#Jewishness

[diagnosisdivine]

Until very recently, I had never really spoken publicly about Israel - certainly not on tumblr, and honestly not much elsewhere either. I was never particularly drawn to politics, never felt the need to share my views online, and never had a much of a presence on social media to begin with. I preferred to stay quiet, to read what others were writing, and occasionally reblog something that resonated. That felt like enough. Even in my personal life, talking about Israel, or my Jewish heritage, or my love for Hebrew often made me feel awkward and hesitant. I’d stutter, I’d second-guess myself, or I’d try to soften my convictions in order not to provoke discomfort or judgment. I didn’t know how to stand firm in my identity without feeling like I was walking on eggshells or apologizing for something I wasn’t sure people around me even understood.

And then it all changed, and not in some dramatic, well-planned way. Someone left a reply to one of my posts - completely unprovoked - filled with slurs, profanity, and the kind of blind hatred that doesn’t invite dialogue, only submission or silence. At first, I was genuinely shocked. My instinct was to shut down the account entirely. I thought, “This isn’t for me. I don’t want to live in this kind of digital space.”

But I didn’t leave. I replied (yes, a bit snarkily) and then something unexpected happened. I stayed. And slowly, I started noticing something else in my feed. Quiet support. Other Jews - some vocal, some just quietly present - liking my posts, sending messages, following me back, making space for nuance and solidarity in ways I hadn’t expected to find here. That sense of connection moved me more than I can describe. It reminded me that Jewish solidarity still exists, not as an abstract idea from history books, but as something living and real, even in the messy corners of the internet. It’s still here. It’s still beautiful. It still means something.

So here I am. Still not claiming to have answers. Still figuring out how to speak with both clarity and compassion. But I’ve realized that simply being Jewish online right now, speaking honestly, thoughtfully and without shame, is - whether I like it or not - a political act. And maybe that’s reason enough to keep going.

[thegreenmeridian]

Met a drunk Jewish American in the bar, he was slapping his kippah on his pals and I showed him mine. Got a free beer because “we’re in the triiiiiiibe bro! Mahhhzel fuckin taaaahv!”.

I love us. I do. I had dinner at chabad and bonded with my tribe, I went out for a beverage while waiting for my coke guy and bonded with my tribe, I’m going to bed in a hostel that also contains a girl from my tribe who I bonded with earlier when she clocked my Hebrew necklace.

This is what the goyim don’t get. All of us are family. All of us. Drunk randos, the chabad rebbetzin who I’m sure has figured I’m queer and trans and says not a word and sent me home with a challah, hostel girlie I gave my book to… family. All of them. People can get that the Irish side of my family would still be in Ireland if not for famine and the British. People can’t seem to get that the Jewish side would still be in Israel if not for millennia of Romans and Arabs and Christians and, and, and…

All of us are alive because some ancestor somewhere left at the right time or hid at the right moment or survived the unsurvivable. That’s a weight we’re born with, whether we’re raised Jewish or learn of it later or whatever other ways there are to be a Jew. Hell, even converts. So many stories of converts are people who were otherwise oppressed and found their homes with us. To be a Jew is to survive and to celebrate living in, as one of my favourite books* puts it, “a world that is heartbroken”. In a world that wants us dead, literally or metaphorically.

*(The book is Minyan by Eliezer Sobel, I got it in a second hand bookshop in Boston and nothing has impacted me as much since I read Catcher in the Rye as a mentally ill and deeply closeted teen. Fully recommend.)

[pargolettasworld]

Keshet has just released a concise and highly readable report on the position and experience of LGBTQ+ Jews of Color in Jewish community life. You can read it in PDF here.

[mossadspypigeon]

👏👏👏

[beautifulpaxiel]

I just saw a post in the Jewish/Israeli community

It said they were taking a break from Tumblr for a while because the antisemitism was really affecting their mental health.

I've been seriously thinking of doing the same, and just wondered how many other Jewish folk on Jumblr feel as I do.

[coming-home116]

dont forget to kiss the mezuzah on your way in!

shalom!! you can call me Eli (for Eliezer) if you need to put a name to my presence. this is my Judaism blog, for anything that relates, probably primarily books (i now have a stack of Jewish books and am slowly working my way through it TwT), art, fashion, cooking, meditation, anything!

i am:

༄.° 18 years old, been considering conversion since i was around 15

༄.° blessed to be genderqueer. my pronouns are she/her, he/him, xe/xem/xyr, fin/fins, gill/gills, cer/cers, in no particular order

༄.° a prospective convert - i currently am not in the best position to convert as i live out of town of the Conservative synagogue i am hoping to convert through, but i am trying (and really really hoping) to make it work

༄.° hoping to learn some amount of Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, Ladino, Arabic, and French in my lifetime

༄.° a Star Trek fan! are you surprised? /lh (admittedly ive not watched most of it, and im primarily a fan of The Next Generation - Data, my beloved!)

