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rubyblue2005 · 10 months

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Anti-Semitism & the Merchant of Venice

Here is my Shakespeare Essay that I am kind of proud of:

It's Elizabethan England and you are a Jew. People see you as a Devil worshiper and are often used as a scapegoat to be blamed for anything and everything, having been recently blamed for bringing about the Bubonic Plague. The other oppressed religious minority at the same time as you are the Catholics. Due to the horrible misrepresentations and stereotypes surrounding being Jewish, the only main professions available to you are lending money to people in return for payment or selling illegal or forbidden goods. Then, in 1596, a little-known English playwright and poet by the name of William Shakespeare published a play named The Merchant of Venice. And the play contains Jewish representation in the characters, Shylock and his daughter Jessica. Shakespeare shows his Elizabethan-era audience the common horrors that a Jewish character would have to go through by virtue of his main Jewish character, Shylock and how the other characters respond and react towards him.

When reading The Merchant of Venice through only Shylock's parts, everyone else becomes the villain. Shylock himself, as a character, does not do anything that constitutes the hate he receives. Other characters frequently call him the devil and a creature, never calling Shylock by his name but instead dubbing him ‘The Jew’. Shylock, throughout the play, is called various names: Currish Jew, Harsh Jew, Gentle Jew; he is called and described as a creature by characters; and during the court scene, Shylock is even called and compared to a savage wolf. Throughout the entire play, Shylock is compared to the devil, often called the devil by many of the characters, if not all. Bassanio besmirches Shylock when talking about him, saying, “I like not fair terms and a villain's mind” (1.3). Antonio, a person asking Shylock for a loan of money in front of Shylock himself, says, “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart:” (1.3). Both have no qualms about denoting, degrading, and insulting the person who is giving them a large sum of money through a contract. Launcelot, Shylock’s servant, even says, “Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnal” (2.2).

Speaking of Shylock’s servant, there is an entire scene in which he debates staying in Shylock’s servitude; the entire monologue in which he debates leaving Shylock is entirely filled with him insulting Shylock and ranting about how he wishes to not call Shylock his master. When reading the monologue, I could not find a single reason as to why Launcelot wished to leave Shylock’s servitude, other than the fact that Shylock is Jewish. Which the servant points out several times in the duration of his monologue. Throughout Launcelot’s indecision, he likens Shylock to the devil three times.

Even Shylock's daughter, Jessica, is not written without seemingly unfounded disdain for Shylock. Jessica talks about how she is ashamed of being related to Shylock, even going as far as to call Shylock the devil as she complains about living with him. Jessica also calls Shylock a devil when she explains, “I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so: Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil" (2.3). Yet, just as with Shylock’s former servant, Jessica does not give a single reason as to why Shylock is as horrible as she says her father is, other than the fact that Shylock is Jewish. Jessica goes so far as to run away from home because of how discontent she is with living with her father. Before she does run away, Jessica also steals what is described as a rather large chunk of money and jewels from Shylock before leaving and converting to Christianity. Which is arguably much more monstrous than everything Shylock has done and is also against both Christianity and Judaism. In Dante’s Inferno, an undeniably Christian poem, where Italian writer Dante Alighieri writes about his thieves being in the seventh Bolgia (ditch) of the Malebolge, “In Inferno 24, the thieves are trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of being bitten and bound by serpents, dragons and other vengeful reptiles. Thieves are bitten by snakes, turning their bodies into ash before spontaneously regenerating their bodies again for further torment. Others are bitten by snakes and are transformed into snakes that, in turn, minister the punishment onto other souls. Here, the souls turn against each other, reflecting how theft breaks the intrinsic bonds of trust and community that holds society together” (Dante’s Inferno 24). Jessica, in her seemingly unfounded distaste and hatred for her father, actively denoted and spit upon the ideas of the religion she converted to, Christianity. Dante’s Inferno was written centuries before The Merchant of Venice took place, and the hypocrisy is strange to note.

As he is doing business with a customer asking for money, Antonio calls Shylock names to his face as Antonio and Bassaino are asking for a very large amount of money. Shylock even says that this is not the first time Antonio has been rather rude and prejudiced against him, and he does not consider him a friend, refusing the offer to dine with them as enemies. When Shylock fleshes out the contract for the money, he explicitly states what a pound of flesh entails should Antonio not pay him back. To this end, Antonio says that he still agrees to the contract. Thus, the only 'monstrous' act that Shylock is convicted of is simply Shylock following through with the business deal he had made with Antonio.

While it is never explicitly stated, many of the characters seem to be Catholic, the other oppressed religious minority in England at the time. When Shakespeare writes the characters as identifying as Christians, it seems to lean more into the Catholicism branches of Christianity. Shakespeare seems to differ from Catholicism as the more righteous underdog of the two oppressed religions, spitting upon his Jewish character, Shylock, using the rest of The Merchant of Venice’s cast as well as anti-Semitic stereotypes. Shakespeare introduces his audience to Shylock with him bargaining “Three thousand ducats; well” (1.3). Furthering the stereotype of Jewish people being money grubbing such as having Shylock idly tell his servant, “For I did dream of money-bags to-night” (2.5), Shakespeare even has Shylock focus on stereotypical Jewish caricatures by keeping him ardently focused on his bond, even willing to go to court for the bond, “Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond" (4.1).

But then, how much is 3,000 ducats? How much money did Shylock loan to Antonio? Well, according to Simon Black from Sovereign Man, who did the math, “A ducat’s weight is roughly 3.5 grams, or .11 troy ounces of gold weight… so 3,000 ducats is roughly $530,000 at today’s gold price” (Simon Black). No wonder Shylock was so persistent in getting Antonio to pay the bond. He had lent over half a million dollars to Antonio, only for Antonio to be very rude towards him and then not even pay the bond back, which is why Shylock even went to court in the first place.

Portia, dressed as a man named Balthazar, tries to appeal to Shylock with Christian values, which does not work due to Shylock not even being Christian. Portia pleads, “That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;” (4.1). Portia is saying that following the letter of the law will not allow Shylock into heaven, which was destined to fail as a plea because Jewish people do not believe in an afterlife. What salvation would Shylock need in death? When Portia pulls an old Venetian law out of her ass about Venice citizens being protected from deals made with non-citizens, Shylock is forced to settle, which he attempts to do but is then barred from doing so by everyone present at the court. When reading the play, I only knew the name Balthazar as a demon from modern media. I was informed in class that Balthazar is also the name of a saint and one of the Magi in Christian belief.

