✡︎ Funko Pop's Personal Blog ✡︎

Yesterday in Dublin at the Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, a speaker took the mic to declare that “Jews” are “harmful to the whole planet” and described them as “the chaos engine of humanity”. He then went on to say that we need to change Jewish religion and culture to “save humanity”, which was followed by a round of applause.

This isn't new. In 1921, the Association of German National Jews was established and was defined by a radical, self-directed hostility toward traditional Jewish identity. They despised their own heritage, viewing Eastern European Jews with open contempt and fiercely opposing Zionism. They later went on to back the Nazi party.

Just like the Association of German National Jews, these antizionists goal are the total assimilation and self eradication of Jewish Identity.

Most antizionist Jews don't just hate Israel, they hate the Jewish religion, they hate Jewish culture and they hate Jewish history. Antizionism is a hate movement regardless of who's practicing it.

to quote the video verbatim, he said,

“it changed it, it’s converted Jews from people who were not harmful to anyone, to people who were harmful to the whole planet, who are the chaos engine of humanity, and of the West, and therefore, I want to say, that the only people that can actually tame and change the type of religion and type of culture that Judaism is, is us, people like us, everywhere in the Western world. we need to do that in order to save humanity. in order to save humanity!”

https://people.com/jane-yolen-author-of-450-childrens-books-dies-at-87-11996432

If you didn’t become acquainted with the work of Jane Yolen as a student being assigned her famous, award-winning Holocaust time travel novella “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” it’s likely you will once you become a parent, reading one of her many, many, many books for kids. My young boys are especially partial to her “How Do Dinosaurs?” series with its captivating, realistic dinosaur illustrations and snappy, funny text (and yes, there’s a Hanukkah “How Do Dinosaurs” book).

The prolific children’s book author, who was the recipient of multiple children’s book awards and six honorary doctorates, passed away this week at age 87. She was just about to release her 450th book. “Monsters of Fife: Terror Birds” will come out posthumously on July 14.

Yolen wasn’t raised particularly Jewish, and her exposure to religion was mostly at relatives’ homes, she recounted in a piece for the Jewish Book Council. As a teen, she did become fascinated with Jewish texts and traditions, getting confirmed at her local Reform synagogue; she was one of the first girls to read from the Torah on the bimah at that temple. And she minored in religious studies at Smith College.

But it took a while for Judaism to become part of her children’s book-writing career. In fact, she was two decades into her career when she got “noodged” into writing Jewish tales.

It all happened in the 1980s, she wrote in her essay for the Jewish Book Council: “One of my edi­tors, who hap­pened to be a rabbi’s wife, asked me why I had nev­er writ­ten a Jew­ish book. And I had to think long and hard about that. And she noodged. Boy! Was she an expert noodge. The result was ‘The Devil’s Arith­metic.’ And then the Jew­ish sto­ries began to tum­ble out.”

The books that came tumbling out were as gripping and wonderful and magical as the rest of her oeuvre.

There came magical stories about Jews and dragons and golems (co-written with her son, Adam Stemple).

She published illustrated books about Miriam and other biblical women (and even the children’s book adaptation of the famous “Prince of Egypt”).

She came up with her own twist on the tales of the Wise Men of Chelm.

She perhaps became most known for her three young adult tomes that tackle the Holocaust in novel ways. She wrote the “Sleeping Beauty” inspired “Briar Rose” and the “Hansel and Gretel”-esque “Mapping the Bones.” And of course, she penned the Nebula Prize Winning “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” about a Jewish teen who finds herself transported to 1942 Poland, which continues to be taught in schools to this very day, even as one Texas school district pulled it out of the curriculum for AI-detected “DEI content.” The book was famously turned into a 1999 film starring Kirsten Dunst, Brittany Murphy, Paul Freeman and Mimi Rogers.

Yolen also wrote books about Jewish holidays: “Milk and Honey,” and the lovely “Jewish Tale Feasts” (with her daughter, author Heidi Stemple), a book that my Jewish food-loving family adores.

Heidi, Adam and their brother Jason were all by their mother’s side when she “passed gently with no pain or stress,” Heidi shared on Instagram. Adam was playing his music while Heidi read from her mother’s book “Owl Moon.”

“As you all probably know, she had one of the most brilliant creative minds of our time,” Heidi wrote of her mother. “She has mentored, inspired and nurtured so many authors and illustrators through her words both on the page and off. But, beyond that, she was our mother and grandmother.”

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

That’s the definition. That’s it.

That’s what’s supposedly such a threat to your free speech.

Oh? I don’t see that in the definition.

How about the guidance?

To guide IHRA in its work, the following examples may serve as illustrations:

Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.

Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

Antisemitic acts are criminal when they are so defined by law (for example, denial of the Holocaust or distribution of antisemitic materials in some countries).

