If you’re going “hmm, this feels early”, there’s a reason for that! I realized literally today that I prepared this a week before I needed to. But you’re getting this today anyway since it’s already all written, and my next week is full of things.

Jewish Calendar

it’s almost SHAVUOT which is my FAVE! we STUDY ALL NIGHT we EAT BLINTZES AND CHEESECAKE we CELEBRATE MATAN TORAH (the giving of the torah from Hashem to Moses on Mount Sinai)! I will be teaching at Kadima’s learning session the evening of the 21st which is one of several late night (some all night!) learning options linked below.

Israel/Palestine, Antisemitism, and/or Antifascism

oy gevalt i have a million links about antisemitism, including many sub-topics I decided to just not deal with.

• The Nexus Project highlights the problems with the ADL’s recent survey—it, once again, counts both actual antisemitic violence and pro-palestine slogans as equally problematic.

• US universities are seeing an influx of ‘antisemitism centers’. Some Jewish scholars are worried. Professors of all kinds of subjects at University of Washington, which by the way has a ideologically diverse jewish studies department, decided to launch an explicitly pro-israel anti-antisemitism organization. This is part of a wider trend. I am not a fan.

• How Candace Owens Learned Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories from an Orthodox Rabbi, in which Jay Michaelson covers Sabbatai Tzvi and Jacob Frank and (sigh) David Icke and more—see also Michaelson’s other recent essay F—k the Jews: The Recipe of Antisemitism, from Roald Dahl to the Manosphere (not yet read)

• Yale Youth Poll's authors in The Argument have three conclusions: “1) Antisemitic views are more prevalent among younger people; 2) The young people who are most likely to agree with antisemitic statements are on the political right; 3) Anti-Israel views are more common on the political left.” Also “[t]he relationship between antisemitism and anti-Israel views is complicated” which, i have to say, it is kind of a relief to see someone admit rather than endless rounds of “theyre the same” “no theyre not”. Nice graphs, too.

• The Berman Archive’s Documensch interviewed historian Britt Tevis, who recently published a book of primary sources highlighting antisemitism in the United States, about antisemitism.

• Antisemitism’s Afterlives: Benjamin Balthaser reviews Mark Mazower’s On Antisemitism (not yet read)

As always, I thought Documensch’s round-up of surveys and things was also cool! Some antisemitism and israel content, but there’s other cool stuff, too: “Elazar Ben-Lulu’s new article in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies examines how the inclusion of LGBTQ+ materials […] challenges the archive’s foundational frameworks, exposing how collective Jewish memory is constructed and contested.”

Is Gaza the Demise of North American Jewish Pluralism? “Herzog-gate,” the Zionist Consensus, and the Hazards of Peoplehood, from Shaul Magid—about zionism/antizionism as a breaking point for jewish pluralism, which has been the quiet expectation for decades (see: funding restrictions etc) but became a more commonly explicit one in the time after 10/7 and with the genocide in Gaza.

Confronting Wexner-Epstein ties, alumni of Jewish leadership programs launch new survivor fund: Leslie Wexner had ties to “late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.” and also donated quite a bit to jewish education. If you benefited from his largesse and/or want to chip in to support survivors, you can donate to the ASHRU fund here.

And for additional (nonjewish) antifascism: Fighting Cancer Has Given Me New Insights on the Anti-Fascist Challenge We Face, by Amisha Patel. I recently read Audre Lorde’s A Burst of Light as well, about her experiences fighting for her life against liver cancer and fighting for justice for black women around the globe, and these feel in conversation with each other.

Books and Language

A new Hebrew press in Berlin argues that Israel doesn’t own the language: Altneuland is an interesting hebrew diasporist project (or at least, diaspora-centered hebrew project)!

I loved Gashmius’ volume 6 on prayer, including the rebbes and their mode(s) of davennen and As Much Joy as Possible: The Ari on the Matter of Prayer.