When Shylock finally snaps verbally, Shakespeare finally gives the Jewish character something to stand on that is not anti-Semitic in sentiment. A little under two hundred words, where Shylock calls out the hypocrisy of the merchants, asking him not to take Antonio to court, he delivers, “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that” (3.1). Shylock's speech is certainly powerful and well-worded by Shakespeare. Shylock’s speech encapsulates the hypocrisy that has been displayed since Shylock's character was first introduced in scene three of The Merchant of Venice; it is then ignored by the characters when they finally reach the Venetian court. Bassanio calls Shylock the devil right after Shylock confirms his name in court: “And curb this cruel devil of his will” (4.1). The other’s character’s and reactions towards Shylock don’t change.

For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why Shylock’s less than two-hundred-word speech was the only part of the entire play where Shakespeare is the exact opposite of anti-Semitic. Shakespeare is Catholic, the other oppressed minority religion during the Elizabethan era. All people should have an intolerance for this kind of behavior, having most likely been on the receiving end of such discrimination. Then, I realized that Shakespeare pointed this out all the way back in scene three as well. Shylock’s speech is not the only time Shylock has pointed out the unfair hypocrisy and prejudice of the people around him.

Shylock, in his introduction to the play, states, “You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for use of that which is mine own. Well then, it now appears you need my help: Go to, then; you come to me, and you say 'Shylock, we would have moneys:' you say so; You, that did void your rheum upon my beard And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold: moneys is your suit What should I say to you?” (1.3). Shylock, by virtue of being Jewish, has to fight for his rights in every interaction he has in the play. By virtue of no one else fighting for his rights, Shylock had to become an activist for his own rights.

As I was talking to my mother about this, who is a big Shakespeare fan, she pointed out that Shakespeare was actually rather risky by adding or keeping those parts in The Merchant of Venice at all, because he could have been killed for those words. While I might not hold religion on a pedestal that I am willing to both kill and die for, many people in modern times do. And many more people in the late 1590s and early 1600s did place vast amounts of weight on their religions. Shakespeare, in showing his audience the absolute hellish horrors that someone who is Jewish would have to go through, created Shylock, a man hated by the entire cast, an activist for Jewish rights, and someone who points out the hypocrisy of the religious discrimination of the Elizabethan Era.

Works Cited:

Shakespeare, William. Merchant of Venice. Ed. Lawrence Danson. Pearson, 2005.

Alchin, Linda. “Queen Elizabeth I - Jews and Catholics.” Queen Elizabeth I - Jews and Catholics, 2017, www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/.

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri : Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise. Wikipedia.

Black, Simon. “Why Dost Thou Whet Thy Knife so Earnestly?” Sovereign Man, 29 Sept. 2015, www.sovereignman.com/trends/

#shakespeare #Shakespeare essay #here is an essay i got an a on :d #essay

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theredqueenandthebloodwyrm · 1 year

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America Chavez Comics vs Multiverse of Madness

Once you know like the bare minimal of comic lore + the whitewashing and racism done to characters in the MCU, it's just like "why?" why would they do that?

I already didn't like Multiverse of Madness due to the whitewashing and racism surrounding MCU!Wanda Maximoff (otherwise called Wendy Mayomoff due to being played by a racist white woman). But whatever I was at least hoping to get something out of that movie when I watched it a while back. Spoiler Alert: I got nothing but racism and whitewashing and shitty writing. (shocker, said nobody ever).

But reading some of the West Coast Avengers (2018) issues/comics, you really get a feel for America Chavez as a character right off the bat. She's proud, loud, and in your face and it's fucking great. She's kicking ass, she's afro-latina and a lesbian and I love her as a character alright? (even though I haven't read like most of her stuff).

But if you take a look at Multiverse of Madness? That "adaptation" of America Chavez is not it at all. She's a plot device who doesn't do much, and the casting was undeniably whitewashed (this isn't hate against the actor for America Chavez or anything like that). Also America Chavez's comic hair type doesn't match the actress at all??

The article above pretty much lays out the issues with the casting plus it has comic book examples of America Chavez. Go check it out.

It's just like I'd like to believe the MCU can write better stories and better characters but they're consistently dropping the fucking ball of a tall ass cliff into a pit of lava (see the majority of minority character being adapted into the MCU: Wanda Maximoff, America Chavez, Sam Wilson, Jewish-erasure, Roma-erasure, and so on.) Sigh The MCU will do one or two good movies that I like (Black Panther 1 & 2, the introduction of Ironheart / Riri Williams was cool, Shang-Chi, Antman) and then fuck up something else and it's like "Oh you were hoping for something good? psych, bitch" (and even the films I listed have flaws-like every piece of media yknow but still)

#multiverse of madness #I'm going mad because of the MCU lmao #America Chavez #mcu criticism #mcu critical #like this is old news but I wanted it off my chest now that I'm diving more into comics #and I have a better understanding of how they (writers) fucked up when adapting characters #marvel comics #marvel comics vs mcu

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stevethehairington · 2 years

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jewish robin buckley anyone?

#robin buckley #stranger things #something something yet another thing that makes her feel ~different~#but shes undeniably proud to be jewish #also thinking about robin inviting steve over for hanukkah bc she knows how lonely he always feels this time of year #and its not the same as christmas but she knows how hanukkah makes her feel and she knows that she just wants steve to belong somewhere #so she opens her family up to him opens this side of her up to him #bc up to this point he knew she was jewish but he'd never seen her like jewish in action lmao #this is the first time #and he is so very respectful of it all #and so full of awe at the traditions robin and her family partake in #and when they invite him to join in #at the end of the night as robin and steve watch the last of the candles burn out steve tells her that the whole night was really lovely #and he knows its only one celebration but he likes this one and he understands judaism a little more now #and he tells her that hes glad she has that #and it touches robin how sincere he is about her religion her culture her identity #and she just thinks to herself that she really is the luckiest girl to have such a good person as her best friend

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jewish-privilege · 4 years

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(...)

I was a 12 years old when I was attacked by a mob of children and called "Christ killer" — the same age Jesus was, according to the Gospel of Luke, when he lingered in the Temple of Jerusalem and impressed the elders with his intellect — so this issue is undeniably personal. That wasn't the first or last time I was bullied for being Jewish, but it was the only time I nearly died because of it: Those kids held my head underwater, chanting, "Drown the Jew!"

