Happy Friday, y’all, and good shabbos! There is a content warning for pet death news at the end of this newsletter. It’s my cat; I’m allowed to be a little messed up about it.

Jewish Calendar

Elul is often a time of introspection, self-contemplation (cheshbon hanefesh; see also friend of the jewsletter ada’s etz hi about this). For Elul study, check out Ammud’s Kum Kra daily email series. During the days of awe themselves, there’s also 10q, a Reboot project of asking the same questions each year and returning the answers to us for contemplation.

Check out also the forthcoming project from other friends of the newsletter Ways of Awe, which is currently an empty instagram but soon will be “a queer anti-Zionist audio companion for the Jewish High Holidays”. The first episode(s) will go live online on Rosh Chodesh Elul, so keep an eye (ear?) out!

I recently purchased a copy of Dane Kuttler’s The Social Justice Warrior's Guide To The High Holy Days (digital PDF edition) from a zine shop in my area (Seattle, check out Paper Pushers some time before mid-September!) and it looks like it will be a wonderful companion through these times as well.

If you’re thinking about calendars, check out a very jewish swimsuit calendar and associated bumper stickers, done by friend of the jewsletter (yes, another one!) Chava Shapiro as a fundraiser for the Center for Jewish Non-Violence! The Radical Jewish Calendar is also available for pre-order. I don’t know if it has any swimsuits in it, but their artist list does look great.

Israel/Palestine, Antisemitism, and/or Antifascism

A follow up to a previous news event covered here: Trump administration drops demands for list of Jewish employees at UPenn.

Because it’s political/specifically about the Jewish left: Obligation: Discipline and Devotion: early thoughts on the notion of "chiyyuv" for the Jewish left, from Rabbi Avigayil Halpern. Highly recommend reading and engaging with this essay and concept—there is a lot to chew on.

I do think part of our obligation as the jewish left is to be in solidarity with the wider left; which includes being careful about who we build pro-Palestine coalitions with. Check out Jewish Currents’ reporting on the Jewish Left conference out of Boston’s reaching out to, and subsequent fracas about, inviting a MAGA asshole because he happens to be pro-Palestine: Jewish Left Conference Dumps MAGA Provocateur Curt Mills After Outcry

Takeaways from the AP-NORC poll of more than 1,000 Jewish Americans (normal jewish digest, but here because it’s interesting data); No, American Jews Don’t ‘Overwhelmingly’ Support Adopting IHRA (from Nexus)

Check out Abe Silberstein's Review of the new book by Batya Ungar-Sargon's The Jews and the Left, who read the book so we don’t have to.

Israel is stepping up its revocation of visas for protective presence volunteers.

Books and Language!

Rest in Peace translator Barbara Harshav. American Ladino League also urges us to remember Güler Orgun. May their memories be for a blessing.

Sense: On Madness and Translation by Mordecai Martin (not yet read)

Apparently you can get Maurice Sendak’s “Good Shabbos, Everybody” (1951) from the New York Public Library! (instagram link walk-through; it may also be on the internet archive but I had trouble locating it with a cursory search).

I haven’t read this book and don’t know its politics but it was recommended to Jews specifically in an online space I’m in: The Tavern at the End of History by Morris Collins.

Learning about Judaism in unexpected places: a note from the authors of Judaism Mediated: Learning About Jewishness through the Cultural Arts. See also: As Israel divides Jewish communities, Yiddish draws a new generation.

Yiddish in the Land of Sunshine: Race, Labor, and Jewish Radicalism in Los Angeles, forthcoming from NYU Press

The Snail and the Shell – 70 Faces of God, World & Self by Rabbi Alex Braver, forthcoming (on August 14th, so, soon!) from Izzun Press. “this volume contains 70 classic Hasidic derashot expertly translated and carefully annotated, covering every Torah portion and all holidays.”

I am not quite sure what’s up with this translation and translator’s notes from Bluma Lange of The Wolf, but maybe you want to check it out!

Herschel Finds His Way Back to the Road by Alex Langer (not yet read, linked by a friend)

I was gifted a copy of Binele, “A story of a young boy who sets out to find the Land of Endless Holiday – dos land fun eybikn yontev,” for review purposes but didn’t get to it in time for this issue; keep an eye out for my thoughts next month, or buy the book and read along with me!

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer put a couple pieces of Romaniote liturgy up on OpenSiddur—new moon, baruch she-amar—with original hebrew and translation.

Miscellaneous

In a rare in-person inclusion in this newsletter, Kadima (located in Seattle, WA) is looking to hire a couple Kadima school teachers! In other job posting news, In geveb is seeking a Peer Review Editorial Associate.

Meet the Artist: Aurora Levins Morales collage art

Conservative rabbis further welcome interfaith families — but keep weddings off the table. How will interfaith families respond to this, is my big question! The minutiae are honestly pretty interesting though, if that’s your thing.

Documensch, from Stanford’s Berman Archive, continues to be a wonderful source of links for this newsletter; if you want more where this stuff came from, complete with an academic bent, you should check it out! They even posted online about psychedelics and kabbalah from their archive (not yet read).

A Jewish Case for AI work exemptions, or: why should CHICAGO POPE have all the fun, by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

Classes and Events

There’s a four session The Jews of Kurdistan: History, Culture, and Language course starting in August from Alan Niku at New Lehrhaus.

Judaism Unbound’s Elul mini courses are up, on: the women of rosh hashanah, jewish time travel, and avinu malkeinu (is G-d our king?). I am sorely tempted by the avinu malkeinu one!

On 9/8 and 9/16, Kirva is doing a teshuva workshop! And if you are a person targeted by racism, check out their upcoming cohort of Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out.

Events

Past events: Always Sacred, Never Secret: Honoring Jewish Death Rituals With Sarit Wishnevski and Miriam Anzovin; Affirmations for Fellow Snails by Rena Branson & Friends, Live at the Weitzman Museum; Divas in Exile: Judeo-Arab Music with Laura Elkeslassy and Jewish Liberation Fund.

8/13 transhallel elul 5786

8/16 Selichot Service with Rabbis for Ceasefire, led by Student Rabbi Rinat Abastado and friends

8/16 How Fast Is Forgiveness? Exploring Texts that Name The Moment of Absolution (JOC only)

8/17 Let's Meet the Angel of Death: Talmudic Tales for Elul, by Miriam Anzovin with Kavod v’Nichum

8/19 Here Where We Live Is Our Country: A Book Talk and Q+A with Molly Crabapple with the Workers Circle

8/24 Sefardi Herbalism with Naomi Spector

8/25 Jews of Color Initiative Listening Tour Learnings

8/30 Read Hebrew from Scratch: Letters, Vowels, and First Words

9/2 Women as Guardians of Sephardic Culture

9/10 Ruth Rubin and the Study of Yiddish Folksong Today

9/17 “An Epidemic of Lunacy”: Art, Entertainment, and Fashion in 1930s Warsaw, with Judy Batalion

10/11 Jewish Currents Live (hybrid all-day event)

Pet of the Month: in memoriam

The Jewish Pet of the Month this month is my Jambalaya (Jam for short), who passed away recently. I miss her dearly.

With love,

Meli