January 28, 2022

Mishpatim

Hello everyone! There are a bunch more of you than there were last week, in a way that makes me think someone linked to this newsletter. If you're a new subscriber, and don't mind me asking, where did you find out about this?

CW's this week are: holocaust, drug use, home demolition, anti-Palestinian violence

Jewish Calendar

This week's torah portion is Mishpatim. You can listen to it being chanted by Hazzan Yosef Bichim, due to the magic of the internet.

I happened to read Rabbi Haim Ovadia's beginner's guide to chasidut this week, which discusses how part of our responsibility as jews is living in the world and behaving ethically, and noticed it was posted especially for parshat mishpatim! A perfect fit, really--the parsha contains quite a few rulings about daily life and interpersonal interactions. Some of these, like avoiding mistreatment of the socially vulnerable, we still do our best to live by; others, less so, whether that's due to rabbinic reinterpretation over the centuries or no longer viewing ourselves as bound by halacha.

Israel, Zionism, and Antisemitism

I made a thread about my own family history for holocaust remembrance day. Zo Jacobi did an amazing thread of Roma and Jewish women for it as well, including Gisella Perl, a gynecologist who saved lives by performing abortions in Auschwitz.

A junior high school in Tenessee banned Maus due to nudity and swear words. The moment white nonjewish americans have to think about their kids having to reconcile with the messy after, it's out, whether "it" is holocaust history or the US's racist past.

Judah Isseroff explains some more of the background and context of that Torah Values Caucus thing.

A teacher at a reform synagogue was fired for calling herself an antizionist and is suing the shul for violating labor law. I do not think the complaint will win ("The complaint states that, by firing her for expressing her anti-Zionist beliefs before she was hired, and in a forum outside of work, the synagogue violated a state labor statute that bars an employer from firing a worker for 'recreational activities'"), but it will be interesting to see where it goes. This is far from the first job loss due to criticism of the Israeli state, and I don't think it'll be the last.

A group of American Jewish nonprofits, including ADL and CCAR, called on Israel to stop Israeli settlers from being so violent in the west bank "against Palestinians, Israeli civilians, and IDF soldiers.” Good on them for speaking out but of the three groups mentioned I am guessing Palestinians are facing the vast majority of this violence.

Israel meanwhile tried once again to further their home demolitions in East Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah in order to make space for a school.

Miscellaneous

Shuli Elisheva is running a daily yiddish speaking challenge!

burek, bourekas, empanadas..... there's a bunch of variation in the dough texture but it's all delicious.

The excellent folks at Ben Yehuda Press have done it again with their Yiddish version of You Be You: The Kid’s Guide to Gender, Sexuality and Family. Look at these two yiddish dads!

This late 1700s midwife register is very cool.

A Different Type of Seminary: Priests, Cyclists, and Other Tourists Visited the Lublin Yeshiva--I loved this trip through the logbook of the historic Lublin Yeshiva on In Geveb's blog.

Rena Branson is fundraising to put together an album of original music!

Classes coming up

• SVARA spring 2022 classes are open for registration for a few more days!

• Diaspora Judaism & Reconciliation: Locating Ourselves in the Conversation at Lishma, 2/2-3/9, $36-72

• Sha''tz Like A Boss (learn to lead weekday shacharit), 2/6-3/20, $100-250

• Miraculous Minutiae with Shel Maala, about the dagesh, the flippy vav, and jastrow. 2/10-2/24, suggested donation $18/class

• Rambam & The Challenges of Rabbinic Mysticism: Exploring the ways Maimonides Grappled with the Concept of Mitiat Hamaitim - the Revival of the Dead (part of Sephardic Digital Academy)

• Being a Secular Jew: Concepts, Practice and Possibilities, 2/22 for 12 weeks, $299-499

• 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

• Queer Yiddish Camp, an online intensive, 5/15-5/27

Events!

1/30 Jewish languages of Iran: Judeo-Hamadani, Judeo-Isfahani, Judeo-Yazdi, and other Median languages (more info)

1/30 New York Ladino Day

1/30 and 2/6 Cultivating Culture: A Virtual Gathering of Jewish Farmers

1/30 Sefarad: Hidden Legacies Uncovered, a webinar about cryptojews

2/2 The Art of Leaving: book talk by Ayelet Tsabari

2/2 Transports to Extinction: The [holocaust] deportations from Greece's Sephardic Communities

2/8 The Ethics of Organized Travel between the River and the Sea

2/10 Dagesh: The Lil’ Dot That Could Shel Maala class (sliding scale $0+)

2/16 The Daring Jewish, Immigrant, Lesbian Life of Eve Adams

2/17 The Flippy Vav: Time-Travelling Prefixes and Ancient Biblical Storytelling Shel Maala class (sliding scale $0+)

2/24 Revolutionary Jews from Spinoza to Marx book talk

2/24 Jastrow: The Dictionary, The Man, The Queer Icon Shel Shel Maala class (sliding scale $0+)

Jewish Pet of the Week

The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is Hank, who is a little more than a year old! Wow look at that face. Who would not give that face cheese. Truly a rude human. (Just kidding. I know Hank's person and she is great. Love you friendo.)

<3

Meli