This incident sprang back to mind this month as Republicans tried to figure out what to do about Greene, a particularly obnoxious Christian right-winger who has suggested that a "space laser" affiliated with Jewish banking families caused the 2018 Camp Fire in California, expressed sympathy for the anti-Semitic QAnon fantasies, promoted a video that claimed Jews are trying to destroy Europe, posed for a picture with a Ku Klux Klan leader and liked a tweet linking Israel to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

(...)

None of this is surprising for anyone who is familiar with the history of American anti-Semitism. Greene is not an aberration, some inexplicable pimple of hatred that blemishes the American right's otherwise Jew-friendly visage. The American right has long had an anti-Semitism problem, and she's just the latest symptom.

This history of hatred "tells us much more about the anti-Semite than it tells us about Jews," Dr. Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, told Salon. After citing an Israeli historian who refers to anti-Semitism as a "cultural code," Sarna explained that beliefs that vilify Jews as malevolent plotters who secretly control the world have a long history in American political life. "These ideas, which I think many on the left frankly had thought were done and over with, we suddenly see them full blown," he said

Before the 19th century, Sarna explained Jews were stereotypically depicted as being cursed: They were "wandering Jews" for their supposed role in killing Jesus Christ. In the modern era, however, the stereotype emerged that Jews secretly controlled the world and were responsible for everything that a given anti-Semite might regard as sinister. During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant blamed the Jews for cotton smuggling and expelled the entire Jewish community from areas he controlled in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. When the populist movement arose to address agrarian economic concerns in the 1890s, Jewish bankers like the Rothschilds were a frequent target among ideological leaders like William Hope "Coin" Harvey.

(...)

There's a direct line between those conspiratorial fantasies ideas from previous decades and the anti-Semitic attacks of the 21st century. "Conspiratorial thinking, by its nature, argues that everything is connected," Sarna explained. "There are no coincidences and it eschews complexity. It believes there are simple explanations based on sinister individuals who are manipulating the universe. Unsurprisingly, in a Christian setting, those are Jews."

Those ideas can evolve — Sarna pointed out that the QAnon belief in a giant child abuse ring run by Jews is analogous to the "blood libel," the medieval myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children for rituals — but the underlying assumptions have been consistent. It just so happens that, in the modern right-wing incarnation, Donald Trump's cult-like following believes that "all the enemies of Mr. Trump are now child molesters."

(...)

[Jewish comedian Larry Charles] brought up community organizer and political theorist Saul Alinsky, a favorite target of the right. "He is almost like the devil in a way," Charles observed. "He's like this radical leftist Jew, he fits all the categories. He checks all the boxes."

"Shooting some of these movies, we would see reasonable people who have this blind spot," Charles said. "They have this crazy belief, and there were all different applications and manifestations of it, that the Jews control everything. That is like a mantra amongst a certain segment of the population."

(...)

With the election of Trump in 2016, those ingrained belief systems — which for many years had been kept outside the American political mainstream — became more prominent, and their adherents more emboldened. David Weissman, a military veteran and former conservative Republican who stopped being a self-described "Trump troll" after a 2018 conversation with comedian Sarah Silverman, told Salon about his encounters with anti-Semitism on the right.

Back when he still supported Trump, Weissman recalled, he got into a "little spat" with an alt-right commentator who calls himself Baked Alaska, who was recently arrested after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Ultimately they moved past it, Weissman said: "We both realized we were Trump supporters" who believed "Democrats were the bad guys." Once he left MAGA world, however, Weissman said "the anti-Semitism definitely escalated" in interactions with his former allies.

"When I became a Democrat, I was called 'the k-word'" and targeted by "anti-Semitic slurs and tropes," Weissman said. Trump supporters sent "memes of me being Jewish in the oven," and "put my name in parentheses," a common tactic used by the far right to target someone for being Jewish.

(...)

"Anti-Semitism certainly did not start with Marjorie Taylor Greene, nor did it start with Donald Trump, but we have seen an exponential increase in violent anti-Semitic incidents during Donald Trump's presidency," Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Salon. "That is no doubt related to the fact that he emboldened and aligned himself with white nationalism." She mentioned Trump equating the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville with the peaceful protesters by "commenting that there were very fine people on both sides," refusing to denounce white nationalism and telling the right-wing Proud Boys during one of the campaign debates to "stand back and stand by."

"White nationalism had existed in our country prior to that, and anti-Semitism as an element of it, but white nationalists had never had an ally in the White House until Donald Trump," Soifer said.

(...)

Donald Trump's supposed pro-Israel policies were closely aligned with those of Benjamin Netanyahu, and did nothing to correct for Trump's history of anti-Semitic words and actions. He accused Jewish Democrats of "great disloyalty" toward Israel (feeding into the stereotype that Jews have dual loyalties), removed any specific reference to Jews from a 2017 State Department statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day and has frequently used anti-Semitic dogwhistle terms by opposing "globalists" and describing himself as a "nationalist." When I interviewed Charlotte Pence, the daughter of former Vice President Mike Pence, she talked about her family's love of Israel but refused to answer a question about whether she believes Jews are going to hell — or discuss the creepy messianic theories underpinning the Christian right's support for Israel.

When I asked Larry Charles whether, based on his experiences, there's an opportunity to build bridges with anti-Semites, he was skeptical. "I have not seen a lot of opportunities for bridge building in the situations that I've been in," Charles explained. "The people that I've met through Sacha [Baron Cohen] were very rigid and dogmatic in their prejudices. There was no crossing that gulf with them. There might be tolerance, temporarily. There might be patience, temporarily. But there's no changing that belief."

I hope that Charles is wrong but suspect he is right, which raises the question of how American Jews should react to the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world. For want of a better alternative, I think the only solution is to be intolerant toward intolerance. House Democrats were right to strip Greene of her committee assignments, but that is not nearly enough. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter need to do more to limit hate speech, even if conservatives cry foul in bad faith (the First Amendment only protects people from government censorship, not consequences from private corporations). Right-wing politicians who attack prominent Jews in ways that can be plausibly construed as anti-Semitic, or by denouncing "globalists," need to lose their funding. People who oppose anti-Semitism must lead boycotts against right-wing media figures who cover for people like Greene, such as Fox News' Sean Hannity.

