish rap concert after a Star Wars concert; not so easy. I found myself wondering if I should change outfits after the first concert and if I should bring a change for my son as well. Will I be looked down upon for wearing a Star Wars t-shirt? On the one hand it is a rap concert, but on the other hand it is a Jewish rap concert taking place at a wealthy synagogue in South Florida. While in the secular arena of a Star Wars concert I could 100% be myself and not worry about being judged as a religious Jew, in the Jewish world there is a judgement about how Jewish one is. Are my sleeves long enough? Do I really have to wear a skirt? I had to think about all of this before leaving the house and I did ultimately choose to wear a skirt and change shirts to a slightly nicer blouse. I am glad I did because when we got to the Nissim Black concert, let me just say that no one where looked like they were there to see a concert. There were women in heels and fancy dresses and men in button down shirts and well-fitted slacks.  

While in some cases when my son told people about the Star Wars concert he attended earlier he was told “so cool!,” he also got his share of blank looks and dismissive responses. While I wear my geeky badge with pride in the Jewish world these days, it does not mean that that kind of Jewish identity has been normalized in my everyday life and also doesn’t mean that I necessarily know how to let my geek flag fly in every Jewish situation without feeling ultimately self-conscious.

All of that being said, I would not have changed those experiences for the world and feel so grateful that I am able to have days like these where I can be both Geeky and Jewish, even if it’s one at a time.  

I also very strongly encourage everyone to check out “The Lighthouse Project,” a Jewish inspiration organization and Nissim Black’s mustic! 

[geekyjewishprincess]

Anxiety Level: Barely conscious Steve Harrington waking up in a car with four children that have a death wish and one that is illegally driving.

[geekyjewishprincess]

Jewish game of life

I sometimes work with a third grade religious school class (subbed several times & am prepping some study-at-home materials) and the students int he class have decided (this was all their idea, not their teacher’s at all!) to make a Jewish game of “LIFE” like the traditional board game except about living a Jewish life.

This should be a real thing. Like either a real board game you can buy to play with your class or a real curriculum thing. It’s been great to see them exploring what it means to be Jewish. So far 4 main things have come up:

(1) What Jewish experiences should they include on squares? They were quick to think of bar mitzvah, wedding, bris, but what about visiting the mikvah, volunteering at a soup kitchen, making a sukkah, or sitting shiva? How about holidays? Keeping kosher?

(2) What careers can Jewish people have? We can be firefighters, teachers, and (stereotypically) doctors, but what about cantors, kosher butchers, and rabbis? 

(3) The people in the cars and who you draw on the career cards are also a great chance to talk about diversity. Can the family in my car have two mommies? Can my playing piece have kids without getting married? What do the people on the career cards look like? Can the rabbi on our career card be a woman?

(4) They’re still fixated on the idea that the currency of the game has to be money (they’re only third graders, so they haven’t realized how much they could change about the game) and right now the teacher wants this project to be theirs so we’re just going with it, but if you were giving the idea to your class I was thinking mitzvot or something similar might be a better currency. 

Let me know if anyone uses this for a class (or makes one themself b/c it would just be a fun game even to play!) and send pictures! Anything else you see that would be good to bring up next time they work on it?

[geekyjewishprincess]

#PREACH

[geekyjewishprincess]

😂 those last two comments tho! Chabad has already laid claim to every planet.

iveforgottenmyusername:

jumpingjacktrash:

pipistrellus:

one thing that makes me sad about startrekverse is that alongside genuinely utopian things like “in the future there will be no poverty or hunger or crimes or illness” there is also “in the future there will be no religion” like what is this a john lennon song. i am sending you my least amused face

it saddens me that apparently a utopian future involves “”transcending”” religion which apparently universally and inherently holds humanity back?? whaaat. give me a break

i dont want to imagine a utopian SPACE FUTURE which has no, like, hijabi starfleet officers, or space rabbis bickering about what counts as “sunset” when you are on a space station. or what counts as “friday” for that matter

BUT MOST OF ALL

I DONT WANT TO IMAGINE A SPACE FUTURE IN WHICH EVERYONE DOES NOT VALIANTLY PRETEND THAT THERE IS NO ONE HOME ON THEIR STARSHIP WHEN THE MORMON MISSIONARY PODS COME BEETLING BY WITH THEIR DIGITAL PAMPHLETS

AND I AM WILLING TO BET THAT YOU DONT WANT TO IMAGINE THAT EITHER

i was nodding along all serious and then my tea came out my nose

“Captain, we’re being hailed”

“On Screen”

“Hello Captain, this is the Mormon Faith Ship Joseph Smith, have you thought about letting Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into your life?”

