To the Jewish folks of tumblr: I'm sorry. I know this has been a stressful, scary time, and it doesn't look like it'll be letting up yet. The Right's hate has been bold for a while, and the Left has completely thrown you under the bus. I can tell that y'all feel completely alone in the world.
I wish I could make sweeping promises of definite change for the better. I can't. But I can promise that I will remain a friend to the Jewish people. I know I'm just one goy. But one friend is better than none. I'll do what I can.
Judaism ≠ Zionism
We love you, always will.
Okay.
While you are technically correct, I want to make it clear that this post is talking to Zionists too. And by Zionist, I mean Jewish people that recognize a. That they are indigenous to the Levant, b. That they have the right to live in their homeland, and c. That they have as much right to establish an independent nation in their homeland as any other indigenous group.
Zionist is not a dirty word. It is not the Jewish equivalent of a Nazi. It is a multifaceted idea with several different schools of thought, many (if not most) of which recognize Palestinian indigeneity as well. To treat it as problematic or a corruption of Judaism reveals some very dangerous biases that are actively threatening Jews around the world.
I made this post because my dash was filled with mutuals and other people I follow worrying about what the outcome of the U.S. presidential election would mean to Jews worldwide, especially in diaspora. Since then, there have been at least two pogroms in Amsterdam, with more being planned elsewhere in Europe. I made this post because I wanted to reassure them that even if the rest of the world is becoming more and more hostile to Jewish folks, there are still non-Jews that care about them and their safety.
And that includes the safety of Zionists.
I am not going to let anyone co-opt this post to be exclusionary to any subgroup of Jews. I am a friend to the Children of Israel, period. No asterisks, no qualifiers.