On a broader level, critics of anti-Semitism must recognize that this form of bigotry is part of America's long history of hate — a history which holds that only white, straight Christian "manly" men have a right to rule — and recognize our responsibility to be allies to African Americans and the Latinx community, Muslims and the LGBT community, women suffering under the patriarchy and the poor struggling to make ends meet. If we limit our empathy merely to other Jews, the implicit message is not that systemic oppression is wrong, but only that we happen to dislike it when our group is targeted. The Jewish tradition at its best instills a moral responsibility to see all the layers of oppression, and align ourselves with its victims.

[Read Matthew Rozsa’s full piece in Salon]

#marjorie taylor greene #antisemitism #american antisemitism

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laineystein · 3 years

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“This is new.”

The Boy™️ and I went out for his birthday on Thursday night. His favorite restaurant happens to be close to where we both grew up so we drove through the same neighborhoods that raised us - streets we walked to get to school or back and forth from the houses we grew up in. Of course, we ran into three separate people we knew. This seems to be a trend lately. It’s like our past, every little detail we’ve been so good at keeping hidden, keeps rearing its head, demanding to be dealt with. One of the people we ran into was a teacher we both had in yeshiva and they commented “oh, this is new!” And we both smiled and laughed and wished them a good shabbat. We didn’t talk about it then but we spent Shabbos together – alone – and we spent most of the night unpacking all of it.

This wasn’t the first time we’d heard it. It’s all anyone seems to say lately. When I had a ride to the airport at 4am and my mother strong-armed me into admitting who it was she said “oh, that’s new”. When his Modox parents were a bit passive-agressive toward me earlier in the summer because suddenly I was *everywhere*, I finally got his mother to admit that she worried about our relationship simply because it “came out of nowhere”…because “it’s new” and a lot of our “decisions seem impulsive.”

No. This isn’t new. We’re not new. Our relationship is 15 years old. This has been a thing - many things, actually - for a decade and a half. I have been in love with this man for half of my life but to the world, even the people we love the most, yes - this is new. And I can’t argue with them. We don’t. We have no idea how to handle this.

We were fifteen and sixteen. Simply put - being a teenager means being young and dumb and somehow being terrified and craving happiness in equal amounts. He was (is) my best friend’s brother and they’re extremely close. On top of that, he’s Modox and I wasn’t and am not. His family never treated me differently, even when other families did - especially early on at yeshiva when it was very clear that I was raised differently than most of my classmates. But I loved them and they loved me. They loved me as their daughter’s best friend. It didn’t make sense to explain that I was more than that with their son - especially because we didn’t know what that was.

We were teenagers! We were intense and fearless and manic and we were absolutely terrified of letting anyone down. We’re both the first born in our immigrant Jewish families. There has always been so much pressure on each of us to be the best - the smartest, the most hardworking. For him - the most devout. We both had to marry well and have big Jewish families. We were the product of generations of trauma - children and grandchildren of families that had consistently escaped persecution and now we were seemingly well adjusted teenagers in America, finally free to live the lives everyone who came before us fought so hard for. It was a lot of pressure, all the time. But together? No pressure. The things I struggled to tell his sister - how much I hated my yeshiva uniform, how marriage and children weren’t in the forefront of my mind yet…everything I couldn’t tell anyone else in the world, I told The Boy™️.

That’s where the name comes from - and those of you who used to follow my studyblr know I talked about him often. I never talked about him by name. His sister always thought I had someone in Israel that I had this big crush on. And I did. When he was in Israel with me I had a huge crush on him. But I loved him in Brooklyn too. I loved him when we traveled to France and Amsterdam and Italy. I spent four out of my five IDF civilians (time off from the military) with him and no one knew. We have lived so many lives together. We’ve experienced so many things, side by side, and no one had any clue. And we watched each other love other people and try to make it work with people that weren’t us. But ultimately he was the one who helped me through breakups and med school. He was the person that literally saved my life in 2020 when my shifts at the hospital during COVID had me so mentally and physically exhausted that I could barely get out of bed…literally. Then when things calmed down I realized, it didn’t matter what was going on in the world, he’s always been my biggest supporter and I cannot and will not live without him and the fact that we weren’t sharing this thing that made us both so undeniably happy just felt ridiculous and unfair.

But we didn’t know how to even explain everything so we kind of…didn’t? It was never “this is my best friend and we’re in love” it was “I’m going to Israel and he’s coming too”. We alternated Shabbos between his parents’ house and mine. All the while everyone is hesitant, almost nervous - this is new, this is new, this is new. It’s not new. But this is the first time we’re admitting how we feel and what we are to the people we love. He’s not just my friend’s brother. He’s not even just my best friend or my boyfriend. He’s the man I want to marry and have a family with. I get why our families are so confused. They have no idea all we’ve done and how so many of the things they celebrate in us - our jobs, our successes, our faith - is because of the other.

So we have to start being honest. They’ll never truly get it if they can’t see how deep it is, if they can’t acknowledge the history. But how do we explain it? We are who we are because once upon a time we were both really struggling with our faith. We thought we were terrible Jews because we didn’t want the things our parents wanted. I didn’t believe in tzniut. Some days he didn’t either. We were doing things we were told kids in yeshiva don’t do! We were having sex and smoking weed and going to bars in the city because we could. But it wasn’t about being a part of the goy world. We didn’t want that. We just wanted to be who we were in the Jewish world and we had no idea how to do that. For so long it felt like it was us against the world - Jewish and gentle. We didn’t fit in with either but we could be who we wanted to be, together, in this weird in-between. He’s safety. He always has been. When I have a thought and I know no one in the world will understand it, I know he’s the exception. We always felt like we were judged, even inadvertently by people who swore they were being open minded and supportive, but together that was never a worry. So how do we explain that?

We don’t. We won’t. We need to be honest about some things: about how far our friendship goes back, about the depth of it - then and now. Everyone else is free to make their own assumptions. They can draw their own conclusions or they can just learn to accept us as we are now. The weird part is that everyone has been much more accepting than we imagined - especially his sister. She loves our relationship so much, to the point that we feel bad for keeping it from her for so long. But we don’t know if we’d be who we are now if we hadn’t lived this other life together. We weren’t wrong. Having this one thing in life that is untouched by the world was magical. We still have days where we miss it, especially now as questions of marriage and children flood in. But we’ve agreed that we’ll be honest with our children. All of it.

