#tikkun olam

[tikkunolamresistance]

As a heads up, the Western propaganda machine is going to be much worse. Now that there's confirmation that South Africa are preparing to take Britain and the United States to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for complicity in the State of Israel’s war crimes and genocide on Gaza- we think that it's important to note that it's almost like clockwork that the propaganda machine will skyrocket with new anti-Palestinian resistance defamation and unfounded allegations levied to further hostility within our already divided communities.

Read more on South Africa's proposal here:

News sourced from Anadolu Ajansı.

It’s a no-brainer that we’ll see a sharp rise in pro-Israel propaganda, and it’s highly likely that there’ll be a crackdown on pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist rallying. You see, the Capitalist hegemony is almost ridiculously predictable once you figure out how it functions and operates; the historical cycle of committing atrocities and subsequently excusing themselves with absurd lies of brainwashing propaganda. The United States and United Kingdom will certainly not take kindly to South Africa's intention to charge them in this international lawsuit- thus they will need a retaliation that gains more favour for them from the general public.

Expect more confounded accusations of antisemitism and Jew-hatred imposed on celebrities, organisations, journalists, even nations. Expect more fascist laws passed to silence Palestinian resistance support, and more Islamophobic fear-mongering.

Propaganda is not always easy to spot and deconstruct, so be sure to stay vigilant and think critically in context of current events. However the Imperial core are growing weaker, with such incredible numbers, millions of people, showing support to Palestine internationally- we are no longer easily fooled by their usual tactics. In the putrid face of propaganda, the Palestinian resistance persists.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Rather proud of the post I made for JVP Boston for Holocaust Remembrance Day!

Antizionist Jewish Shoah survivors have always been some of my heroes.

And every one of them has been attacked and discredited by Zionists.

[solomon-revisited]

anthem, leonard cohen || wikipedia page for tikkun olam || 'tikkun olam: repair the world', barbara shapiro, 2020 || it's torn, leonard cohen || clean slate, the mountain goats

[crappylilcomix]

Tikkun Olam

I first drew this about a month ago, and I have so many more thoughts and feelings and anger and sadness swirling around since then. But I'll start here.

[the-tipsy-tailor]

i made this because my brain is a silly place.

[edenfenixblogs]

Hello, as a non-Jewish person I have read Night because of your posts. I am not very good at articulating my thoughts, and if anything I say brings up questions for you I will try and answer them. The beginning where there is a sense of hope, is so awful because it just constantly gets worse and worse. The worsening of the regulations while the people of his village tell themselves that it is not too bad, but it is terrible, right from the first limitation, and even before it, all the events that led to it.“German laborers were going to work. They would stop and look at us with no surprise” (100), “And the spectators observed those emancipated creatures ready to kill for a piece of bread”(101). This dehumanization, I wonder how did the German citizens live with it? This sentiment continues on to this day, and yet it is dismissed so easily. “I was sixteen” His relationship with his religion is hurt so much, this general feeling of hopelessness that other people around him also feel, “Just like Rabbi Eliahu’s son, I had not passed the test”. He feels such guilt, he tries so hard to help his father, even as he is starving himself.

While I read this book, sometimes I thought that whatever is happening in this book was not that bad. Sometimes they would get a thicker soup and that would make him happy. How awful is that? For this to be normal for him. For this to not be unusual to me. In the stories of the Holocaust that I have learned, these things are not unfamiliar, the starvation, the apathy of other civilians, the death marches. His story has been categorized in my mind as another set of terrible things that were done to a Jewish person during the Holocaust. His story, every single atrocity that was done to him, I can not imagine properly, yet I only feel an undefinable upset over what happened to him. I think there is something wrong with that? I have very recently discovered that I am, in fact, antisemitic, from your posts and someone else that also realized their antisemitism (which you pointed out), and am trying to outgrow it. I am concerned that my reaction to this book is greatly affected by antisemitism. I can’t tell, am I telling myself that his suffering was ok? Am I? In the book, there are often mentions of Jewish culture that I do not know of. For example, “Shavuot” and the New Year being in summertime. I understand that these are google-able questions, but I was wondering if you have resources for a general introduction into Jewish culture and history? I hope by learning more I can dismantle my antisemitism. If you know a better way to do so, I would appreciate if you could let me know! Thank you for the recommendation to read Night, I will read All But My Life next. I am sorry if my concern over my antisemitism reads as shallow, I do not know how else to express it.