“…You have reached the holographic life size double of Captain Pipistrellus, please leave a message after the beep. Um… beep?”

[geekyjewishprincess]

[geekyjewishprincess]

Orthodoxy and Fandom: The ultimate crossover episode

When I was young and before I became Shabbat and kashrut observant, my family and I would drive to Chabad every Shabbos. I was not interested in praying and instead spent time in the kitchen with the rebbetzen and her daughter helping to put together the Kiddush. It is there that I would ask my questions about the observant practices of religious Judaism, but it was also there that I taught them about my fandoms. One particular time that has always stuck out in my mind was when I was obsessed with Invader Zim. I described the show to them, which is absurd to say the least, telling them about the angry little green alien and his idiot robot dressed like a dog. I told them different quotes from the latest episodes that I had watched, like when Gir screams, “I loveded you piggy! I loveded you!” Needless to say, they thought it was weird (it was), and while they were accepting, they thought I was weird for liking it. These were people who loved me, but the rest of the world at large is not so understanding and accepting.

So while fandoms like Harry Potter, Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Doctor Who (just for starters) are a huge part of who I am, it seemed that if I ever wanted to enter the world of observant Jewry, which I found beautiful, that I would have to compartmentalize my geek identity from my Jewish identity. Maybe I thought I would grow out of these fandoms by the time that I was ready to be serious and start a family and join a Jewish community. But alas, here I am at 30 and more into them than ever. After all, now I have young sons to share this knowledge with! Now I have the resources to enjoy them more! But, for many years, I had to compartmentalize these identities. My geek identity did not cross over into my Jewish identity, except for when I wondered if it was acceptable for me to partake in certain fandoms, like Supernatural and Games of Thrones, as an observant Jew.

My oldest son, now 5, has embraced the fandoms that I have laid out for him. He has an Avengers backpack and an array of Star Wars shirts. He watched Superhero Squad and Lego Star Wars, inducting him into fandoms as I was inducted as a young child with X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Saturday morning cartoons. His friends from his religious Jewish school are also into superheroes and so here I was thinking that other parents may be like me! I recently went on a playdate with one of his friends and their mom wearing a Loki shirt (most of my shirts pertain to a fandom) and mentioned to the friend and his mom that I was thinking about getting a Thor hammer key chain. I thought the friend would find it cool. The mom looked at my shirt and I could tell didn’t know what to say. Apparently, the fandoms are okay for the kids, and maybe for the dads, but certainly not for the moms. So, in the religious Jewish community I could not let my geek flag fly.

I felt like Elsa. “Conceal, don’t feel, put on a show, make one wrong move and everyone will know!” (Admit it, you sang that in your head.) Maybe they would think that if I was a geek that I wasn’t really religious. Maybe they would have this view of me breaking Shabbos to watch my shows or to go to a Comic Con or not dressing tznius in a cosplay costume.

I felt like this until I stumbled upon a group on Facebook of women who were just like me. Women who were observant Jewish geeks. Women who used their fandoms to discuss Jewish issues; successfully integrating their two identities and embracing each other. Through this group they find each other across the world. Through this group we talk about the Jewish ethic issues about watching Supernatural or a leaked episode of a show. We discuss making a cosplay outfit tznius but recognizable. We share links for light saber and Tardis skirts. We share jokes and anecdotes about how our geeky and Jewish worlds collided. Most importantly, these women have inspired me to let my geek flag fly in the religious Jewish world. I have to be who I am and I must say that I have never felt so comfortable in both my own skin and the religious Jewish world.