Av 5783
Welcome to Weird Jewish Digest. I've been doing this newsletter for three years as of the end of July! I might get myself a cupcake to celebrate. This time around, we’ve got disability pride month, sleepy anti-Lilith charmers, enby tznius, queer jewish joy, and more!
Content notes include: systemic and interpersonal violence, war, pet death
Jewish Calendar
Before the next issue of Weird Jewish Digest goes out, we'll go through the following parts of the weekly torah reading cycle:
7/15 Matot-Masei / מַּטּוֹת־מַסְעֵי; newsletters from that week in 5781 and 5782
7/22 Devarim / דְּבָרִים; newsletters from that week in 5781, 5782
7/29 Vaetchanan / וָאֶתְחַנַּן; newsletters from that week in 5780 (the very first weekly weird jewish digest!), 5781, and 5782
8/5 Eikev / עֵקֶב; newsletters from that week in 5780, 5781, 5782
Disability Pride Month
July is Disability Pride Month. Julie Pelc Adler writes about her experiences becoming a disabled rabbinical student and being a disabled rabbi, including her experiences of the barriers to employment so many of us disabled people face.
Tisha b'Av
We are also in the three weeks of mourning, between the 17th of tammuz and the 9th of av, marking destructions of Temples and other calamities that have fallen upon the jews throughout history. On Tisha b'Av we chant Eicha (lamentations) and also study the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, which was coincidentally in the daf yomi this week.
It is also traditional to fast on tisha b'av. A Mitzvah To Eat has a resources page and an art event centering those who do not fast. I particularly recommend their reflections compendium.
Israel and Antisemitism
JVP rabbinical council's statement on Israel's recent violence in Jenin. If you're going "what happened in Jenin?", you can learn more about Israel's attack on the West Bank city from 972magazine.
Sam Stein wrote about anti-zionist rabbinical students at multiple institutions for Vashti Media's newsletter, covering how visiting Israel/Palestine and seeing the apartheid system firsthand affected people's political views.
We all know diaspora Jewish opinions on Israel are complicated and often don't match mainstream Jewish organizations' positions, but true data are difficult to come by. Caroline Morganti writes about recent polls of American Jewish opinions, including when it comes to opinions about--or even awareness of--BDS.
Books and language
Today I learned that Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, three beings commonly invoked in amulets against Lilith, take naps.
Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof renewing themselves in sleep as all creatures do
— shulman (@shvlman) July 5, 2023
Vilna 1877 Sefer Raziel version https://t.co/eE5XpsWolb pic.twitter.com/WkuWLZn3Rk
City of Laughter, a book by Temim Fruchter, is available for preorder! It is "a multigenerational queer Jewish novel that zigzags between the known world & a tapestry of real & invented Jewish folklore" and I am so excited to read it.
The First Jewish Catalog turns 50 this year! From where I'm standing, we live in a renaissance of DIY Judaism. If you're living that life and haven't checked out this book, I highly recommend it. Yes, some of the information is dated, but other parts (like the hebrew calligraphy advice) are timeless.
Speaking of DIY, Jewish Zine Fest is happening again this August! If you want to submit to the omnibus zine or volunteer to host a pop-up in person event, now's the time.
Diary of a Yiddish Teacher During Conferences is about the war in Ukraine and the relationship between languages and nations and nationalism, as the author is from Kharkiv and dealing with her home city's history and present, all while going to conferences and teaching yiddish.
Word art by Josef Ratner Mirsky, created for Abraham Zak's book of poetry "oyf fremder erd (en tierra ajena/on foreign earth)" published by the Buenos Aires Kultur-kongres, 1962: https://t.co/u94LdANXUM pic.twitter.com/QREPehQdZt
— Cameron Bernstein (@c_o_bernstein) June 28, 2023
Miscellaneous
In their article Enby Tznius, Dr. Laura McGuire writes about the liberatory and also difficult angles of dressing modestly as a nonbinary person. Also: A friend of the jewsletter is looking for more writing and resources on queer modesty. If you have any, send them my way and I'll pass them along!
New Voices' Queer Jewish Joy Archive is a treasure trove of, well, queer jewish joy, including ladino poem mi kerida and a moment of mourning and a variety of other beautiful brief writings.
Maurice's Bar, a "queer sexy north african acab" animated film by Tzor Edery, is available to view on arte.tv, or check out the trailer on twitter.
Some quick links:
Learn about Salonika's jewish past and present from Nahum Schnitzer
Jack Zaientz and John Baltisberger have a new podcast Wayward Children about jewish monsters and magic
Tzitzit Project is hiring a rabbinical intern
The Sacred Joy of Solidarity: A Meditation on an Act of Civil Disobedience
The Muppets' Electric Mayhem on their way to play a bar mitzvah (1999)
Jewish Currents has added the hilarious "jews jews jews" print to its merch options.
follow-ups
Rabbi Becky Silverstein wrote a lovely blogpost about the trans halacha project and its updates since release. If you've used the teshuvot or tefilat trans, fill out this survey, would you?
Do you remember, a while back I linked a modern orthodox teshuva about queer women's sexualities? Well, Rabbi Avigail Halpern wrote a well-thought-out response working through her feelings about the teshuva's very straight perspective on queer issues, engaging with Laynie Solomon's concept of euphoric halacha, what male orthodox rabbis truly know of women's 'ways of the world', and the talmudic sage Bruriah.
Classes and events
7/18 Rosh Chodesh Av
7/18 Great Women Yiddish Writers (You Never Heard About)
7/20 Decoding Medieval Jewish Art
7/23 Greek Jewry: At the crossroads of civilizations
7/24 Linen and Wool: Making Renaissance Faire Costumes Jewish
7/27 Connecting to Tisha B'Av Through Art with A Mitzvah to Eat (register here)
7/27 Anger in the Jewish Tradition: Holding God Accountable on Tisha B'Av (includes Eicha text study) (register here)
8/7 What did our great-grandparents eat for breakfast?, a presentation about everyday ashkenazi foods
8/23 Jewish Futures: Stories from the World's Oldest Diaspora book event (info, livestream link)
8/29-31 Jewish Zine Fest
10/24-25 Rising Tide Gathering 2023: Elu v’Elu, Both/And: Multiplicity in Mikveh
Jewish Pet of the Month
The Jewish Pet of the Month this time around is a bit sad. A pet of a friend of the Jewsletter passed away this past month, so in loving memory: Lee Lee, you are Jewish Pet of the Month.
She was such a good dog 🧡 pic.twitter.com/9xCMuSnE92
— Kat Riddell (@katriddell) July 3, 2023
<3
Meli