February 4, 2022

Terumah

Hello everyone! There are so many links to share this week, and I know I missed several things worth including. I'm a little frayed at the edges, just like everyone else attempting to live through this pandemic nonsense, so I am going to take a week off from sending this newsletter and return on 2/18.

CW's this week are: antisemitism, kkk iconography, animal death

Jewish Calendar

This week's torah portion is Terumah! I am a crafter so I love the parts about building the mishkan: people make things! isn't that cool! Ben Yehuda Press' parsha thread this week leans into that a little too, from the goldsmithing side.

Israel, Zionism, and Antisemitism

Jonathan Greenblat (head of the ADL) thinks all antizionists are terrorists, and is happy to testify in front of congress to say so. (Wonder why we feel so unwelcome in Jewish community.) Related: remember last week's link about a teacher fired for calling herself an antizionist? The New York Times picked it up. That being said, I'm aware Palestinians at home and abroad are the ones truly targeted in this name-calling spree (in the wake of Amnesty International's report announcing they too view Israel as an apartheid state), not us Jews.

There's a wide range of opinions about zionism in the Reconstructionist movement ranging from liberal zionist to stringently antizionist, so I was pleased to see this Reconstructionists Expanding our Conversation about Israel/Palestine lecture series. The next one is Decolonizing Jewish Liturgy with Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago, with other lectures about abolition or Nakba denialism or Israel education.

I am unsurprised that noted asshole Tucker Carlson's film about Soros is antisemitic AF but here's a link about it in case you need proof.

Henry Ford was an antisemitic asshole and we've known it the whole time. Here's a book cover:

Miscellaneous

The MOST IMPORTANT BEAUTIFUL ONLINE EVENT happening this month is Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell's My Own Personal Robeson, Tuesdays and Thursdays through most of February.

I missed Benjamin Ratskoff's talk "Du Bois Before Warsaw, Fascism Before Racism", but the recording's available now.

Let's learn about Judeo-Median languages! Thanks Sarah.

Meet the ‘Most Important’ Jewish Woman in Medieval England: Licoricia of Winchester.

I love this version of Mayn Shtetele Belz by Mischpoke. Starts unsettling-and-plinky, ends up beautiful. Plus there's a bicycle. What more do you need.

Unofficial Chief Rabbi of Twitter RaDR was on TV with other religious leaders talking about abortion. Good for her! She's got a new book about teshuva coming out too, and I bet it's worth preordering. Also on TV: a leftist Jewish Jeopardy contestant, who's won a couple games so far:

JoC Initiative would like to fund Jewish Scholars of Color and Jews of Color-Focused Research. If that's you(r research), please apply!

Ammud: JoC Torah Academy is fundraising in advance of their anniversary gala!

I love this discussion about Polish novel The Books of Jacob, including the callout of judaism-without-jews: "when Jewish culture is created by non-Jews, for non-Jews, but about the Jews."

What Museums Don’t Reveal About Religious Art: turns out, context is important. The history of spain, including la convivencia, is complicated and multicultural. It is interesting to me how the linked article positions geopolitical and personal as two separate angles, seeing the political in Spanish art and the personal in Buddhist art.

Leah Koenig's newsletter is wonderful, even though it is on Substack. This week she interviewed Elyssa Heller about Jewish food and her new place Edith's, which may have struck a particular emotional chord because of my own Jewish upbringing near Chicago in the 90s.

I LOVED Michael Twitty's thread of Jewish Joys and everyone's additions to it as they went by on my feed, though so many are bittersweet in these pandemic times.

In this house we love a research thread, especially those about Jewish socialists past and present.

And, finally, a poem:

Classes coming up

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

• Rambam & The Challenges of Rabbinic Mysticism with Rabbi Michael Beyo through Sephardic Digital Academy, 2/8 and 2/15

• 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 (part of Sephardic Digital Academy)

• 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

• 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!

2/7 The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During WWII

2/8 The Ethics of Organized Travel between the River and the Sea, from Jewish Currents

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

2/18 Alt Shabbes: Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish 101)

2/23 Ladino Through Its Proverbs: A Workshop with Nesi Altaras

2/24 Revolutionary Jews from Spinoza to Marx book talk

2/27 Undertorah book talk with Rabbi Jill Hammer

3/4 Alt Shabbes: Buenos Diyas (Ladino 101)

3/13 Gender-Inclusive and Nonbinary Hebrew: Innovations and Classroom Applications

Jewish Pet of the Week

The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is a VERY CUTE bulldog named Bella Ciao after the antifascist song. She's sleepy and so am I. Gonna take SO many shabbos naps.

See you in two weeks!

<3

Meli

PS. I'm still working through how to handle linking to classes, multi-session lecture series, and events. Let me know if you have thoughts!