just a trans jew

FIGHTING HUNGER

Masbia - Kosher soup kitchens in New York

MAZON - Practices and promotes a multifaceted approach to hunger relief, recognizing the importance of responding to hungry peoples' immediate need for nutrition and sustenance while also working to advance long-term solutions

Tomchei Shabbos - Provides food and other supplies so that poor Jews can celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays

FINANCIAL AID

Ahavas Yisrael - Providing aid for low-income Jews in Baltimore

Hebrew Free Loan Society - Provides interest-free loans to low-income Jews in New York and more

GLOBAL AID

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - Offers aid to Jewish populations in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Middle East through a network of social and community assistance programs. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities

American Jewish World Service - Fighting poverty and advancing human rights around the world

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Providing aid to immigrants and refugees around the world

Jewish World Watch - Dedicated to fighting genocides around the world

MEDICAL AID

Sharsheret - Support for cancer patients, especially breast cancer

SOCIAL SERVICES

The Aleph Institute - Provides support and supplies for Jews in prison and their families, and helps Jewish convicts reintegrate into society

Bet Tzedek - Free legal services in LA

Bikur Cholim - Providing support including kosher food for Jews who have been hospitalized in the US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Israel

Blue Card Fund - Critical aid for holocaust survivors

Chai Lifeline - An org that's very close to my heart. They help families with members with disabilities in Baltimore

Chana - Support network for Jews in Baltimore facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, and elder abuse

Community Alliance for Jewish-Affiliated Cemetaries - Care of abandoned and at-risk Jewish cemetaries

Crown Heights Central Jewish Community Council - Provides services to community residents including assistance to the elderly, housing, employment and job training, youth services, and a food bank

Hands On Tzedakah - Supports essential safety-net programs addressing hunger, poverty, health care and disaster relief, as well as scholarship support to students in need

Hebrew Free Burial Association

Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services - Programs include early childhood and learning, children and adolescent services, mental health outpatient clinics for teenagers, people living with developmental disabilities, adults living with mental illness, domestic violence and preventive services, housing, Jewish community services, counseling, volunteering, and professional and leadership development

Jewish Caring Network - Providing aid for families facing serious illnesses

Jewish Family Service - Food security, housing stability, mental health counseling, aging care, employment support, refugee resettlement, chaplaincy, and disability services

Jewish Relief Agency - Serving low-income families in Philadelphia

Jewish Social Services Agency - Supporting people’s mental health, helping people with disabilities find meaningful jobs, caring for older adults so they can safely age at home, and offering dignity and comfort to hospice patients

Jewish Women's Foundation Metropolitan Chicago - Aiding Jewish women in Chicago

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty - Crisis intervention and family violence services, housing development funds, food programs, career services, and home services

Misaskim - Jewish death and burial services

Our Place - Mentoring troubled Jewish adolescents and to bring awareness of substance abuse to teens and children

Tiferes Golda - Special education for Jewish girls in Baltimore

[ID: Text that says “🥳 Celebrate 🥳 Transgender Day of Visibility with @transgenderteensurvivalguide. Text is written over trans pride flag background]

Lee says:

This pinned post is a transitioning starter pack for all my trans folk out there! 

Your transition is up to you- we want to provide information on all your options so you can make an informed decision about what you want. If you find a resource useful, then use it! If you’re not interested in doing any of the things listed, then don’t!

Transfeminine resources:

Presentation:

Tucking

Chest area

Voice

Broad shoulders tips

Hair removal

Feminine walk

Curves

Waist training

Growing out your hair

Clothing

Makeup

Passing

Medical transitioning:

Not medically transitioning

Fertility

Puberty blockers

Estrogen & anti-androgens/testosterone blockers FAQ

The types of surgery available

Surgery: A guide for transfeminine people

Pumping (Silicone injections)

Facial Feminization Options

Breast Augmentation

Other:

Representation

What does it feel like to have a vagina?

What does it feel like to have breasts?

