September 9, 2022

Ki Teitzei

Hello! I missed you last week. As a reminder, I'll be sending these out weekly through the end of September (right before Shabbat Shuva) to make sure everyone's got the high holy days resources they need, then I'll be switching to monthly.

CW: child abuse, homophobia, antisemitism, genocide (shoah)

Jewish Calendar

Parshat Ki Teitzei

There's a lot in this parsha. Some to struggle with; some to embrace. Taking care of each other, taking care of lost objects, death to rebellious kids, don't crossdress, remember the amalekites but be kind to the stranger, worker's rights, mamzerim, shatnez, my sense of ethics got a whole workout reading through it. Very tangly.

Recent holidays

It was Labor Day this past week. People talk a lot about jewish involvement in labor, but not so much about sephardic involvement! Fortunately, the Sephardic Brotherhood has a great little info series about it. I'd love to learn more about Eddie Ayash.

Elul!

Rabbi Jordan Braunig is doing his emailed daily spiritual prompts again, this time in partnership with Jewish Studio Project. Check out their other elul programming too, or Judaism Unbound's Elul Unbound. Rabbi Emily Cohen is also doing daily introspection prompts on instagram, or there's always emailed inspirational quotes from Jewels of Elul.

Tyler Vile and Naima Hirsch Gelman are both doing daily poems.

It's Sephardic tradition to recite Selichot daily during Elul, and Windy Meadow Homestead is hosting online creative selichot services daily this year. See also: Hadar Cohen's Selichot Project, a website with hebrew and english text alongside audio recordings.

High Holy Days

While Nishmat Shoom is sunsetting, their days of awe ritual guides are still quite available, as are Reboot's High Holiday Resources.

The following groups have multiple services available in hybrid or other streaming formats:

• West End Synagogue (NYC)

• Kadima (Seattle, reconstructionist)

Many shuls are doing online services (fortunately)! This is list is non-exhaustive and currently is just made up of groups whose links to services I happened to see. If there's a particular type of service you're looking for feel free to drop me a line and i'll poke around some, or if you want your shul linked here let me know!

Israel and Antisemitism

How the antisemitic far right fell for Israel, in which Natasha Roth-Rowland interviews Jelena Subotić about, well, right-wing antisemites' love for Israel, and Israel's right wing loving them back. It's a compelling read that also has several connections to this storied dril tweet.

Jews Behaving Badly

Since my last newsletter, Yeshiva University decided to take their refusal to support an undergraduate LGBT students' club to the supreme court, which would be their first appearance there since a decision that curtailed faculty unionization. I am beginning to not like Yeshiva University very much. David Bashevkin has a thread with many links and explanations about the appeal. On this very Friday afternoon, SCOTUS granted the requested stay. Guess it's going to the supreme court! Sotomayor granting the stay alone is apparently also weird. Stay tuned, I guess.

The New York Times is about to publish a piece about corporal punishment and the yeshivas are freaking out and preemptively lying about their behavior, according to the ex-chasidic people i follow. Abby Stein has a thread of her and other people's experiences, including a link to a forthcoming event from educational org YAFFED about this whole thing. Of course, Tablet the shonde of a newspaper and its chief asshole Liel Lebovitz has an article about how this is all an antisemitic plot or something. I suggest you don't read it but if you need a thorough takedown, ex-haredi Dr Dainy Bernstein has got you.

I am, once again, angry at the ADL. If they do tone down their educational materials around combating hate and bigotry to fox-news-acceptable levels, said materials will become absolutely useless.

Fundraising

Emily K is selling some lovely Midwives of Israel art to benefit NCJW.

Matir Asurim, an organization supporting Jewish prisoners in the US and Canada, is also having an Elul Fundraising Drive.

Las Vegas, New Mexico contains a historic shul owned currently by the catholic archdiocese. The local Jewish community is raising money to buy it back on a very short deadline. You can read more, or find more links about the situation, at k. rowan jordan-abrams' blog.

Miscellaneous

Apparently, the tradition of breaking a glass at jewish weddings is (at least in part) a demon aversion tradition!

Anna Kohen's Romaniote family's story of survival. I'm another generation removed from it, but I have a grandparent from Ioannina! i love learning how our stories overlap and where they differ.

Some cool queer jews had articles about them lately:

• Ezra Furman!

• Ben Levi Ross/boychik!

• Sue Bird!

Events and classes

As always, bolded means it's newly added.

classes

Disability Justice as Spiritual Text - Allies Edition! SVARA's Disability Justice Torah Circle has this class from time to time for disabled/chronically ill people only, but this time it's for everyone.

Hadar also has a number of Elul classes covering topics like Rebbe Nachman on teshuva, and learning the yom kippur machzor in a series of 15 minute sessions.

I normally only put online courses on this list, but a rare exception: Nelly Detra of Black Cat Judaica is teaching an intensive class on weaving your own talit at Marshfield, VT-based Marshfield School of Weaving.

Also, on 9/19 and 10/2, there's a two-part High Holidays Musical Workshop: Rosh Hashanah (and Yom Kippur) Melodies from Morocco and Gibraltar

Events

9/8 On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World book launch event with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg ft. Rebecca Solnit

9/11 From Rachel and David to Maya and Ezra: Trends in American Jewish Personal Names

9/11 "Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled, and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe, 1800-1939" book talk

9/15 The House of Memory: Jewish Stories from Jewish Women of Latin America, with Marjorie Agosin

9/18 Queer Yiddishist Shmueskrayz

9/18 Iraqi High Holiday Hits from Loolwa Khazoom

9/21 Jews of Eastern Europe Series: Book Talk with Saul Noam Zaritt (Jewish American Writing and World Literature: Maybe to Millions, Maybe to Nobody) and Samuel Spinner (Jewish Primitivism)

9/25 evening-9/26 Rosh Hashana

9/28 Tzedakah as Mutual Aid and Jewish Values of Communal Care from JOC Torah Academy (Jews of color only)

9/29 Be Fruitful! The Etrog in Jewish Art, Culture, and History

9/29 "Sutzkever Essential Prose," with translator Zackary Sholem Berger

10/1 Shabbat Shuva shacharit on zoom with me!

10/4 evening-10/5 Yom Kippur

• Kanisse's Multicultural Yom Kippur Services livestream

Jewish Pet of the Week

The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is Felicia, a classic dignified void cat beauty.

<3

Meli