Adar II 5784
Welcome to Weird Jewish Digest, and also to the month of March!
Jewish Calendar
Purim
Purim is a perfect holiday to organize a small get-together with friends--you can be raucous as your group norms allow for and no more than that, you can fulfill a mitzvah by reading the megillah in any language(s) (Sefaria has Hebrew, English, Arabic, German, Esperanto, and more; or check out JOFA's Project Esther resources if you want to learn to leyn); you can party and enjoy each others' company in person or over zoom!
Special note, since this is a drinking-normative holiday: please don't be shitty or weird to non-drinkers.
Israel/Palestine and Antisemitism
Hoo boy. I have already seen two bad antisemitism takes today, as I write this, which makes for two too many. For everyone's sake I am not going into them in detail, but: while defining antisemitism is difficult, any worthwhile definition needs to allow for criticism of Israel (and if an organization or politician disagrees with this, think critically about where that's coming from).
If you want to learn about some historical antisemitism, check out The Jewish Experience of the Crusades and the Crusade Chronicles from Dr. Tamar Ron Marvin. If you want to read about contemporary antisemitism, North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial candidate sure has said some stuff.
There have been jews opposing the state of israel for longer than there has been a state of israel, including sometimes fairly mainstream diaspora organizations. From The Intercept, check out How Israel Quietly Crushed Early American Jewish Dissent on Palestine, about Geoffrey Levin's book Our Palestine Question; meanwhile Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes about Jewish Identity with and Without Zionism in The New Yorker, about Shaul Magid’s The Necessity of Exile and Noah Feldman’s To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People.
Gaza is still under threat of genocide through direct violence and starvation. On top of a ceasefire, which is a well-supported political position, Gazans are starving and dying due to Israel's policy choices.
What can Hasidic anti-Zionism teach the Jewish left?, an essay in The Pickle, is specifically about Satmar antizionism. I would also say, as a queer and trans feminist, look to them for inspiration, sure, and to potentially build coalitions, but not necessarily as The Good Jews Doing It Right, you know?
What Are the Jewish Values Underlying the Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza?, writes Mónica Gomery of Rabbis for Ceasefire for the Reconstructionist movement's blog Evolve. In other movement judaism news, check out Reform Jews for Justice if you're a pro-Palestine Reform jew!
And a few bullet points, since sending out this newsletter monthly means i have so very many scattered links:
New Yiddish Poetry from the Israel-Gaza War, on In Geveb, in Yiddish and English.
YIVO put on a webinar about Hamas that was heavily slanted in an Islamophobic propaganda direction, and people are pissed.
The Bottom of the Funnel: On Blacks, Jews, Whiteness, Conspiracy, and Hip-Hop, by Adam Mansbach
How Israeli Power has Endangered American Jews from Elad Nehorai is a clear wrangling with the dynamics of safety and antisemitism at home and abroad.
Leslie Simon's guest post on jewschool, Ancestors, Here: Two Gaza Actions at the Oakland, CA Federal Building
Miscellaneous
This is only barely related to Judaism, but check out these twin typewriters for when one character set wasn't enough! I have to imagine some early siddurim or other hebrew-latin multilingual books were built on these.
The NYT profiled Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center.
Two pieces by Mordechai Martin titled Scabby the Inflatable Rat and I Are Getting Married! and Rugelach
Gashmius, progressive neohasidic online magazine of my dreams, has put out volume 3! How does mysticism relate to real-world moral imperatives? Trans visibility magic! Raspberry medicine from the shtetl! Poetry! Art! And their (well-constructed) note on Arthur Green, who has not responded well to the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
There's another article about the great american rabbi shortage, this time from Shira Telushkin in The Atlantic, which in my opinion underplays the aspects of denominational politics in all this.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's Life is a Sacred Text has had some real bangers lately since she went independent, including debunking the conquest narrative (which actually historically likely didn't happen) and taking a holy time out (about nazirite vows).
I thought David Zvi Kalman's post on Why [his] Website is Closed on the Sabbath was an interesting view on technology and place and halacha.
Events
Courses:
The Global Journey of Yiddish Literature with Ilan Stavans through the Yiddish Book Center
Building our Brakhas: Uncovering the Fundamentals of Prayerbook Hebrew with brin solomon at Shel Maala
Sacred Wiggles: The Somatics and Choreography of Prayer with Robin Banerji at Shel Maala
Creative Practice Studio in a Jewish Paradigm, with David Mahfouda, a Hebrew College Open Circle class
3/9 Double Adar Zoom Dance Party
3/10 TransHallel Rosh Chodesh Adar II, zoom registration
3/10 Russian Bible Translation Event with Sefaria
3/10 Savor Purim with Lilith Magazine: Sephardic holiday traditions including music and cooking demonstrations
3/11 Radical Yiddish Zingeray with Rad Yiddish and Linda Gritz and Pauli Katz of Boston Workers Circle
3/11 Ayeka: an Evening of Learning, Prayer & Study with Rabbis for Ceasefire
3/14, 3/21 The Zohar and Chevrah Kadisha Work
3/17 Zayin Adar Queer and Trans Jewish End of Life, Death, and Grief Care Gathering
3/23 Sephardic/Mizrahi Megillah Reading and Purim Party from Kanisse
3/24 Milk and Meat Presents: PURIMJOB - Online Queer Jewish Comedy Spectacular
3/26, 3/28 Intersections: Latin Jewish and Multiethnic Family Engagement, for all jewish educators
4/7 The Voyages of Memory: A Conversation with authors Marjorie Agosin and Ruth Behar
4/8 Yiddish and Ladino: Forking Paths, a lecture from Ilan Stavans
Pet of the Month
The pet of the month this month is Anya!
Thank you for reading!
<3
Meli