Bethany

Dress made by me, end of 2025, photographed by Casey Kerr and Rory Casey, early 2026. Modelled by Jay Katherine Amusan.

I'm a survivor of October 7th. I live in the south of Israel and I've been to the US a few times since the event

Here's a list of things not to do/say to a survivor of the Simchat Torah massacre, these should be well understood but they're unfortunately really not:

1. Don't expect/demand the person to share their story. It is a painful and traumatic thing to talk about for many (as is with traumatic events) and they don't owe you their trauma

2. Just don't ask about it unless the person brings it up

3. Don't share your spiritual "reasonings" as to why the whole thing happened (e.g. "Were the people in your community shomer shabbat?" .. yeah people have said this to me on multiple occasions)

4. Don't get political. The fact that we have community members who are no longer alive because of a terrorist organization is not up for debate

Just be sensitive and aware and don't be an asshole :)

It’s just a celebrity on a red carpet wearing a red hand pin. Fashion is subjective.​ It’s just a slogan projected onto Big Ben. It’s free speech.​ It’s just a BBC presenter comparing us to rats. It’s just banter.​

It’s just a rabbi murdered in the UAE. A random tragedy.​ It’s just 50 Jewish kids kicked off a plane in Spain. A diplomatic spat.​ It’s just a girl in France. An isolated incident.​ It’s just a plot to kill us in Manchester, a firebomb in Boulder, a shooting at Bondi Beach. Just one-offs. All of them.​

It’s just... maybe take the kippah off when you leave the synagogue.​ It’s just... maybe put the mezuzah on the inside of the door this time.​ It’s just... maybe have an exit plan.​

But you’re right. It’s probably just me.

and if you subscribe to the "horrible people don't deserve to see their rapists face justice/do deserve to be raped" take, then there will be people out there who think those things about you.

That's the thing about human rights: every human deserves them. Every single one. You do not have to earn them by having the "correct" opinions or doing the "right" things. Every single human deserves them, no matter fucking what, simply because they are human.

#this also includes israeli women on oct 7th

#whom plenty of people have condemned as being horrible just by virtue of where they live

#'me too unless you're a jew' hard at work there

if you've made replies on posts there is now a tab on your blog showing every post youve replied to and your reply.

if this is not what you want, either go to your blog and click comments and disable it from there or just go to your individual blogs setting pages. just change it from blue to grey if you dont want everyone to see your replies AND the post you're replying to

PLEASE BE ADVISED that it is set to disabled for blogs that have not made any replies but it will turn ON if you reply with that blog in the future.! i just tested it with my main, which was greyed out but it turned on the moment i left a test reply

so couple of clarifications. comments are disabled as default for primary blogs that have their likes disabled. they are seemingly enabled for all other blogs that have replied to posts