༄.° alterhuman/otherkin/other such similar terms. this wont come up most likely but it is important to me, and something i think one can be casual about online. im not gonna post my 'types but if youre interested in knowing them, shoot me a DM maybe :3

this blog is NOT antizionism friendly - i will probably block you. if you consider Zionists to be bad Jews or people, you should block me. i will not respond to asks about the conflict. my asks are open and the anon option is on for anyone that might want to chat but is shy, not for hate.

messianic 'Jews' will be blocked on sight. other Christians are on thin ice - i ask that yall dont reblog or reply my posts with any Christian commentary. this is Jewish-related blog, for Jewish people.

other people i dont really fuck with and will probably block:

༄.° transmeds

༄.° so-called misanthropes

༄.° Wiccans (specifically Wiccans, otherwise witches and folk magic practioners are alright)

༄.° TERFs, radfems

BOTH Israelis and Palestinians deserve a safe home without war, and no one side or people deserves damnation just because of their government. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

im trying to observe Shabbos more, in the ways that appeal to me and make me feel closer to HaShem, so i might not be online Friday evenings and Saturdays (Central Standad Time)

im gonna come up with a tags list, stay tuned!

buhbye!

[iloveisrael]

[hachama]

Once a Jew, always a Jew. If you stood with me at Sinai, I will never, ever question your right to do so.

Whether you've been through a beit din or not

Whether you've visited a mikveh or not

Whether you read Hebrew or not

Whether you're observant or not

Your Jewishness is not up for debate.

[angrytheatremaker]

Angry Political Crap (Shitpost)

This is going to get lost in the shuffle, but I find that when two people in a long-term relationship are mostly on the same page re the current dumpster fires at home and abroad, they are still going to split hairs over whatever it is.

My fiance doesn't detest Putin nearly as much as he detests Trump and Netanyahu. I think Putin is worse than the other two, but then one of my special interests is current affairs in eastern Europe and Russia. He also downplays the shellacking Ukraine has taken and continues to take from the invading Russian forces while echoing the Russian party line about Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

My love and father of our child, if you were listening to accounts from Ukrainians on the ground, you would realize three things. 1) The pitiable state of Gazans plus Netanyahu's blatant corruption and land-grabbing doesn't supersede Ukraine's hour of need or its collective suffering at Russian hands. 2) It's not a matter of who is more oppressed and attacked; you can feel empathy for the afflicted in both conflicts. 3) There are decisive reasons most of Europe is mobilizing for Ukraine and against the eventuality of a broader Russian invasion--it is historically true that if you give a Russian dictator an inch, they will walk all over you. My maternal grandfather, who lived through the Molotov-von Ribbentrop pact, could have said as much in fewer words.

Bear in mind my fiance came of age when virtually every educated person outside of the States condemned the United States, South Africa, and Israel as an evil triumvirate. Fine. I get that.

Complicating this further, I am Jewish (thank you, matrilineal descent) with relatives who were directly affected by the events of 7 October. I wish my relatives to live through this chaos. I do not want Israelis dead en masse. I am always cautious when speaking about my personal beliefs on this front because of how polarizing the subject has become. And I am aware that there are those who (on learning of my Jewishness) would gleefully salivate over my death and even that of my infant daughter.

I am not sure where I'm going with this, except to say that if you believe that my Jewishness cancels out my humanity or that all Israelis should burn, do not engage. Do not collect two hundred dollars, do not pass Go, do not engage. If you want to continue playing into the horseshoe bigotry that informs the far right and the far left, that is your affair--but include me out.

[lostinsidelostoutside]

The Jewish people are strong 💪

The Jewish people are not going anywhere 🇮🇱

You can't wish the Jewish people away 🇮🇱 .... No matter how hard you try !

Israel was and is and will always be

You can NEVER take that away from me !

🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙

[yourhavruta]

Hey, it has been a while, hasn't it?

I'm doing a school work on Kalonymus ben(/bat) Kalonymus. More specifically about a section from their book Even Bohan. The section is called "the perks of woman's destiny" {מה טוב גורלה של אישה}

If you know this text and have some interesting takes, I would like to hear them.

[mossadspypigeon]

for resources on learning more ^

[coming-home116]

stood in the shower yesterday and just talked aloud to HaShem

said 'whatever it takes, however long this takes, wherever i must go and who i have to meet, i will follow the call You've placed within me. though i might feel alone sometimes, i know im not, because You walk with me, as i find Your people'

does that count as hitbodedut?

[iloveisrael]

[kaesaaurelia]

plEASE I just sat in front of this woman on the bus who was ranting transphobically about some celebrity which then segued into "gay people don't DESERVE a special week just for being gay" (you are wrong about what Pride is and also how long it lasts!) and then burbled happily about how fun it was to light the menorah at her church's "Hanukkah mass" because of COURSE she would celebrate Hanukkah because it is about the BEAUTIFUL LIGHT OF GOD and nothing else. Nothing else. Just like Pride is about gay people feeling special and NOTHING ELSE NONE OF THESE HOLIDAYS IS ABOUT MINORITY RESISTANCE TO VIOLENCE OR PEOPLE REFUSING TO ASSIMILATE, OH NO! ONE OF THEM IS ABOUT LIGHT AND THE OTHER IS ABOUT WOKE.