Friend, I am SO PROUD OF YOU and SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU!!!!!

I have said repeatedly that all journeys begin somewhere. More people are antisemitic than are not antisemitic, because that’s how systemic oppression works. You have been taught to hate me.

I thank you for seeing our shared humanity and working to unlearn the harmful things you know.

1. How did the Germans live with the dehumanization? The same way people are living with the dehumanization of Jews now. German antisemitism was deeply tied to antisemitic concepts and tropes that long predated Hitler. These tropes and conspiracy theories had been floating around Europe for a very long time. Furthermore, they have never gone away. All the old tropes and conspiracy theories are resurfacing in the internet age, because the Holocaust only temporarily shamed antisemites, but not enough significant cultural shifts occurred to stop it from rising again.

2. “…sometimes I thought that whatever was happening was not that bad…” I think I see what you are saying. I don’t know your age or where you are from, so I’m not sure if you’ve ever dealt with these kinds of feelings before, let alone how to articulate them — or how to do so in English. But you seem to be horrified by what is happening but you also seem to feel guilt that you find moments of relief in the horrible times as well. I don’t think that makes you a bad person. I just think that makes you a person. The human mind is not built to comprehend trauma on the scale seen during The Holocaust. It instinctively tries to find moments of reprieve that prove things aren’t that bad. And, to be fair, Judaism applauds this. It is a very Jewish idea that we should always look for moments of joy even when our hearts are steeped in misery. Because life is joy. And it is sometimes impossible to wrap our minds around how joyless life can be, and often was for Jews during this time. But your instinct to recognize the impulse to say “well, this day/moment/experience wasn’t so bad” and correct yourself to say, “actually this is a horrific terrible thing that just wasn’t as bad as that other horrific terrible thing that just happened” instead is a good instinct. One of the reasons the Holocaust occurred was because both Jews and non-Jews gave in to this instinct to minimize suffering. Jews minimized our own suffering and clung to hope until it was too late too late to fight back successfully. From the moment we were told to register on lists and wear stars and get on trains, we all should have fought. We should have fought louder and more to condemn Hitler while he was on the rise and to shame those who would vote for him. But ultimately, we were still outnumbered terribly and nothing we did could have stopped the horrors that followed if non-Jews didn’t support us. Non-Jews, of course, bare the true guilt and responsibility for the Holocaust. They refused to question their own hatred. They turned a blind eye to the rising antisemitism. They abandoned their friends in need. They complied with hostile forces who threatened them in order to betray the Jews around them.

Your job as a non-Jew is to never repeat those mistakes. Never let an instance of antisemitism go unremarked on. Ever. And learn what antisemitism looks like. Refuse to ever let it exist or ignored in your presence.

Everyone likes to pretend they would do this, but very few ever do. The reality is that some people hate Jews so much, they will stop being your friend for defending us. And to be a good person, you have to be willing to let those people leave your life if they are unwilling to let go of their hate and learn to do better. The reality is that, at some point, you may very well be asked to choose to reject a friend for the sake of the safety of Jews you have never and will never meet. The good news is that this is not the case the majority of the time!

Most people want to consider themselves good people. And most people want the approval of their peer groups.

Your job is to steer the attitude of your peer group away from antisemitic thinking and toward peace and deconstruction of hateful systemic antisemitism—rather than allowing your peer group to steer you toward the comforting familiarity of Jew-hatred.

3. “…I have recently discovered that I am antisemitic…” I forgive you. As I said, most people are. I draw a distinction between someone who is antisemitic and someone who is an antisemite. You have harmful and negative opinions about Jews because of the systemic bigotry you have been surrounded by your whole life. But this hatred has not become your identity. You recognize this hatred as a part of you that must be discarded. Antisemitism is something you have, not something you are. And you are doing the right things to make sure you stop being antisemitic. This, to me, means you are not an antisemite. If you give up and stop caring about Jews and unlearning these harmful thought patterns, that would make you an antisemite. Because that would mean you are comfortable folding the antisemitism you possess into your identity and sense of self. It seems to me you do not wish to do this. And that means you’re growing and changing for the better. And that is beautiful.