I guess a lot of this for us wasn’t just about *us* but about who each of us are as people. We’ve always worn so many labels. We’re completely opposites but we have fundamental similarities. We both love being Jewish. We’re loud and proud, unapologetic Jews. But we weren’t always! And the secret nature of our relationship aside, that’s what’s the most difficult for us to acknowledge publicly - myself in particular. I get a lot of that - often from many of you. I am so so honored that where I am with my faith today, at 31, is something so many of you admire. I can’t even begin to explain to you how much that means to me. But I guess it’s important to note that this was a journey. I was a mess. I always loved being a Jew but for several years I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know that I had the power to write my own narrative and live my life as a Jew on my own terms. The strength and confidence you see now is because all of the bullshit I went through before. Even now I am constantly learning. Every day I become more and more secure in my role as a Jewish woman, now that I can define what that means for me.

And that’s all I want for any of you! Live your Jewish truth! We are all products of so much hardship. We really do deserve to be the best version of ourselves. We deserve happiness and security in our relationships, in our careers, in every aspect of life possible. And if you’re not there yet - if you wake up wondering where you fit into the Tribe, that’s okay! You will get there! Being a Jew is a super power!!! You just need to figure out how to be a Jew in a way that makes the most sense to you. There truly is no one way to be a Jew - no wrong way to be a Jew. Being a Jew, in any capacity, makes you an awesome Jew. I wish I had someone to tell me that but I didn’t. It took me many years to be where I am now. So for anyone who needs to hear it: you’re an awesome Jew and I’m so proud of you!

#blog-ish things #Jew things #the boy™️#personal #about me #this was kind of all over the place so if you read it...apologies but also thanks?#I tried to make sense but it's a mess because at one point in my life I was a mess and some days I'm still a mess AND THAT'S OKAY!#anyway. you're all wonderful. I hope you're enjoying your weekends!

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thedupshadove · 5 years

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G-d of My Father’s

Summary: An interesting fact about Newton Pulsifer comes further to light. Newt, as usual, frets.

Author’s Note: This was sort of written to be set within @jewish-kulindadromeus “HaSofer”, but I’m over-eager, which means that only Chapter One of that fic is actually up as I write this, which means that further chapters of that fic may render this one incompatible with it, which is fine as that author is within her rights to write whatever kind of story she wants, seeing how we’re not actually working together.

“Say,” said Crowley after the sixth time Newt overheard him giving Aziraphale some Judaism 101 lesson and interjected with a helpful clarification, extra information, or his own view on things only to hastily shut himself up, “how come you know all this? I remember asking you if you were Jewish and you said no.” In fact Newt had looked at the ceiling, stammered a bit, pulled his mouth into a thin Muppety line, rubbed the back of his neck, and then said no, but Crowley hadn’t given that much thought at the time, since that was barely more awkwardness than Newt tended to display when asked to make a definitive statement on anything. “What, did an old girlfriend teach you?”

“His current girlfriend could have taught him.” said Anathema pointedly, walking into the room. “Although I suppose if that were it he’d wax fondly about boyoz instead of babka.”

“No,” Newt finally forced out after exhaling the breath he’d been holding in since Crowley had started addressing him. “No, it…it wasn’t any girlfriend. It was, er, well it’s all stuff I picked up from my father’s old synagogue.”

“Uh-huh.” said Crowley in a much-is-becoming-clear-to-me voice. “Your father’s old synagogue. Your mother, I take it, not having one.”

“Right.”

“And may I further hazard a guess that your father, family obligations aside, is not what one would call a pious man?”

“Oh, completely non-observant. And pretty well atheist too. Since well before he met my mum, mind, so don’t go blaming her.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it” Crowley deadpanned. “So, you were dragged to the synagogue sometimes, probably mostly for b’nai mitzvahs, and couldn’t help but absorb a few things. I see.” He made as if to turn back to Aziraphale.

But Newt suddenly looked distressed and a little defensive. “Well I wouldn’t say dragged.” he protested. “I mean they didn’t have to drag me. Why would they? It was something special, something wonderful. A day to be spent surrounded by relatives, plenty of whom I didn’t see very often. Getting to see some cousin have a shining moment. Good food, good music, good conversation, us kids sneaking off to go exploring or play hide-and-seek during the reception, what wasn’t to look forward to?”

“Alright, alright, I apologize.” said Crowley, seemingly a little taken aback.

But Newt seemed now to feel that not enough had been said. “And it wasn’t just b’nai mitzvahs either. I mean there were a lot of those, but there were some weddings too, and of course a few funerals. Those obviously weren’t fun, per se, but they were…good. In a way. Like, if this relative was going to die, I’d much rather that we’d all gathered and done this funeral than if we hadn’t. When I first heard that my grandfather had died I was just…numb, and it wasn’t until we were all standing around the grave and it was my turn to shovel in some dirt that I think it really hit home. And that was a good situation to have that happen in, I think. And we would go to the Seders at my aunt’s house pretty regularly.”

That made sense, Crowley reflected. If there was any one holiday that even the most secular Jew might go home for, it would be Passover, being not only very major and important but also placing such an emphasis on family and gathering and togetherness. And food and drink and storytelling and, if you do it right, laughter.

“I even…” some of Newt’s natural state of embarrassment seemed to have caught up with him again, but he soldiered on, powered by some inner spring of…something that needed to get out. “I even did the Four Questions a couple of times, until the cousins younger than me started getting old enough to take their turns doing it. But I remember my Dad teaching me how in the weeks before the holiday. Took me forever to get it right: I kept forgetting myself and using a soft ‘ch’.

“And sometimes Dad and I would just…talk about it. I mean, he didn’t keep any of the practices or rituals anymore except at family things, but I never got the impression that he, you know, really hated it now or anything. I would want to know something about what’s this holiday or why that rule or how come this is kosher but that isn’t, and he would tell me, and he never seemed to mind. Even seemed to kind of enjoy it. Not, I figure, from belief surging anew but,” Newt shrugged, “nostalgia, you know. And often that question led to other questions, and discussions, and sort of…arguments but without anger. I remember one time, after he’d got done explaining that ‘animals that walked on the ground’ had to have the right kind of hooves and the right kind of chewing habits, but any kind of bird was okay, I pointed out that perhaps our ancestors had not made a close examination of the usual behavior of the average chicken, and he,” Newt made an upward striking motion with his hand.

“He hit you?” Aziraphale gasped, shocked both at the sudden turn of the story and the fact that Newt’s tone hadn’t changed with it.