Criminal acts are antisemitic when the targets of attacks, whether they are people or property – such as buildings, schools, places of worship and cemeteries – are selected because they are, or are perceived to be, Jewish or linked to Jews.

Antisemitic discrimination is the denial to Jews of opportunities or services available to others and is illegal in many countries.

So… which part of that is supposed to be chilling “ethical criticism of Israel”?

here are some entities that have endorsed or adopted the ihra definition:

the ahmadia muslim community argentina (note: from what I recall there is some dispute about the muslim-ness of ahmadiyya muslims. i am not an expert on this.

almost every major american jewish group: the american jewish joint distribution committee, the american sephardi federation (the board adopted it unanimously, do you know how rare that is among jews!), the american jewish committee, the american jewish congress, the adl, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish Federations of North America, the National Council of Jewish Women, ORT America, the Rabbinical Assembly (Masorti), Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox), Union for Reform Judaism, Orthodox Union most as part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

the bavarian red cross (reminder that in germany the red cross functioned as an outgrowth of the nazi party -- i made a post about it somewhere)

the bloc quebecois

the church of england, church of scotland and church of wales

the Counter Extremism Project

the Council of the European Union, European Commission, and European Parliament

the French Senate

the Global Imams Council -- again, I am not well versed enough in Islam to know if it is a tokenizing group akin to JVP or not, however I do not believe so.

the Green Party of England and Wales, the UK Labour Party, the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK, the Scottish National Party, and the UK Conservative Party (not that I put much stock in their opinion, but...)

the Latin American Parliament

the Muslim American Leadership Alliance (I don't know if it's tokenizing)

the Organization of American States

Student governments, senates, etc at Boston University, California Polytechnic (unanimously), Duke University, Indiana University, Northeastern University (passed with no no votes, but 27 abstentions), Syracuse University, UCLA Undergraduate Student Assembly Council (adopted the State Department definition in 2015), University of California San Diego and Santa Barbara, University of Minnesota

Cambridge University, Imperial College London, King's College London, London School of Economics, Pennsylvania State University, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Pittsburgh, University of Tirana (the largest university in Albania, a majority-Muslim country)

Alberta, Alsace, the province of Amazonas, Bavaria, British Columbia, Catalonia, Buenos Aires, the Greater London Authority, London, Los Angeles, the City of London Corporation (what the fuck is up with London government???), Montreal, Florence, New Brunswick, New South Wales, New York for six months, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies, Paris, Quebec, Rio de Janiero (both the city and the state), Sao Paulo (both the city and the state), Saskatchewan, Scotland, South Australia, Tuscany, Victoria (in Australia), Vienna, Wales, Warsaw, Washington DC (in 2022), and states such as Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Vermont

Several countries, such as majority-Muslim Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain which I think follows Sharia law, Bosnia and Herzegovina (just barely majority Muslim these days), Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Kosovo (majority Muslim), the Philippines, South Korea, Sweden, etc.

Many other scholars (and others) support it:

Irving Abella (I think he co-wrote none is too many)

Mehnaz Afridi

Majid Al Sarrah (CEO, Sharaka, UAE)

Sunni Ali

Najay AlSaie (UAE)

Jan Grabowski (prominent historian of antisemitism in Poland)

David Hirsh (antisemitism scholar)

Lesley Klaff (antisemitism scholar)

Sara Mahmoud

Salim Mansur

Said Musayev (Azerbaijan)

Cary Nelson (antisemitism scholar)

Olusegun Olanipekun (South Africa)

Haras Rafiq

There are few if any organizations more qualified to define antisemitism, and this definition is the result of extensive Holocaust research and input from experts in the field.

It’s incredibly reasonable.

Hating women? Those manosphere guys are never going to be happy as long as they hate women.

Hating men? Same. Hating the patriarchy does not mean hating men, and hating men will never make you happy.

TERFs? They're fucking miserable. Hating trans people will never make you happy.

Hating kids? Boomers? Billionaires (yeah, this one hurts)? Politicians? People writing fanfiction "wrong"? It's never gonna make you happy.

I noticed that 41 - 50 were missing, so I created them.

41. What’s your favorite book?

42. What’s your favorite song?

43. What’s your favorite movie?

44. Have you ever danced in the rain?

45. What was one of the worst moments of your life?

46. What was one of the best moments of your life?

47. What’s something that makes you happy?

48. What was something unexpected that happened to you in the past year (positive)?

49. How do you decompress?

1) Figured this out.

Let's see-there's Jews are wealthy (Powerful Jewish Capitalists), Jews control everything/responsible for everything-hey we even have a shout out to the Nazi Octopus, Good Jews vs Bad Jews ('Real' Judaism), Jews are White, Jews are Rootless Cosmopolitans/Colonizers, Jews are Liars, Opposing Judaism Is Righteous (Are we talking Middle Ages, Nazism, Sovietism? No what, doesn't matter, it's the same shit repackaged!), The Jews Are the Bad Guys In An Ahistorial Cartoonish Way that They're Responsible For Their Own Ethnic Cleansing And Genocide in the Middle East Outside Israel....

