Look, I’ll be honest. I’ve been sick with a flare this month and it has not been my most productive time. I am feeling better now, but lots of things have happened in jewish spaces that aren’t in here; I’m sending what I’ve got brainspace to list with a few (not read) caveats.

Jewish Calendar

We are supposed to be happy in Adar! It can be hard to get there for me, with the seasonal depressions and the regular depressions, but I have some nice things to look forward to (family visit! community purim!) and I hope you do too.

Also, if you missed it, here is an adorable little song about tu bishvat.

Israel/Palestine, Antisemitism, and/or Antifascism

Jewish Safety and Jewish Life Are Not Rivals, from Rabbi Sandra Lawson:

Many Jews do not experience antisemitism in isolation from other systems of power. […] For these Jews, coalition is necessity. There is no option to “opt out.”

Sasha Baker writes on the campaign against the Jewish left at Vashti (UK focus; not read in depth)

some reports on surveys and researchers

Federations/JFNA released a survey recently about (among other things) Jewish views on Zionism and Israel; Joel Swanson and Arno Rosenfeld had good and interesting takes on it.

For the Sake of Argument surveyed young antizionist jews to try to understand them and lessen discord in jewish communities. It is from a zionist perspective primarily for others with zionist perspectives, but they do seem open to listening and understanding.

The main ADL research guy left the ADL and moved to Nexus, starting a new center for antisemitism research there. Good for him! good for Nexus.

Researchers at Human Rights Watch Resign Over Blocked Report on Palestinian Refugee Return (not yet read)

antifascism/the situation in MN

The Ferocity of Responses to Tim Walz's Anne Frank/ICE Comments Are Revealing: It's not about Anne Frank or her residency status — it's about neutralizing the Holocaust, by Joel Swanson; see also Emily Tamkin on the same topic; see also Peter E Gordon’s Never Again, Once Again (paywalled; not read).

Yechiel Amar writes for YU Commentator But We Did Not Speak Up, decrying (particularly Orthodox) Jewish silence on ICE- and CBP-related atrocities. From non-Orthodox groups, there is a cross-denominational group statement. Many Jewish clergy are additionally doing what they can, whether that’s protesting on the scene in Minnesota or going to Truah’s resistance training convening, or writing like Jay Michaelson’s As with Cain and Abel, the blood of our brother Alex Pretti is crying out from the ground. There are also wider events, like this past Wednesday’s Jews Against ICE protest, and of course many Jewish people working within their communities to resist ICE in a variety of ways.

Books and Language

The Song of Miriam — a reconstruction based on the fragmentary pseudobiblical composition found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, on OpenSiddur, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Devin Naar’s Reclaiming the Ladino Left (paywalled/Jewish Currents subscribers only for now) looks amazing and I look forward to reading and talking about it! If you want to discuss it let me know!

Beloved Creatures: Readings and Prayers for People and their Pets, a new book from Izzun, is fundraising on kickstarter.

Translating Holocaust Literature in Times of Genocide (not yet read)

How traditional Jewish grief ritual can serve us as radicals: a feature about a graphic novel titled the jewish weirdo’s guide to grief (no relation to weird jewish digest :))

Torah Zine: An Interview with Rabbi Atara Cohen

Miscellaneous

The Forward featured the South Philadelphia Shtiebel, an orthodox-ish shul led by a woman rabbi (ordained by yeshivat maharat) that is mostly LGBTQ affirming but apparently does not allow nonbinary people to lead prayers due to halacha (which is, frankly, a little baffling to me).

“Lider mit Palestine” and the Taboo on Pro-Palestinian Expression in the Jewish Arts World

Some of my comrades in JFREJ’s sephardi/mizrachi sector wrote Actually, many Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews support Mamdani. Sometimes it’s hard to balance being honest about most of a community’s views while not shortchanging a vocal minority or showcasing a diversity of viewpoints.

Jewish Food Emotes: I’ll be honest, send me something with kugel.png in it and it’s going in the jewsletter! This is a cute set of images you can download and use as nonstandard emoji.

Emily Tamkin almost gave two talks on jewish pluralism and instead published them in her newsletter, including the following anecdote:

When I was conducting interviews for Bad Jews, I almost always closed by asking people what they thought when they heard the term “bad Jew.” And while the most popular answer was “I think of myself,” the second most popular was “Stephen Miller.”

We are all the bad jews. But also, fuck that guy.

Classes and Events

A class on Tuesdays in March and April: Rhythms in Ritual: The Hebrew Calendar and Jewish Time, with Hadar Cohen

The delightful Biblical Hebrew for Everyone is starting a new cohort—it is a great class I took last year and I’m much more confident in my hebrew skills now, even though a lot of it went over my head! For other languages, you can learn about labzik the dog (intermediate yiddish) or take ladino 1.

If you want other classes like Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness or Jews and Revolution: Socialists, Anarchists, and Radicals in the Modern World, check out Judaism Unbound’s spring offerings.

2/17 Radical Yiddish Song For This Moment: Beatmaking and Sampling as Politics with DJ Chaia

2/19 A Disability Wisdom as Soul Care Webinar: Teachings for JDAIM and Every Day

2/19 Virtual Jewish Poetry Reading Series

2/22 Israelis in Solidarity with Palestinians: A View from the Ground

2/25 The Book and the Seder I: Medieval Evidence of Passover Rituals

2/26 The Book and the Seder II: The Birth of the Stand-Alone Haggadah and its Early History

3/1 Seriously Playful: Using Purim Torah to Reveal Big Lessons, from Ammud JOC Torah Academy

3/2 Sephardic/Mizrahi Megillah Reading with Kanisse

3/4 The Book and the Seder III: The Functions of Illustrated Haggadot

3/5 Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes book talk

3/24 Shared Struggles, Shared Stories: Black Power, Jewish Politics, and the Fight for Justice book talk

3/26 Shaping Tradition 2026, SVARA’s annual fundraiser

3/29 Passover: The Script, The Set, The Spectacle, from Ammud JOC Torah Academy

Pet of the Month

The Pet of the Month this month is my beloved Jambalaya!

With love,

Meli