October 22, 2021

Vayera

Hello!

Content notes for this week's newsletter are anti-Palestinian bigotry, terrorism, antisemitism, animal slaughter, racism

I just learned and now immediately love this saying in Ladino.

Jewish Calendar

This week's torah portion is Vayera, which like many of the early parshiyot has kind of a lot going on! My chevruta ada (we're studying the psalms together) did another wonderful drash, including the sentence "To which I, a transsexual, respond: excuse me?", which is probably relevant to several of your interests. I also enjoyed Rabbi Emily Cohen's drash about working in hospitality.

Israel problems and antisemitism problems

The Israeli government added a number of Palestinian human rights organizations to their list of terrorist organizations accusing the groups of being associated with PFLP, a socialist Palestinian political party. Yousef Munayyer explained it well in his thread, contextualizing this as part of a continued pattern of suppression and how it's worsened under right-wing pressure. +972 mag wrote in January about a Palestinian agricultural union that suffered stigma and withdrawn funding due to their own supposed connection with PLFP.

Lara Friedman discusses the double standard: Israelis with an actual terrorist past are fine, but Palestinian organizations that are not at all responsible for violence are considered terrorists. Incidentally, her "six degrees of terrorist contamination" theory reminds me of how US police departments determine lists of gang members. Is your cousin allegedly a member? Did you go to elementary school with one? You get put on the list--and thus, all your associates are now suspect.

And, an everpresent reminder: violence against palestinians goes at least back to israel's founding and the nakba, historical documents from all sources continue to confirm.

Believe it or not, I do try to stay away from overdiscussing antisemitism, what it means, what its definition is, how much jews (almost always implied to mean white american jews) really deal with it anyway, whether we talk about it too much or too little, whether we should get over ourselves already--you know, that whole set of conversations. Shaul Magid reviewed Dara Horn's People Love Dead Jews for Religion Dispatches from the middle of some of this endless theorizing, labeling it one of a new(ish) genre: anti-antisemitism books. There's just a lot going on in there, and frankly I wish I could be a little more distant from most of it. Defining Judaism through antisemitism faced is, at best, something that will come back to bite you (like those cucumbers).

Some people in the queer community believe that, unless you experience homophobia, you are not queer. This makes no sense to me, as we are working to eradicate anti-queer bigotry and not at all looking to eradicate queerness. Similarly, antisemitism does not make one jewish, or in ending antisemitism we would be working to end would be judaism itself, aiming for not only archives of dead jews but a full memorialized dead culture. At the same time, anti-queer bigotries are interrelated with queer experiences in today's world; and antisemitism and responses to it continue to affect most of us who are jewish in one way or another. It is hard to balance. Maybe this is part of the work.

Also under the category of antisemitism, Washington DC's component of the Sunrise Movement chose an inopportune moment to announce they will not longer caucus with zionist organizations, then only highlighted Jewish groups in their announcement despite continuing to work with other orgs with similar views. I do not think they were intentionally antisemitic, but quite a few people seem to think it was, and I'm fine going along with that consensus. I wish that there was a more nuanced discussion of topics like "how many dollars go to support of the Israeli military, government, and/or settlers from this organization" rather than just a group's stated views, because it seems to me that's the line the DC group intended to draw--many of the cited organizations in "you denounce x but not y" comparisons do not materially support the state of israel, while those separated out by name do (if not as their main or only priority)--though David Schraub points out groups like the American Federation of Teachers hold six figures of israel bonds, so maybe that doesn't hold either, but I do think that type of distinction is what they had in mind kicking off the clumsy attempt at Palestinian solidarity.

Miscellaneous

Mordecai Martin writes about meat and milk and goat farming and caretaking and depression and purpose and animal death in Audhumbla, an essay in Peach Magazine.

I loved Shuli Elisheva's thread about red/white and pink roses and zohar 1:1a. Is pink the source of red and white, as the shekhina is the source of judgment and compassion both, two crucial elements that are nevertheless difficult to balance?

Samuel J Spinner's book Jewish Primitivism came out this summer, but was just reviewed in the Forward and there's a book launch on 10/29.

I will always and forever love the Yiddish Book Center's yiddish typewriter collection.

https://yalalla.org.uk/ is a beautiful archive of Saharan Jewish birthing songs and stories surrounding them.

Employees at Bend the Arc, a progressive jewish nonprofit, have successfully unionized affiliated with Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, and were voluntarily recognized by Bend the Arc leadership! I am impressed with them for getting this together, and happy that there was not a fight to be recognized, as there often is even with progressive and/or leftist groups that support unions in the abstract.

Events!

10/24 The Deli Revival and Practicing American Jewish Religion, a talk from Rachel B. Gross. ($5)

10/24, 11/21, 12/19 Queer Feminist Song of Songs in memory of Jewlia Eisenberg

10/26 Burning Bushes: Queer Yiddishism and the lesboerotic, with Mira Schlosberg and Hinde Ena Burstin. (Australia-based, 9 PM PDT)

10/27 73forward's launch: "a Jewish communal movement with the goal to increase on-the-ground access to abortion care for anyone who needs it."

10/28 The Dybbuk queer jewish groupwatch

10/29 Jewish Primitivism book launch event

10/31 Queer Yiddishist Shmueskrayz (in both english and yiddish)

10/31 Women of Sefarad Series presents: Heroines

11/4 Ahead of Her Time: celebrating 25 years of the Jewish Women's Archive

11/11 Mah-jongg in American Jewish Life, a Yiddish Book Center multimedia talk

11/14 Documenting Endangered Jewish Languages: Practical, Ethical, and Cultural Issues (panel with speakers of Judeo-Shirazi, Judeo-Arabic, Jewish-Neo-Aramaic, and Judeo-Georgian)

11/15 The Voice of the Mothers: A Look into Sephardi Feminist Approaches to Tradition with Dr. Angy Cohen ($10)

11/16 Why am I Bukharian if I am not from Bukhara? ($10)

12/2 The Rich History of Jewish Papercuts, with Deborah Ugoretz. The art, not the injury.

Jewish Pet of the Week

The Jewish Pets of the Week are Panda and Otter. Panda is the orange one.

See you next week, and shabbat shalom!

<3

Meli