Transfeminine period dysphoria

Yes, Transfeminine People Can Get Period Symptoms

Slipping into masculinity

Women’s restroom etiquette

Transfeminine people can breastfeed

Having sex or masturbating

Transmasculine resources:

Presentation:

Binding FAQ

Clothing

Facial hair

Masculine makeup

Getting short hair / Masculine long hair

If you can’t start T

Lowering your voice

Packing and standing to pee

Passing as male

Not shaving legs

Medical transitioning:

Not medically transitioning

Fertility

Puberty blockers

Testosterone FAQ

Top surgery

Facial masculinization surgery

Vocal masculinization surgery

Body masculinization surgery

Hysterectomy and oophorectomy

Bottom surgery (genital surgery)

Other:

Periods and related things

Help! I need to see a gyno

Pumping

Masturbation and sex

Using the men’s bathroom

Hudson’s FTM Guide

Height dysphoria

Hip dysphoria

More resources:

What gender am I? A brief intro to questioning

Trans 101 for trans people

What is the transgender umbrella?

How do I choose a name?

How do I come out at work/school or to family/friends?

Dysphoria info and tips page

Mental health coping page

Being trans in school

Non-binary resources

Resources to send allies/friends

A page to send to parents/guardians

Convincing someone to respect name/pronouns 

Here is how to get hormones in the US

Here is how to get hormones in the UK

For Young Trans People in England

Here’s a US resource with info on changing legally changing your name and gender marker 

What are the WPATH-SOC guidelines?

How to save money

How to buy a trans-related item online without parents knowing

I have to go swimming, what do I wear/do?

Trying to sleep when you have dysphoria

Airports and traveling by plane

Gender neutral bathrooms

Getting insurance to cover your transition

Does transitioning help mental health?

Trans teen’s experiences with inpatient hospitalization

Trans identity isn’t a mental disorder

Vaping prevalence

Summer tips

Being religious and LGBT

Transgender Lives: Your Stories (to see trans adults) 

Gender neutral pronouns in Spanish

Gender Variance Around the World Over Time

A map of gender-diverse cultures

American LGBT history by the National Parks Service

Crisis help: Suicide and crisis hotlines

danaaliyalevinson:

I don't think most non-Jews realize how scary things have been getting for Jews in diaspora because what's been going on literally doesn't pierce peoples' algorithms if they're not Jewish.

I'm not going to be so hyperbolic that I'd say things are feeling very 1930s Germany, but... I don't think saying that things are feeling very... maybe 1920s Germany? Post WWI Germany? I don't think that's hyperbolic.

Jews have been by far the most targeted group in the United States as far as hate crimes in the most recent data. Antisemitic incidents are up 344% over the last five years. I quibble with defining antisemitism as religious hatred as the current FBI stats do, but even so, antisemitic incidents made up 70% of all 'religion- based' hate crimes in the US in the last year.

Truly every day there's another synagogue set on fire, another foiled terror attack on a Jewish site, another violent incident. Also, of course it's religious Jews, who are the most visible, who bear the brunt of it.

But what's especially been scary is that we are seeing a rise in antisemitism that has broad *active* (not just tacit) support across the political spectrum. From left to right, the rhetoric coming from people has become increasingly just boldly antisemitic. Just straight up blaming Jews for all of society's problems as if we're some nefarious malign actor within US politics level antisemitism. And this antisemitism is being widely disseminated and supported. I have seen people I know *in real life* share and disseminate antisemitism and casual malignment of Jews.

And then the silence from people about it, signaling tacit support, or at least an unwillingness to stick ones' neck out for us in allyship, is making all of our collective inherited trauma spidey senses tingle. Especially because the rhetoric we're seeing from right and left is the same classic antisemitism we know from our history has led to extreme violence, pogroms, and genocide, being repackaged with a pretty transparent "politically acceptable" veneer.