“What? No, no, no.” Newt said hastily, realizing his failure of communication. “He pantomimed dope-slapping me, but he didn’t actually make contact, and he was smiling. Smiling like he would sometimes when we had those talks. Like I was the biggest little smart-arse he’d ever met, and he loved me for it.” Newt was smiling too, now, bathed in his own nostalgic glow.

“Did he ever start one of these talks?” asked Crowley.

“Not often, no. The only times I can think of when he did were when they tried to teach us something about Judaism in school, and I’d come home and tell him about it, and it turned out school had got it wrong, or not given the whole picture.”

“So you grew up with Jewish family, going to Jewish events, celebrating (some) Jewish holidays, and getting a Jewish education at home pretty much for the asking.” Crowley clarified.

“That’s about the size of it, yeah.”

“But you’re not Jewish.”

“Well I’m not, am I?” Newt shrugged in agitation. “There’s a set of criteria, and I fall outside it.”

“Love,” said Anathema gently, “There’s been a lot of talk lately about reconsidering how strictly the matriliniality rule needs to be adhered to…”

“Yes, yes, I know about that. And it would be one thing if my immediate family really practiced Judaism regularly, or if I’d been bar mitzvahed myself, or anything like that, but we didn’t, and I wasn’t, so I’m not.”

“Well, that must be a relief then.” said Crowley, in a tone that could have pickled meat.

Newt stared at him. “What?”

“To have that escape clause.” he went on nastily. “I can understand why you would want it. Historically speaking, being Jewish has rarely been easy. Why be part of a weird minority if you don’t have to? So yes, you just go ahead and lean on that mother of yours. No one would blame you for pushing the…oddities of your heritage and past under the rug. No, don’t worry; you don’t have to be Jewish if you don’t want to be.”

Newt stood slack-jawed for a moment, then exploded. “Don’t say that, how dare you say that?” he demanded, with far more heat than it probably should have been safe to direct at a being like Crowley. “Haven’t you been listening? The times I spent…” he fumbled for words “…in Judaism have consistently been some of the happiest of my life. Laughter and connection and this…this feeling that I never got anywhere else. A feeling of warmth, of rightness. It was almost like believing in something. Not in G-d, maybe, but sometimes, even if it got more fleeting and less strong as I grew older and started to really understand the kind of half-breed hanger-on I was, sometimes, I believed that I belonged.

“And as to your veiled references to the fluctuating but ever-present antisemitism or just simple ignorance of mainstream society, trust me, I know. When I was younger it was listening to a classmate confidently explain to her friends that Jews weren’t allowed to eat leavened bread at all, ever, and not having the courage to interrupt the conversation and correct her, and more recently, it’s been these three co-workers at United Holdings who I can only assume think they’re funny. Or possibly they think that they can get away with it if they pretend to think they’re funny, which, to be fair, so far they have. But I get to listen to them gathered around the water cooler across from my cubicle making Lynch-The-Black jokes and Gas-The-Jew jokes, and they both make me angry, but the second category undeniably hits a deeper, more personal well of anger than the first.”

Here he paused. “I’m not…proud of that, by the way. It would almost certainly be better if every cruel or bigoted joke I heard hit me just as hard as the ones that make me picture my father and my aunt and my closest cousin and my new little second cousin being dispassionately yet hatefully murdered. But that’s not how my mind works. I would even hazard to say that it’s not how most people’s minds work.”

Crowley, who had withstood the storm with equanimity, leaned in closer and raised his voice a hair. “So are you Jewish or aren’t you?”

“I-DON’T-KNOW!”

“Because it seems to me that your position right now is that people who tell you that you’re Jewish are wrong, and people who tell you that you’re not Jewish…are wrong.”

“Well…maybe! Maybe they are both wrong!”

Crowley’s voice gentled a little. “Then what’s right?”

Newt sighed and deflated. “What’s right is…that I can’t say I’m Jewish. But I’m definitely not not Jewish. And sometimes I feel closer to it than other times. And sometimes I can manage to be sort of okay with this ebb-and-flow relationship, and then sometimes I want to be really Jewish so badly my teeth hurt.”

For a moment, Crowley looked distinctly like he’d just gotten exactly what he was looking for. “Then why don’t you do something about that?”

Newt blushed again. “Because…because I never know where to start. Because even if I knew enough to just jump in and start doing more, it would feel wrong of me to decide that I was allowed to do so. But trying official conversion, and having to explain my particular position to a Rabbi, always seemed to promise its own stew of awkwardness. So I’ve just…sat with this uncertainty. For years.”

Aziraphale glanced at Crowley, and an awful lot seemed to pass between them in quite a short time. “I think,” the Angel then said, “that I should quite like to have a classmate. Someone to collaborate with on homework. Someone to gang up on the teacher with, if need be.”– Crowley put his hand to his forehead in mock horror– “An extra brain to keep things interesting. If you think you can stand to bring yourself down to my level–”

“Oh, there’s loads I don’t know.” Newt interjected. “My ‘Jewish education’, such as it was, was incredibly piecemeal and haphazard, really just getting answers to questions I happened to think to ask. I’m sure that plenty of the basics will be new to me. Heck, you’re an immortal angel; you probably know a lot of things that I don’t.”

“Then we’ll make perfect complementary students, won’t we? Will you join us?”

And so, shaking almost imperceptibly, Newt sat down.

#good omens #good omens 2019 #good omens is jewish and so am i #newton pulsifer #Anthony Crowley #anathema device #Aziraphale

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cephalopodvictorious · 7 years

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My Hair Is So Big Because Its Full of Secrets

Or: A long post about living as a Jew who doesn’t look like a Jew

(A long post based on some thoughts I had about myself today)

I’m Jewish. You’ve probably noticed, I talk about it a lot. But that’s a fairly recent thing in my life. See, as far as I was concerned growing up, it wasn’t something you talked about in public. It wasn’t something you lied about, necessarily, it was just something you omitted.

I don’t look Jewish. That’s because my dad isn’t Jewish, and my brothers and I all look just like him and his side of the family. We have his last name, and matching first names. It was strategy on my mother’s part, she capitalized on having a husband and children who could pass, and she wanted to give us an advantage, I guess. Because she’s Jewish, with a Jewish name and a fairly Jewish face, and she knows what its like to never have a break in public. So we got good, Irish sounding names, and our Hebrew names were something that we kept close to our hearts, something we called each other quietly in our Great Aunt’s basement, where we were safe and nobody could hear.

