Ki Tisa
Hello everyone! I have enjoyed taking a week off and also enjoyed coming back, though it has meant I have SO many links this week. Oops.
https://twitter.com/TheTonightSho/status/1490777102525906951?utm_source=pocket_mylist
CW's this week are: antisemitism, anti-Palestinian violence
Jewish Calendar
This week's torah portion is Ki Tisa! Golden calf alert! And sometimes a tiny dragon too.
https://twitter.com/red_loeb/status/1494408317069889544
Israel, Zionism, and Antisemitism
While I was out in the middle of nowhere, continuing through now, there has once more been escalating anti-Palestinan violence in Sheikh Jarrah, including by israeli police. Israeli troops have also killed multiple young Palestinians in the West Bank.
In the continual fight over what counts as antisemitic speech, South Africa's constitutional court confirmed that criticism of israel is not itself hate speech.
Tasha Kaminsky used to work in fundraising for the ADL. She wrote an excellent article about her experiences there and why she left, and I am guessing she has faced some surprise about her antizionist views since because she wrote an absolute banger of a thread that resonated with me deeply (and also a separate one decrying Jewish Federations that wasn't bad either. She's good at twitter.)
https://twitter.com/tashakaminsky/status/1494615301559885870
On a similar note, I appreciated Jewish Currents' discussion of why liberal zionist groups won't use the word apartheid to talk about israel, in the wake of Amnesty International's report. The through-line seems to be they're uncomfortable, or trying to avoid discord--which partly reads, to me, as "we need the money from hardcore zionist orgs and saying otherwise would threaten those funds". Which, honestly, I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. (Doesn't change the fact that Israel functions as an apartheid state according to the international criminal law definition of apartheid, though.)
Miscellaneous
Sefaria, one of my favorite websites, has a grant that's matching donations from now through Purim. And also selling a mug I am sorely tempted to buy.
https://twitter.com/JoshLyleFleet/status/1490381176183435268?utm_source=pocket_mylist
I love these Jewish text study valentine's day jokes from David Zvi Kalman.
Lilith's most recent issue is all about jews and tattoos, including some wonderful profiles of Jewish tattoo artists, and Jews talking about their tattoos, and some illustrated wrangling with the ideas by Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth. Outside the magazine, I found this tattoo thread about a Shmuel Hanagid-inspired design beautiful.
Ayin Press has a new folio (zine?) out called Field of the Letter Vav.
It's itch.io creator day! there's a lot of Jewish creatives who sell our stuff occasionally on itch, including myself and Ezra Rose and Subaltern Games and Avraham Yosef Baez, and projects like the Doikayt game anthology
@TheTonightSho has a question for us all: what's the most jewish movie? As with all tweet questions don't skip the quote tweets!
Apparently sephardim ate a lot of cilantro back in the day, and many still do.
Berel-Beyle's story went a bit viral on twitter.
https://twitter.com/sheydgarden/status/1492179541653172233?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Yiddish scholarship of women's writing is being discussed in the NYT! I'm kvelling.
Want to learn more about the theurgical use of psalms? Check out Shimush Tehillim translated by Reuven Brauner (pdf download link), or on OpenSiddur (scroll down past the hebrew for some more info)! Thanks to Adne Sadeh for this one!
Yente, a queer jewish zine, is accepting submissions for their inaugural purim issue!
Let's learn about medieval jewish women's wills! And separately about a jewish modernist artwork!
I didn't know until recently that Nudie of Nudie Suit fame's last name was Cohn, and that he was only one of several Jewish clothiers in early country music! check out these SNAZZY OUTFITS my goodness.
https://twitter.com/miraschlosberg/status/1494085895569379330
Classes coming up
Miknaf Ha'aretz: The Shmita Sessions: UK-based lesson/lecture series on shmita, 2/17-3/24
Being a Secular Jew: Concepts, Practice and Possibilities, 2/22 for 12 weeks, $299-499. Registration for this and the other unyeshiva courses ends soon!
SVARA's Gemirna Workshops on binyanim, sages, and rashi 2/24, 3/13, 3/31
Hiddur Mitzvah at home, 2/27-3/20
judaism is so gay, with Rabbi Nikki DeBlosi, 2/28-3/21, $75
Glikl and her Sisters: The Creative Lives of 17th-Century Jewish Women, March 8–29, 2022, $75-100, through the Yiddish Book Center
From Narrowness to Freedom: Preparing for Passover with Fat Torah 3/13-4/10, $90
Queer Yiddish Camp, an online intensive, 5/15-5/27
Events!
2/18 Alt Shabbes: Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish 101)
2/20 Lishán Didán and Hulaulá: Jewish Neo-Aramaic in the Kurdish region of Iran
2/22 Reimagining Diversity and Jewish Belonging: A Journey Through Genesis with Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi
2/22 Introduction to Jewish Magic & Healing Arts from Rebekah Erev (sliding scale $25+)
2/23 Ladino Through Its Proverbs: A Workshop with Nesi Altaras
2/24 Revolutionary Jews from Spinoza to Marx book talk
2/24 Torah in a Time of Plague book talk
2/27 Undertorah book talk with Rabbi Jill Hammer
2/28 Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and Thriving
3/1 Breaking Walls: Historical and Contemporary Mizrahi Feminist Struggles for Housing in Israel/Palestine. "Sapir Sluzker Amran along with Yali Hashash [...] discuss the role of alternative and community archives by showcasing feminist activism from the 1950’s onwards"
3/4 Alt Shabbes: Buenos Diyas (Ladino 101)
3/5 Oneg Havdalah & Concert with Rena Branson, Batya Levine, Rachel Chang, & Aly Halpert
3/6 Jewish Wordle: a conversation with the creators of Ladino, Yiddish, and Jewish English versions
3/8 Italian Opera for the Yiddish-Speaking Masses in Early 20th-Century America
3/9 Wrestling with zionism: a storytelling workshop, from JVP Havurah Network
3/13 Gender-Inclusive and Nonbinary Hebrew: Innovations and Classroom Applications
3/13 Vashti Party: an Afternoon of Torah Learning for the Fallen Queen
3/16 Taanit Esther with Hadar: a full day of online programming, including mincha services
Jewish Pet of the Week
The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is this cthulu challah, sent to me by at least 3 people. If you want the pets to be actual pets in the future, not whatever possibly-animate object I can shoehorn into that category, send me photos and names of your pets! (I'm mostly joking. I will find actual animals to feature regardless. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.)
https://twitter.com/Blind_Nycteris/status/1489708200924487681?utm_source=pocket_mylist
<3
Meli