ותּנכָ – When Liturgy Excludes Us. For an Anti-Ableist Reformulation of the Morning Blessings, by Cécile Bruriah Gonçalves, a deaf woman living with hydrocephalus. While I of course agree that the fight against ableism is not optional, personally I prefer reading new meaning into traditional liturgies in most cases…but this is interesting and worth looking through!

In Geveb is celebrating 10 years! And also published some book reviews lately on Rabbinical Literature in Yiddish and Ladino and Henry H. Sapoznik’s The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City (neither yet read), as well as My Recollections of the Medem Sanatorium by Rokhl ("Shoshke") Fleigl-Erlich (Translation by Miriam ("Mimi") Erlich and Irena Klepfisz), an overview of a children’s tuberculosis sanatorium run by Bundists.

Lexi Kohanski’s Worlds to Come hebrew-learning roleplaying game is kickstarting soon!

Stacy Friedman’s pro-Palestine children’s book Never Again, for Anyone is up for preorder.

Miscellaneous

Dr. Semyon Gluzman, 79, Dies; he pushed back against the soviet government imprisoning dissidents for “sluggish schizophrenia”, and other abuses of psychiatry for political ends (note, this strategy is not exclusive to soviet contexts). I am not sure how much he self-ID’d as jewish, but he was at least born to jewish parents.

A couple of you have asked me what trans hallel is; it’s trans people leading the hallel service! Anyone can come, it’s on zoom, transliteration provided. For more info, check out their new newsletter website.

Qumran USA, Revolutionary Utopianism, and the Scrolls of Jewish Renewal, musings from Annette Yoshiko Reed

This little collection of liberatory halacha viewpoints from Rabbi Avigayil Halpern looks great; if i put any money through substack (i refuse to because of the company’s politics) it would include her newsletter.

Mere Mortals’ redesigned yartzeit candle looks neat—and the kickstarter apparently started today. You can sign up on their website for more info.

Leah Koenig’s essay on Jewish food’s trends and changes is neat and the chicken roll-ups look tasty.

In other food news, Feminist Food Journal wrote about yom kippur balls and other anarchist jewish adventures in The Jews Who Ate Pork ’Till the Pigs Were Called (haven’t yet read).

Classes and Events

RRC (Reconstructing Judaism’s rabbinical school) has a couple online classes for anyone, including An Introduction to the Talmud in June and Resisting Authoritarianism: Jewish Ethics and Jewish Politics starting in late May.

Kirva is accepting applicants for Disability Wisdom as Soul Care, their disability mussar program also inspired by chasidut! More info here.

Events

5/10 Sing Out, Fight Back! Yiddish Songs of Social Change

5/10 Jewish Reckoning with Power: A Halachic Left Learning Series (Part 2: Philadelphia) (on zoom)

5/12 The International Workers Order: From Popular Front to Cold War

5/14 Shane Burley + Ben Lorber, Building “Safety Through Solidarity”

5/17 Jewish Reckoning with Power: A Halachic Left Learning Series (Part 3: Washington, DC) (on zoom)

5/19 The Jewish Case for Blocking U.S. Weapons to Israel: A Communal Conversation from IfNotNow

5/20 Cain’s Children: Mysticism and Monstrosity in the Jewish Tradition

5/21 Kadima Shavuot Tikkun, in which I am teaching a zoom session about self-care

5/21 From the US to Palestine: Solidarity is Holy Global Shavuot Teach-In with Rabbis for Ceasefire and American Council for Judaism.

5/21 Renewal & Revelation: Shavuot in Woodstock, an all-night learning event with zoom focused on Reb Zalman’s teachings

5/22-23 ShavuotLIVE, a 24-hour learning session

5/28 The Torah is a Tiara: Femme Approaches to Jewish Text, Rabbi Avigayil Halpern with Shel Maala

6/4 Poetry as Witness: An Evening of Readings and Conversation between Daniel Naomi Molnar and Peter Cole

6/7 Reparations and Repairing the World: A Workshop on the Racial Wealth Gap

Pet of the Month

The Jewish Pet of the Month this month is Acorn, who is soooo cozy and just a few years shy of bark mitzvah age.

With love,

Meli