But I’ve never been able to hide my hair. Oh, I lie about it, or let people think what they want, but the texture is undeniably Jewish. In fact, in a room full of Jewish people, they say its how they usually pick me out. It might be bright red, but its massive and thick and it curls. Its the sort of hair that wants to eat your brush and craves olive oil. The best haircut I ever received was when I was in Cairo and I needed a trim and an elderly man told me politely through a translator that we were cousins, he and I, he could tell through my hair.

I have lived my whole life with goyim sticking their hands into my hair and laughing about how bad my hair is, about how wild and thick it is, how weird it is, and how I should take better care of it, never mind that this is it being taken care of. They would bring flat irons to my house and sit in groups trying to make it lay flat, to look like theirs. As soon as they were done with one half, the other would puff back up, a Sisyphean affair. They’d insist it needed to be chemically straightened to look its best, and I’d be lying if I didn’t consider it wistfully sometimes. It would be easier. My hair is just huge. Because its full of secrets.

Growing up, I learned not to be Jewish in public. I grew up hearing that it was the fastest way to get hurt, to be myself. I learned that it was something that wasn’t shameful at all, but it was something dangerous to be. My great grandfather blessed the challah and told me about fleeing his home, about his brothers and sisters he was able to rescue, and the ones he could not. Of how his parents died, defiant and proud and buried in an unmarked grave. My great grandmother taught me Yiddish and German in equal parts, because to her mind, learning more than one language was the best way to have a backup plan, should you need to flee a country. My grandfather hid the afikomen and taught me the signs and symbols of our enemies, and how to spot them from a distance. My grandmother taught me the stories of our people, of the great women I should strive to be, and she taught me the lies people tell about my people, and what I should expect as a young Jewish girl out in the world. My mother taught me the foods of our people and how to light the candles on Shabbos, the songs we sing, and how to throw a punch without breaking my thumb, because she knew a day would come when I’d need to.

And you might think we’re neurotic, traumatized, and that these things don’t happen, but when I was in perhaps second or third grade, another student’s mother came to the school yard to pull her son away from me and she called me Christ killer. She told her son I was filthy with their savior’s blood, and I was vile and inhuman, that it was my personal responsibility. I was all of six years old. In middle school, people asked if my Jewish and German mother was the product of concentration camp rape to my face, and threw pennies at me. A boy called me a kike and tried to push me down the stairs. I was maybe twelve. It went on from there.

I learned, very early on, and consistently since, to hide who I am for my own safety. Its something to be hidden until well into a friendship, until the third date. Its not something dirty, but its something dangerous, the kind of thing that people die over. I learned to smile and be Irish, because it was safer. But its not a comfortable lie, to hide who I am.

You may have noticed, its something I’ve talked about lately. When I started, I got death threats and horrible pictures left in my inbox. But I refuse to stop. I’ve talked about it a lot, and will continue to. I wear my magen david every day. When people ask about my hair, I tell them, full stop, that the color comes from my father, but the curls? No, those are big, beautiful, Jewish curls. Because that’s who I am.

Since the election last year, hate crimes against Jewish people have nearly doubled. It is a dangerous time to be Jewish in public. But its who I am. Its who I will always be. No matter how well I craft the lie, it will always be a lie to say I’m not. I am so, so exhausted with lying about it, with being silent about it. I am not a quiet woman. And I will not be cowed.

I’m Jewish. I might not look like it, to you, but I am. I’m Jewish.

#shup up Jess #its under a readmore because i don't know how its going to be received #if you want to reblog it you can i suppose?

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wetwareproblem · 7 years

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Like. You want to talk about “settler colonialism?” I am a white person, living on land that still legally belongs to the Mi’kmaq people. It was stolen from them by force of arms by a government whose official, openly-stated policy was “kill the Indian, save the man.” To this day, that white government builds pipelines through native-owned land, over native protests; it ignores its responsibility to the victims of brutality and genocide that were ongoing well into my lifetime; it ignores an epidemic of suicide and frankly inexcusable living conditions; it ignores its own courts’ legally binding orders to support native children as well as white ones; it ignores a terrifying phenomenon of missing and murdered women and girls. I can go downtown right now and watch as half-million-dollar condos encroach on poor neighbourhoods, displacing essential services, creeping ever closer to the native community center and school.

That’s the face of settler colonialism. America has a similar legacy of indigenous blood.

And yet, if I - an undeniably white person living on stolen land - say that I am proud to be a Canadian, if I say that Canadian cultural values and institutions have saved my life, if I applaud the handful of good things my nation has done? It is utterly uncontroversial. Nobody will say that, because I support universal health care, I must support oil pipelines. Nobody will argue that I support the kidnap and murder of indigenous women. Nobody will demand that I surrender my home to a native person.

But when I bring attention to some of the issues faced by Jewish people in diaspora - inarguably a marginalized minority - people positioning themselves as progressive leftists will come out of the woodwork to say “But Israel!” If a descendant of refugees says that she is proud of the cultural values and institutions that literally saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the community she comes from, then that is grounds for silencing her and demanding that others deny her a platform.

There’s a word for that.

#Ayin #antisemitism #anti indigenous racism #ranting #suicide

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hellcheer-munson · 7 years

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F, S and T for the fanfic asks, sending lots of love 💙💕

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“And you should know it’s not true either. Tina, I promised you that I would catch you – and I meant it. I will always catch you.”

Tina couldn’t help but press herself closer to his body; he was so warm and solid beneath her, so undeniably real and not a dream, that she just wanted to stay like that for as long as she possibly could. “You promise?”

“I promise,” He assured her, only slightly uncomfortable by the sudden closeness. “I’ll always catch you, Tina…I’ve got you.”

- I Will Catch You

I wouldn't say that I'm proud of it, I just like it because I love the theme of "I've got you" and "I will catch you" running through my stories - I feel it's a nice little callback to the film.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Hmm...not quite sure! I looked at what tropes were listed on TV Tropes, so I'm sorry if it's not accurate as to what a fandom trope is! (and these are all listed under the FBAWTFT page)

Adorkable (Newtina), Bigger on the Inside (Newt's case), Culture Clash, Darker and Edgier, Fake Period Excuse, Humans Are The Real Monsters, Red Herring, Running Gag

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

Again, I'm not quite sure what a "fandom trope" is, so I'm going to assume it's tropes found in the FBAWTFT fandom/film?

