Ashkenazi doesn’t mean “white/European.”

Sephardi doesn’t mean “Latino.”

Mizrahi doesn’t mean “Arab.”

Not only are these uses inaccurate, and they are, but trying to flatten Jewish cultural signifiers into weird racial/ethnic labels is absolutely unhelpful to any conversation.

Sincerely,

Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi are words related to minhagim - traditions - within Judaism. So, to get this out there first, they aren’t the only minhagim. There are others with other names, some which are better known than others.

But let’s look at these three, for now, as the most commonly used terms.

The Ashkenazim are those communities and people that follow the traditions - melodies, pronounciations, food, languages - that trace from the diaspora in central and eastern Europe. This is the most common minhag in the United States, which is why it tends to be the best known.

The Sephardim are those communities and people that follow the traditions of the diaspora in the Iberian peninsula. (Sometimes it is used more broadly to reference traditions from anywhere in the Mediterranean basin, but that’s not entirely accurate.). Because the Iberian peninsula was largely purged of its Jewish population through the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, communities that follow these traditions exist in a lot of places.

The Mizrahim are, speaking very technically, communities and people who follow traditions from “the East.” Places like Iraq, Iran, Yemen, etc. and it is sometimes also applied to some traditions that originate in northern Africa. HOWEVER, the entire designation of certain traditions as being Mizrahi is kind of a recent invention; for much of history they used other terms and weren’t seen as a single group (which is not a bad thing, just a different way of grouping traditions that was more specific/localized).

Note that one doesn’t have to have ancestors who lived in those places to follow those traditions. Most Jews in the United States will, at least at some point, be introduced to if not educated in the Ashkenazic minhag because most (though not all!) synagogues in the US are Ashkenazi. And, of course, having ancestors who did live in those places doesn’t tell us much about how someone would be viewed through a western racial/ethnic lens today.

A high proportion of Dutch Jews are Sephardi. A good portion of Italian and Greek Jews are neither Sephardi nor Ashkenazi. Many Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities are Sephardi, not Mizrahi. Someone who converts to Judaism and is a Mexican-American living in the United States has a solid likelihood of being Ashkenazi. There are Jews of many nationalities, races, ethnicities, etc. in each of these three minhags. Because these terms aren’t about any of those things, they’re about the type of Judaism one practices.

Now, traditions are passed down, right? We are taught how to make food, how to bless the candles, etc. by our parents, our grandparents, and the immediate communities we are raised in. Many Ashkenazic Jews do have ancestors who lived in central or eastern Europe, some quite recently. Many Sephardi communities can and do trace their founding back to Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisitions hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Some Mizrahi Jews can trace their families or communities back to before the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple.

Well, if a Jew telling you you’re antisemitic won’t make you believe it, here is a guide to help you figure it out yourself.

1. Do you think Jews, en masse, are ACTIVELY REPLACING/ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE some other group — especially a somehow more deserving group? (For example, White people, Black people, African people, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, indigenous people, etc.) Do you feel there are JUST TOO MANY JEWS IN A GIVEN LOCATION?

2. Do you think Jews are PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE NOT? (For example, White, PoC, “Real” Jews, Indigenous/Native, an Ethnic Minority, Devoted Citizens of [YOUR COUNTRY] etc.)?

3. Do you think Jews are CONTROLLING OR ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL SOME INTEGRAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY? (For example, the government, media, banks, business, medicine, etc.)

4. Do you think Jews that you criticize are UNIQUELY BLOODTHIRSTY OR GENOCIDAL — especially when hoping for personal achievement or cultural supremacy? (For example, trying to stage a global war so they can control the world; using/consuming blood of Christians and babies to do satanic rituals; sexually seducing non-Jews in order to contaminate bloodlines and erase other pre-existing identities; immigrating to a new location with the intention of murdering those who already exist there; desiring to murder Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians in their homelands by means of genocide in order to control a region at the exclusion of other ethnicities, etc.)

5. Do you think Jews are APPROPRIATING A PRIVILEGE THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE AND THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM? (For example, freedom, wealth, power, whiteness, G-d’s favor, a safe home in the Levant, Arab land, colonial power, representation as a minority group, etc.)

6. Do you think Jews at large or the specific Jews you disagree with and who wield power in a way you disapprove of CAN BE COLLECTIVELY LABELED? (For example, might you call them slaves, vermin, insects, dirty, scheming, communists, fascists, Nazis, satanic, Zionists, scum, etc.)

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE AN ANTISEMITE. This is literally textbook antisemitism. If you answered, well yeah but only “the Jews in Israel” or “the ones who vote for Bibi” or the “ones who moved to my town/country/region” or if you saw something on one of the lists and think “well no fair! That one is actually true,” your exception isn’t exceptional. You haven’t found the one true bad thing that Jews ACTUALLY are. It’s not some conspiratorial propaganda to equate reasonable beliefs with hate. You’re just hateful. Some part of you hates Jews. And you have to confront what that part of you is and you have to destroy it if you want to engage in any conversations that impact Jewish welfare anywhere in the world.

the word hermaphrodite is a slur when used to talk about human beings

it is also inaccurate to describe (most, if not all) intersex people in that way

“true hermaphrodite” is sometimes still used to describe someone with ovotesticular syndrome. it is up to an individual person whether or not they choose to refer to themselves in that way

also ovotesticular syndrome is one of the less common intersex variations

intersex people will sometimes choose to reclaim the word, but many of us prefer not to use it

people do not immediately think " this is not person " . people do not stare because disgust because fear "" crazy killer "" . people do not assume no brain inside head . people first thought is not " should put that one down . "

when gwydion go out all these happen . even doctors and medical technician people guilty . think only only reason no one ever attack is because always with someone else so know would make scene get hurt . but still whispers , horrible things , still stare , watch like think will come attack , just wild animal .

people who have meltdown because " small " thing go wrong - always bigger than people believe .

people who get angry and defensive when someone try bully and hurt - can not " just " ignore like everyone say .

people who feel actually violent when something upset - who need time and place to go hit things , so that not hurt people .

people who can not understand how stay calm and walk away - who instead get frustrate and say shut up go away .

and anyone else who relate to this - that can not control how react , not so easy like that .

is not bad person to not be able control reactions how people expect .

there is benefits in have skill , but , not deserve to beat self up for not have skill . people should support if or when try learn , but also , should support even before learn , give outlets and patience .

Character played/voiced by a Jew

Jewish character

Jewish mother character that isn't overbearing and/or abusive

Jewish man character that isn't cowardly

like, yeah okay, you're acknowledging the existence of surgery i guess, but really fundamentally you are still saying there is an ontological attribute associated solely and only with one's birth sex, and claiming that trans people can be sorted by birth sex

quite frankly, in order to address the intersexism and exorsexism that attitude displays, you would need to begin unpacking:

1) why do you think everyone was amab or afab to begin with?

2) why do you think people who were amab or afab automatically share a set of transition experiences based on that birth assignment?

It's not always obvious, sometimes they seem completely disconnected from antisemitism, but you just have to ask theorists who exactly is hiding this supposed truth and the answer is almost always the same. Fake dinosaur bones, flat earth, hidden civilizations, alien takeovers, etc. A lot of the "realistic" conspiracies too, like online furniture stores being cover-ups for child sex trafficking.

“what kind of attraction am I feeling?” would it be the end of the world if that question didn’t have an answer?

“am I allowed to identify as x when I’m not sure if it applies to me?” maybe! who cares!

literally. you can apply the “fuck around and find out” method to anything

"there's no such thing as a good or bad thought", "your thoughts do not define your morality", etc = good, helpful, acknowledges the fact that thoughtcrime isn't real