It just really feels as if the rhetoric is hitting such a fever pitch that, being a student of my own history and knowing where such things historically lead, it's inevitably going to lead to something terrible. I am not saying Holocaust-level terrible, I'm not going to be that hyperbolic, and I don't believe that. But terrible nonetheless.

And there simply aren't enough Jews in the world for us to fight against this on our own. And there's just no groundswell of support from anywhere on the political spectrum seeking to help. Which leaves us all feeling very precarious and vulnerable.

And if your instinct when you read the previous two stories is some sort of subconscious 'it's deserved cause, Israel,' ask yourselves...

How do you feel about Russians? Chinese? Iranians? North Sudanese?

If you instinctively understand you shouldn't hold all Russians collectively responsible for the actions of the Russian government, or all Chinese people responsible for the actions of the Chinese government, etc, but if your gut instinct from reading the previous two stories is that Jews should be held collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli government (whether or not those Jews are Israeli citizens), or deserve the steep rise in antisemitism because of the actions of the Israeli government, you might want to do some introspection.

There's also a reality that so many people are much more interested in using Gaza, or using the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict more broadly as a politically acceptable space to litigate their feelings about Jews than they are in actually trying to resolve conflict.

And I know this because I watch so many people who, without any actual understanding of Jewish history, culture, identity, or Israeli history, culture, identity, and most of all politics and realpolitik of the country beyond turning it into a flattened strawman, engage in rhetoric and activism that actively perpetuates conflict rather than doing anything that might even come remotely close to resolving it.

Because if people had interest in resolving it they'd be supporting the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps and supporting organizations and people that promote dialogue, respect, and coexistence, not calling for more violence in the name of seeing their side "win" while pretending they're "pro-peace."

And I admit I'm speaking emotionally and not with as much nuance as I normally would. So pretend this is as nuanced as my usual content is and understand I don't mean to be speaking in such absolutes.

Case in point, this is all over Jewish social media today. And this comes right on the heels of a bunch of Hatzalah ambulances, two synagogues, and a Jewish- owned store being set on fire over the last few weeks, mostly in the same neighborhood.

Because our community is seeing these sorts of stories just about everyday at this point. That's how often newsworthy antisemitic incidents are happening.

And you have to remember too that the Jewish community is small. There's about 15 million of us in the entire world.

About half the world's Jews live in Israel, and the other half which are in diaspora are mostly in the US. Israel and the US are the only two countries with a Jewish population in the millions.

There are smaller but substantial diaspora populations of hundreds of thousands in the UK, France, Argentina, Russia, Australia, Germany, and Canada. And after that, we're looking at diaspora populations that only number in the tens of thousands or less.

But because of how small we are, so many of us have connections throughout the entire Jewish world, or Am Yisrael as we call it. AND Jews are very good at maintaining community ties across borders. So, oftentimes when something happens, Jews throughout the world are literally connected to it from ways that are tangential, to ways that are concrete.

So these antisemitic incidents really reverberate throughout the global Jewish population in ways that I think people don't quite grasp.

And also, the thing is, that given that half the world's Jews live in Israel, most of us in diaspora have personal connection to Israel beyond just general affinity due to culture, history, spirituality, etc. We have family and friends who live there. Many Jews living in diaspora are dual citizens.

So if a group's litmus test for who is an acceptable Jew is zero connection to, or empathy expressed for, Israel or Israelis whatsoever... that is by design going to ostracize most Jews.

And the thing that gets me is that there's no engagement beyond that. Because Israelis and Israel have been flattened into a strawman that doesn't actually exist, there's zero political nuance or exploration of one's actual beliefs to ascertain whether or not they actually believe the terrible things which get ascribed to them in this strawman argument. The sin is simply having any connection to Israelis or Israel and that's proof enough. I've seen it happen again and again.

The strawman says that Zionism means being actively pro-genocide, apartheid, colonialism, and white supremacy.

Then it says that evidence that one is a Zionist is any connection to or empathy expressed for Israelis or Israel, even in the most tangential of ways.