Ambigiously Jewish characters (seriously, JKR/production design people, the film was set during Hanukah)...that's literally all I can think of.

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goodnewsjamaica · 6 years

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Feeling the vibe in Jamaica at the Jewel

New Post has been published on https://goodnewsjamaica.com/travel/feeling-the-vibe-in-jamaica-at-the-jewel/

Feeling the vibe in Jamaica at the Jewel

Our love affair with Jamaica shows no signs of letting up. With plenty of flights from Montreal and beaucoup de sunny packages offered by Air Canada Vacations, Sunwing and WestJet, Jamaica is on a roll.

“Canada is very important to us as Jamaica’s second largest market,” said Hon. Edmund Bartlett, tourism minister. “We welcomed 405,173 Canadians last year and projections are for 450,000 visitors by the end of this year.”

Hitting the bullseye with the holy trinity of sun, sand and surf, the island is also red hot with rum, reggae and ritzy resorts.

“Jamaica has always been a go-to destination for Canadians,” said Nino Montagnese, managing director, Air Canada Vacations. “Whether you’re visiting Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Negril, you’ll encounter a unique charm with many truly authentic experiences that make travellers want to return year after year.” — www.visitjamaica.com

Crown Jewel

Enjoying the Vibe of the lobby bar

New on the northwest coast, Jewel Grande Montego Bay is already making a splash with vacationers looking for beachfront fun in the sun. Fifteen minutes from the Sangster International Airport, the all-inclusive all-suite all-butler resort sits pretty on a cove between the hills and Caribbean Sea. A boatload of perks includes airport transfers, spa, 12 restaurants and bars, 217 suites in three seaside towers… oh, and did we mention butlers?

Foodies have plenty to choose from like Orchids (we recommend the banana bread for breakfast), Mediterranean-inspired menu at Waves and Le Bouchon for steak and frites. For families, there’s a Kids Club, Teen Lounge and water sports. “Jewel Grande Montego Bay takes it to the next level with butler service, large rooms and pool and beach concierges,” adds Montagnese of Air Canada Vacations.

Inspired by island remedies, Grande Spa is, indeed, grand with the only sand massage table in Jamaica and the Caribbean’s first and only Himalayan Salt Therapy Lounge. “We are very proud of this unique room that is illuminated with carved salt blocks that act as natural relaxers,” said Sienna Creasy, spa director.

Stay awhile at the Ortanique Café & Juice Bar for a Beet of the Heart smoothie made healthy with ginger and apples, soothing cuppa herbal tea and make it a day in the steam room and mineral pool. For the active crowd, there’s golf at the nearby White Witch and Cinnamon Hill and day trips to Dolphin Cove and Dunn’s River Falls. If a wedding is in the cards, go beyond the beach and head up, up and away to Mystic Mountain where the ‘I Do at 700 Feet’ takes the cake as the most creative wedding on the island. For history buffs, Great House at Rose Hall is the island’s most haunted attraction with spooky tours day and night. www.jewelgrande.com

Jewish Jamaica: Who knew?

Montreal native Rabbi Yaakov Raskin greets writer Melanie Reffers and a guest at his Kosher Hot Spot on the Hip Strip in Montego Bay

As the song goes, there may be a cheeseburger or two in paradise but in Jamaica, jerk is the real deal. Yes, you’ll find spicy jerk island-wide, but you’ll only enjoy kosher jerk at the Kosher Hot Spot on the Hip Strip in Montego Bay.

“We are here for every occasion — from bar mitzvahs and weddings to serving kosher food in our new restaurant,” smiles Rabbi Yaakov Raskin, who was born and raised in Montreal and moved to Jamaica in 2014 with his wife Mushkee. “I am the only Rabbi on the island which is a responsibility I take seriously — not only for the Jews living in Jamaica but also for the 200,000 Jewish tourists that visit each year.”

In addition to conducting prayer services, Rabbi Raskin also officiates at weddings, offers tours of the Jewish heritage museum and gets groovy at the Kosher Hot Spot where the Monday night barbecues are irie, mon. “This is a combination of grub for your tummy, food for your thoughts and a lot of authentic Jewish-Jamaican schmoozing,” he smiles noshing on a jerk falafel.

Adding holiness to a holiday, Rabbi Raskin arranges kosher food to be stocked in villas for those keeping the dietary laws. “Jamaica has long been an ideal destination for Jewish families looking for a tropical island getaway and a healthy dose of Jewish heritage, “said Donovan White, director tourism, referring to the many historical sites including the 100-year-old Shaare Shalom Synagogue, one of four sand floor synagogues in the world. With plans to open a synagogue in Montego Bay, Rabbi Raskin is feeling the vibe, “the warmth of the Jamaicans is undeniable and why the island is home to my family now.” www.jewishjamaica.com

For the birds

For a slice of authentic Jamaica, Rocklands Bird Sanctuary in Montego Bay is a world away from the touristy coast. With a storied past, the sanctuary was once home to Lisa Salmon who lived there until her passing in 2000. Fond of strolling through the hills and feeding the birds along the way, she noticed the birds started to follow her home to the rustic cottage where they still flutter about today. As the story goes, on the day she died, the birds flew away and on the day she was buried, the birds returned. Today, the gardens are as peaceful as they were at the turn of the century and where the birds are so tame they will sit on your finger while feeding from a bottle of sugared water. The tour is $20 per person with travel time from the resorts in Montego Bay about 20 minutes.

Save the [date]

July 15-July 21: The largest music festival in the Caribbean, Reggae Sumfest is jam-packed with dancehall and reggae concerts. — http://reggaesumfest.com

By: Melanie Reffes

Original Article Found Here

#Good Vibes #Jewel Grand #Montego Bay #Vacation

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krissysbookshelf · 8 years

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Free Ebooks (1-18-17)

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE FREE EBOOK PRICING IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME SO GET THE BOOKS WHILE YOU CAN!!

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Fakers by Meg Collett: Kyra Aberdeen is a YouTube sensation, but she masks her depression with a bright smile and a stack of bracelets to cover her cutting scars. Needing a change, she buys her deceased mother’s rundown childhood home on Canaan Island and starts falling for the grumpy, tattooed contractor renovating it. Hale Cooper is as brutally honest as he is intriguing, and Kyra is constantly challenged to be her true self around him.