Pekudei
Hello everyone! This week we make fun of (and/or shake our heads at) antisemites, have a variety of feelings about Mizrachi-ness, and showcase a very special dog as Jewish Pet of the Week.
CW's this week are: antisemitism, holocaust stuff
Jewish Calendar
This week's torah portion is Pekudei, the last one in the book of Shemot! We finish building the mishkan and at the very end of the parsha get the G-DCLOUD that we're gonna wander around the desert with for 40 years or so.
It's also refugee shabbat this week, and a great time to give some tzedakah money to HIAS.
And it is rosh chodesh adar II today! happy new month!
https://twitter.com/SeeTheTreasures/status/1499710528859607040
It's almost Purim!
TTRPG zine Esther and the Queens, a playable purim retelling through a feminist and queer lens, is fundraising on Kickstarter and has a demo available on itch.io. Looks cute!!
The World's Best Antifascist Purimshpil is happening again woohoo! Come to Crying Nazi Dinner Theater from the comfort of your own living room and hang out becostumed to make fun of Christopher Cantwell with several fashionable gays!
There's also Vashti Strikes Back!, a radical purim schpiel radio drama available online from 3/16-3/20. Preview online now!
Matir Asurim is seeking submissions to their purim mailing, due March 5th.
Personally, I am planning to make hamantaschen and fill them with the remains of my bonne maman advent calendar mini jars. Apparently they do sell smaller sets of mini jars online outside the calendar too.
If you dress up, don't be racist or transphobic. This should not need to be said but every year someone ruins it.
https://twitter.com/HannahLebovits/status/1499578691122253838
Israel, Zionism, and Antisemitism
the transphobic jerk who wrote "the boy in the striped pajamas" has a sequel book coming out. don't buy it. The world does not need any more Nice Guy Nazi (or bystander) books. (Side note, remember that book that accidentally used a legend of zelda red dye recipe? same guy.)
Graduate students at University of Washington who work with the Israel Studies department published a letter in UW's student newspaper about the Israel Studies funding mishegas.
https://twitter.com/EricMGarcia/status/1499487156225687559
Someone (Kentucky state rep Danny Bentley) did a hilarious antisemitism again, claiming that abortion pills are zyklon b (no) and invented by jews (true in the case of mifepristone, but not in a nefarious way) and it doesn't matter anyway because Jews aren't slutty (what?).
AZ legislator Wendy Rogers also went on a bizarre antisemitic tirade on Twitter on Sunday, claiming Ukraine president Zelensky was a globalist blah blah Soros blah blah insert stereotype here. A lot of the people who called out this antisemitism did not mention President Zelensky is himself Jewish, though, which struck me (then and now) as extremely odd--it is relevant, no?
Between all this, i'd like to issue all Republican politicans a "shut up about the Jews" challenge.
https://twitter.com/YairWallach/status/1499740355629137921
Miscellaneous
Mizrachi identity is profoundly weird and complicated. Rafael Shimunov has a great thread about the orientalist nature of the concept of Mizrachi judaism. Mizrachi-ness is so tied up in the Zionist national project that I wasn't sure whether to put this in the Israel section or not, even though its reclaiming can be grounded in diasporism, or even in solidarity with Palestinians (though of course plenty of Mizrachi Jews also skew very right-wing and anti-Palestinian). Wikipedia also goes hard on claiming all Mizrachi Jews identified as Sephardic before 1948, which I doubt but have very little knowledge of. Then again, Romaniote communities tend to cluster with Greek Sephardic ones due to shared national origin and blending between the two communities in the old country, so who knows! I am never sure who counts as mizrachi or not, anyway. Probably I need to read a book or three about this, have some good discussions and a good think. I guess the question is: are we working with an umbrella category, a colonialist diversity-stifling label, or both? and: how do we wrangle the relationship(s) we have with whiteness? I have only questions, no answers.
https://twitter.com/rafaelshimunov/status/1499425845802377217
Mirushe Zylali's article about stimming goes in an unexpectedly similar direction as well, recommending the work of Victoria Hanna, tying into how her (and other Mizrachi women's) work exists within and outside Western musical and modern Hebrew linguistic norms.
Also along the lines of mizrachi migrations and cultures, food newsletter Vittles' latest issue was Amba: A Tale of Four Cities by Joel Hart, tracing the mango condiment from its origins in Mumbai, to Baghdad (possibly via the Sassoons), then to Tel Aviv, and finally to London.
https://twitter.com/rimonima/status/1499807981273108484
This Melbourne, Australia based Bundist zine looks pretty cool!
Some of the wonderful folks doing Jewish music in and around Hadar came together and made Shirei Shmita, an album whose proceeds are being given to various indigenous and/or Black liberation groups. There's a launch concert on the 14th. Shirei Shmita contributor Rena Branson's crowdfunder is still going too.
I stumbled upon a wonderful thread from Michael Weiss about how he views halacha, which is not how I personally interact with halacha but is interesting and good to think about.
Classes coming up
Working Knowledge: Labor in Jewish Thought 3/7-3/28, from Dr. David Zvi Kalman, through Drisha (who apparently puts up videos of all their courses)
Glikl and her Sisters: The Creative Lives of 17th-Century Jewish Women, 3/8–29, 2022, $75-100, through the Yiddish Book Center
SVARA's Gemirna Workshops on the sages and rashi, 3/13 and 3/31 (drop in)
JeLiThin's online cohorts are running for 10 weeks, starting 3/13 and running for 10 weeks--may or may not be a class, but fits well enough in here.
From Narrowness to Freedom: Preparing for Passover with Fat Torah 3/13-4/10, $90
Jewish Anarchist Salon, a series of talks and discussions, 3/13-5/15 (drop in)
Kabbalat Shabbat Liturgy Study, Mondays 3/14-5/2
Prayerbook Hebrew class with Synagogues Rising, Mondays 3/14-5/23
Reinventing Conversion: Discover Its Origins, Imagine Its Future: a one-shot from Shel Maala, 3/30
Queer Yiddish Camp, an online intensive, 5/15-5/27. More info!
Events!
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
3/8 Jews and Tattoos Lilith Magazine issue launch (more info)
3/9 Wrestling with zionism: a storytelling workshop, from JVP Havurah Network
3/9 Kilshon Amo: Innovating Traditions about Megillah Esther with Leading Soferot
3/9 Creating Jewish Identity in Twentieth-Century Iran: National Belonging, Education, and Integration
3/10 Rad Yiddish x UJPO: Yiddishist Living Library
3/13 Gender-Inclusive and Nonbinary Hebrew: Innovations and Classroom Applications
3/13 Vashti Party: an Afternoon of Torah Learning for the Fallen Queen
3/14 Shirei Shmita Concert & Community Tisch
3/15 Legal Knowledge and Everyday Practice in Medieval Ashkenaz lecture. How representative of everyday life were rabbinic responsas of the time?
3/16 Taanit Esther with Hadar: a full day of online programming, including mincha services
3/19 Crying Nazi Dinner Theater: An Antifascist Purimshpil (Part 2)
Jewish Pet of the Week
The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is Queen Nova Malka Jordan, a certified cutiepie* you can follow on instagram. Her favorite things include howling at shabbat candles and enjoying the rare sunshine in her home city of Portland, OR.
*i have certified her as a cutie pie.
<3
Meli