4. “I am concerned that my reaction to this book is affected by antisemitism.” Yeah it probably is. But so is most people’s reaction to this book. That’s the point. Your being willing to confront that is what is important. It is about looking at the places where you lose empathy for Jews, asking yourself why, and then fixing the reason you find.

5. “Am I telling myself his suffering was ok?” I think you’re doing the opposite. I think you’re re-sensitizing yourself to something you were de-sensitized to. That is difficult and admirable.

6. Regarding Jewish culture:

6.a. “Shavuot” is a Jewish holiday. It is the anniversary of the day G-d gave the Torah to the Israelites. In general, a good way to familiarize yourself with stuff like this is to look for resources about Jewish holidays and what they mean. Hebcal offers short summaries of each Jewish holiday that you can import into your phone calendar and learn about as they happen. Wikipedia has a page about Jewish holidays that you can explore. So does the Jewish Virtual Library.

6.b. Jewish culture is vast and impossible to summarize simply. I would recommend starting with the Wikipedia Page on Jewish Culture and exploring whatever seems interesting to you. You’ll never learn it all and that’s ok! I’ve never met a Jew who knows it all either! We have so many subcultures all over the world shaped by unique experiences in diaspora. The most important thing to take away is that no matter how far apart we are or how differently we practice, we are all one people whose goal is to love our fellow humans and do our best to make the world a better place. This is called Tikkun Olam, which means repairing the world. This in itself is a huge concept. But it all relates to making the world better for one another.

I think you are doing a beautiful and amazing thing. And you, by choosing to remove hate from your mind and your actions, are actively making the world a better place. You are repairing some of the damage done by systemic antisemitism.

You are doing Tikkun Olam. And that, in every possible situation, is the best thing you can ever do. Thank you, @JellyMarbles

[tilting-at-windmills]

True Judaism champions tikkun olam and tzedek and shalom.

Tikkun olam: repair the world

Tzedek: social justice

Shalom: peace

Yes, Free Palestine. No, being Jewish is not the same as being Zionist. Right now Jews across the world do need your support as these two are conflated and used to fan the flames of already rising anti-Semitism. You can aid Palestine without being anti-Semitic. You can support Palestine without supporting Hamas (who, just as we condemn the actions of Israel, we must remember are not good guys either and they employ hate and violence).

I advocate for Palestine. I believe in the good of Judaism.

All these things are true at once.

[kimchicuddles]

broken vessels, shards of light

TikvaWolf.com

I come from a long line of people who have held too much death

for one person in one lifetime.

And they figured out how to be the vessel for that grief without cracking...

Or maybe they didn't.

Perhaps I am the descendent of many broken shards trying to put themselves back together.

May the source of strength that guided them help me find the courage to keep trying 

to transform this darkness into light.

[spale-vosver]

About Me

I'm Geoff, a 21 year old history major and aspiring archivist. I use he/xe/xey pronouns, and I'm a crippled transsexual faggot converting to Judaism.

This blog, much like my interests, is very eclectic, and will largely consist of reblogs -- though I'm not opposed to making my own posts when the mood strikes.

I'm incredibly nerdy and love to ramble, so please don't hesitate to ask me about any of my interests! Said interests, along with more info and DNI, are under the cut. Also, please feel free to spam like and reblog, as well as message me!

* I am an adult

I'm 21, and will more than likely post adult content with NSFW text and subjects. However, I will never post explicit sexual content, gore, etc. This is your warning. Please keep this in mind if you choose to interact with or follow me!

* I'm disabled

I'm autistic, have ADHD, OCD, and OCPD. Physically, I have asthma, chronic leg and ankle pain that causes me to limp, dysautonomia, chronic fatigue, and suspected migraine disorder. I use identity first language (autistic man, disabled man, etc), and identify strongly with the cripplepunk movement. I personally don't care who uses the word cripple or identifies with the movement, but that's because I don't give a shit about slur discourse.

* I'm converting to Judaism

After five years of convincing myself out of it, I've begun the process of converting to Judaism, and will blog about it here. I have a sponsoring Conservative synagogue and will be beginning conversion classes in August. I will not share the name of my synagogue nor its location for obvious reasons. I do not and will not tolerate antisemitism, nor will I answer bad faith questions about Israel/Palestine. If you absolutely have to know my opinions, I'm pro-Palestine, pro-cohabitation, and politically antizionist and vehemently opposed to Likud and the Israeli government.

