Tishrei 5785
I cannot believe we’re already at this point in the year. A fresh start’s coming soon!
Jewish Calendar: High Holy Days
I hope you already have plans for the high holy days; if you don’t, Rabbis for Ceasefire has a collection of congregations (also available in google doc format) that are at least open to people of ceasefire viewpoints, and often are led by rabbis involved in the organization. It features a number of online options, as well as listing the covid precautions various places take. Kanisse is also doing egalitarian multicultural sephardi-mizrachi yom kippur services in a hybrid mode again.
If you find all this overwhelming and need help figuring out where to go, feel free to get in touch with me and I’ll do my best to pair you with a congregation that might work well for you.
And remember, it’s not just services! Jews of Color Initiative has also put out a resource list, including events, too. If you want to DIY something, either by yourself or with friends/family, both tashlich and the Sephardic tradition of simanim seders are great options. (For simanim seder, you can also go to JVP’s online one 10/1!)
also, a humor moment: “some dingbat on amazon is selling sukkot decorations that, due to printing the hebrew backwards, say "tuchus" instead”
Israel/Palestine and Antisemitism
Look, I don’t even want to talk about it. Yes, I know that’s a cop-out, and that the people under fire don’t get to choose. I am praying for peace.
Lately I have gathered multiple articles about Jews facing consequences for their pro-Palestine views; I don’t want to make it look like we are the most oppressed in this (we aren’t), but it is a unique position politically as so much of the quashing of pro-Palestine speech is done in the name of being against antisemitism. As this overview of the problem in Germany says, “Palestinians and the broader community of Muslims and/or Arabs have been the most directly affected by Germany's particular stance, but also that a highly disproportionate number of Jews have been affected,” up to 25% of cases. Back in the states, Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman was fired from a Jewish nonprofit job for her pro-ceasefire activity and JVP membership; and professor Maura Finkelstein was fired from a tenured position for boosting an antiZionist post on her personal instagram account.
Check out the New Yorker profile of Jewish Currents and its leadership, the cool kids of the jewish left, in this section because it is mostly about israel/palestine politics.
Books and Language
Yiddishist musician Isabel Frey has a new album out soon Di fliendike pave.
If you’ve been thinking of buying some JPS books, they’re 40% off for the holiday season.
How Galeet Dardashti is reimagining a Persian High Holiday musical tradition—it’s a cool project involving doing Persian selichot with recordings of her grandfather
Obituary
I read on the day my last jewsletter went out that Rabbi Michael Lerner passed away. Though I did not know him even a little, I admired his (copious) work from afar and am sad to hear of his passing.
Miscellaneous
Should you take an edible on shabbat? asks David Zvi Kalman.
Both the anti-white supremacy part and the sandwich part of Talia Lavin’s The Sword and the Sandwich newsletter have gone back to her jewish roots lately, with an upsetting Anatomy of a Pogrom about the latest libel against Haitian immigrants and the lighter-hearted lox sandwich.
Disability and Trans Torah: A Conversation Between Julia Watts Belser and Joy Ladin. Part of what I love about Watts Belser’s Loving Our Own Bones is her outsider-torah perspectives and that’s on full display here as they both gently discuss the story of Jacob disguising himself as Esau to trick their father Isaac.
The First Modernist Sephardic Artists: The Oriental Prince, the Kabbalist, and the New Hebrew Woman
A less-than-flattering fact about me is I love a good institutional gossip, so I gobbled up this article about German rabbinical school leadership, including the new LA-based leader’s entanglement with accusations of sexism at Ziegler.
Events
SVARA has their fall zman classes up on their website, as does Laasok, who has a class on siddur literacy that looks interesting.
Starting in November, Kavod v’Nichum is running an introduction to the chevra kadisha class.
9/29 Palestine: A Collective Teshuvah Process with Ilana Sumka
10/1 Jews, Money, and Jewish Culture, with Aurora Levins Morales, Lex Rofeberg, and Arielle Tonkin
10/1 JVP Sephardi Mizrahi Rosh Hashana Virtual Seder For All
10/2-10/4 Rosh Hashana
10/9 Dressed for Eternity: Jewish Shrouds through the Ages (about death garments)
10/11-10/12 Yom Kippur
10/15 Jews, Philanthropy, Politics, and Palestine, a panel by Jewish Liberation Fund
10/16-10/23 Sukkot
10/28 What We Make of Who We Are: Jewish, Trans, and Family Identities, a double book launch from Joy Ladin
11/3-11/17 Queer Yiddish Camp!
2/2-2/3 Bad Yiddish Farbindungen yiddish studies conference (proposals due in November)
Pet of the Month
The Jewish Pet of the Month is Bella, who’s helping her person read Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s On Repentance and Repair (who’s also had some newsletter bangers lately; go and subscribe or otherwise check them out). (bsky pic source)
Thanks for reading, and happy new year!
<3
Meli