Also "killing and invading their neighbors?" Did you not know Hezbollah and Hamas were the ones to attack Israel in the first place, after Israel had given them time and time again, the chance to not be psychotic Jew haters? Hamas were given resources and cash and what did they do with it? Initiate the worst attack on the Jewish people since the holocaust.

Hezbollah made the north's life a living hell for decades and you expect Israel to show them any goodwill?

the problem with israel is that they had so much goodwill following oct 7 because it was really such a horrific attack. all they had to do was respond more or less in kind and then sit back down and everything would be great

ALLL THEY HAD TO DO was murder and rape and behead and dismember and kidnap children just like my little blorbos!!!!!!! THEN no one would hate them [for waging a war they did not start, endangering their own soldiers in attempts to minimize civilian casualties, using taxpayer funds to provide aid they KNOW will be used to hurt them, spending millions providing healthcare to those who orchestrate the murder of jews (and their allies)]

I don’t.

The reason I have no time for this excuse is because of the distinction between emotion and action.

What Israel has done to Gaza is horrific, and I would hope that regardless of your views on the conflict, we can all acknowledge that there are now many people living among what is an almost-destroyed country. The IDF has committed war crimes at a minimum, and Israel’s current government (at the time of this post) is blatantly racist and anti-Palestinian. And I get that when we see those things, especially with social media where you now see children being blown up on your feed, that is going to give you negative feelings about Israel. And when you have negative feelings about a country, you very quickly end up having negative feelings about a country’s people.

That’s normal. It is normal to feel like this. It is normal because from the very start of our species, our brains had to group people into boxes in order to survive. This Group of people give you berries and help sharpen your hunting sticks and so they are Good; This Group of people chase you with their hunting sticks and steal your berries and so they are Bad. Placing friend or foe into simple boxes is how human beings made it through so many centuries.

Which is why whilst it is sometimes difficult to read, I do not blame Palestinian, Lebanese, etc people for fearing or hating Israelis. They are genuinely in fight or flight, life or death mode right now. Trusting the wrong Israeli could end with them getting attacked or killed. Mending the hatred and fear between all of these populations is going to take centuries, generations. That trauma will not go away easily.

Westerners watching this all on social media? No, I’m sorry, you do not get that excuse. You are not over there. You are not being bombed. You are not being killed. You are watching this on your TV, and you can turn off whenever you want. If you really wanted to, you could disassociate from the entire thing and never think about Israel again, by constructing your social media feeds and being careful about what news channels you watch. You have an immense amount of privilege in that if you are wading into this conflict, you are choosing to do so, and you are making the choice that you will be presented with death and destruction and suffering. You are choosing to interact with this.

And yeah, good. It’s good for people to witness this and to take an interest and to want to end suffering. But you do not get to hijack that suffering and act as though you seeing the destruction of Gaza on a screen is the same as actually being in it.

You hate Israelis? Fine. Now it’s your responsibility to unlearn that. Because you can unlearn it, because you are not the one having your villages ransacked, or guns pointed at your head, or your home taken over by settlers. You are not directly in that horror and fear and fury.

And you need to take a step back, and start taking some responsibility for your emotions. If you hate Israelis, that is your issue to solve. Israelis do not need to perform in the way you want in order for you to recognise their humanity.

You have the Internet. You have libraries. You have bookstores. Go look for the Israelis who protest against their government. Go look for the Israelis who try to help Palestinians. Go look for the Israelis who write nuanced, conflicted essays. Go look for the Israelis who create books and films in order to explore their reality via fiction. Go look for the Israelis who set up interfaith groups. Go look for the Israeli children who aren’t old enough to understand anything about what’s happening. Go look for the Israeli scientists who are creating incredible progress in medical science that can benefit everybody in the world. Go look for the Israeli engineers who help create the same technology you use to publicly deny their humanity. Go look for the Israeli musicians who have created beautiful music for the world to enjoy. Go look for the Israelis who were traumatised by Oct 7th, but still want to give peace a chance. Go look for the Israelis who want nothing more than to have a happy childhood, get a job, marry a nice spouse, raise their children, then retire—just like everybody else. Go look for the Israelis who are just like you.

If hearing Hebrew frightens you, go listen to Hebrew until it doesn’t.

If you think all Israelis hate Palestinians, go talk to them until you find one who doesn’t.

If you think all Israelis are ugly, go Google Image them until you find one you find beautiful.

If you think all Israelis are bloodthirsty, go research it until you find one advocating for peace.

If you point the finger at Israelis, remember there are three more pointing straight back at you.

I don’t really care if the past couple of years has ‘caused you’ to dehumanise and hate an entire population of people. Your emotions are your responsibility to tackle. Dehumanisation is your problem. Take some goddamn responsibility and sort yourselves out.