To my knowledge, I do not have any Jewish heritage -- both sides of my family are strongly Catholic and are from Ireland, Germany, and Poland. If there are any Jews in my family line, we either don't know about them or they converted to Christianity.

* I do not budge about my identity

I am a transsexual crippled faggot who supports dykes, trannies, cocksuckers, muffdivers, queers, fairies, aces, aros, and who, again, does not give a shit about slur discourse within the queer community. Don't try to start that with me. You will be blocked. I loudly and proudly support all good faith queer identities. Yes, even those ones.

* Interests

As mentioned, I'm a huge huge huge nerd! Right now I'm obsessed with Doctor Who (Five is my favorite), but I'm a big sci-fi/fantasy fan in general. I also love trains and sustainable urban planning and am prone to going on rants about the absolute state of train travel in America.

* Please ask me to tag things!

I'm really bad about tagging in general, so please ask me to tag any potential triggers! I will probably forget if I'm not explicitly asked. However, I will not tag any slurs that I can reclaim or use.

DNI

Exclusionists (ALL TYPES), antisemites/islamophobes/racists/queerphobes/ableists/bigots/etc, if you think queer is a slur, if you think minorities have to be "nice" or "polite" to earn your support, if you use "Zionist" to mean "Jew I don't like", antitheists, exvangelicals/exmos/etc who refuse to deconstruct their cultural Christianity, and probably more I forgot to mention. I'm not going to humor your shit. I will block you.

[lasttarrasque]

Tikkun Olam

We have to live together.

[tikkunolamresistance]

from @ suricidal on x.com

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and the Boston Workers Circle teamed up for a beautiful Chanukah for Ceasefire action in Boston on Dec. 16:

We blocked off the intersection in downtown Boston in the heart of the financial district, w the intersection where the Boston Massacre occurred, to demand an end to a far, far worse example of colonial violence. Behind us in most of these pictures is the Old State House.

Holding the intersection through rush hour - there was lots of honking, because Boston - but marshals handed out leaflets to every driver apologizing for inconvenience and explaining the reasons for the action, and if they wanted an end to such disruptions they could call our electeds and ask them to call for a ceasefire.

We heard from multiple faith leaders and publicly called out our supposedly progressive elected officials, lit the Chanukah candles for the final night, offered up prayers and love for Gaza and all Palestine.

I am pleased to report that after months of protests and calls, Senator Warren finally spoke out in favor of a ceasefire.

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Sometimes, it just feels like this.

Tip-of-the-imaginary-hat to @jesse-the-k, who left this comment on one of my Dreamwidth journal entries, many years ago.

As I recall, it was in regard to the fight for accessibility and disability rights. And I was inspired to make art out of it.

But these days, I'm also feeling this about the fight against antisemitism, and for trans rights, and climate change, and democracy, and, and, and...

[iamaniamscat]

Fuck. If you wanna know what it's like being Jewish on the internet right now. I was about to make a completely innocent joke about fucking with AI detection by typing English in the wrong alphabet and I pulled up my Hebrew keyboard.

And then thought. No don't add this to a post. You'll summon the antisemites.

(also that as I was typing this I was trying to figure out where my disclaimer about IP would fit. I shouldn't have to do that)

טיס ווס טה ג'וק בי טה ווי . טיפינג פונתיכלי ין טה רונג לנגויצ׳.

תיקון עולם או להיעלם

[apenitentialprayer]

Jesus' eschatological hope and his humanitarianism cannot be sundered because they were both products of his infatuation with divine love. God's loving devotion to the world requires that it not suffer disrepair forever, and God's love shed abroad in human hearts, a love that fosters self-transcendence, cannot wait for heaven to come to earth; it must, before the end, feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

Dale Allison, Jr. (The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, page 113)

[gobcorend]

"We as Jews are religiously committed to 'tikkum olam', 'meding the world', and for centuries, Jews have stood at the forefront of struggles against oppression and exploitation.

In one corner of the planet in Palestine, we are asked to believe that Jewish values mean not fixing the world but smashing it, not fighting oppresion but instilling it with gruesome violence.

That betrayal of Judaism is hard to stomach."

-- Barnaby Raine