And then the logic doubles back on itself, the person who expresses any empathy for Israel or Israelis or any direct connection to them, is now labeled as "pro-genocide” and “pro- white supremacy” without any actual investigation of whether or not the claim that they are pro-these things is true. It basically amounts to slander at this point.

And I know it's happening because I've seen it happen again and again to others, and I've had it happen to me.

I have had people unceremoniously end years long friendships because I posted about the hostages.

And it's like, you have KNOWN me for years. You actually think that *I* am ACTIVELY "pro-genocide"? Like, are you insane?

But that's how strong this strawman bogeyman that's been created has become.

Oh and THEN because this circuitous logic winds up applying to most Jews, and therefore Jews as a collective get coded as being "pro- insert horrible world evil here," violence against us is repeatedly justified along these rhetorical lines and reframed as social justice. After all, it's not antisemitism if one is just fighting against "insert horrible world evil here." Nevermind that the claim is a slanderous strawman argument to begin with.

And the thing is, it's not even original. Like post-enlightenment, as religious antisemitism lost favor, this is how antisemitism functions.

Collectively assign blame for a world evil on Jews. Then ostracize them and commit acts of violence against them in the name of social justice and being against said world evil.

It's what the Nazis did, it's what the Soviets did, it's what multiple governments in Arab and Muslim majority nations did.

that all of these so called woke racists justice fighters saying jews/israelis (not acknowledging non jewish israelis but that’s for a diff post) are white europeans-

Irish Americans have different experiences to Irish people who have never left Ireland, but both groups originate from the same place, carrying the same foundational identity, with shared heritage. Irish Americans are never referred to as "Irish of American descent," even while acknowledging that being Americans has shaped them, and even while being proud Americans.

And genetics reflect that. If Irish Americans had hailed from America, rather than from Ireland, the two groups couldn't possibly have common genetic markers, pointing to common ancestry. But they do. And so do Jews. If we didn't all come from one common ancestral place, there would never be any common genetic markers for Tunisian and Romanian Jews. But there are. Across the globe, Jews carry the markers of common ancestry. To claim that "A German Jew is from Germany, not Israel," or "A Syrian Jew is from Syria, not Israel," is to erase Jewish ancestry, to wipe out our connection to our ancestors and between our communities. It IS antisemitic.

It’s really that simple.

If you look at any other existing tribal culture and you look at Jews, you will find more similarities than you will to the way Christianity or Islam is organized currently.

All Jews are part of the same single tribe.

Conversion is an induction into the tribe for outsiders into the tribe.

Bnai Mitzvot is a coming of age ritual.

We have harvest festivals timed to the moon.

We are only not making burnt offerings because our holy site has been colonized.

We are a tribe indigenous to the land of Israel.

The difference between us and other tribal cultures is hyper-ritualize WRITING EVERYTHING DOWN.

That’s it.

We’re all part of a single tribe. All the minhag, in Israel and in the diaspora, throughout all of time, born and converted.

The declaration of faith of Judaism in the Shema is: Hear O Israel the Lord is Our G-d the Lord is One.

It identifies first and foremost that we are Israel. Our identity as Israel, together, is how we are instructed to recognize G-d, as one.

Jews have been executed for that prayer. The story goes Rabbi Akiva was martyred by the Romans, flayed with metal rakes, saying that prayer.

Because we are Israel. It’s in the Shema, in our declaration of faith.

We’re a tribe.

They view Zionism as something *Jews are*. Which is why they throw accusations of Zionism at every single Jew. They see the two things as linked and not the way we do.

Zionism for them is genocide. And that's what they think Jews are. Genocidal. So that's why every Jew is a Zionist.

And many people probably don't consciously process that. They just absorbed years of antisemitism as normal and then saw a massive tragedy and reacted, expectedly, in an emotional way. Their biases were confirmed.

The problem is that when you react emotionally as the basis for political organization, then you're gonna get a mob. And that's what's happening.

Before every holiday, there is death. Bondi Beach and Rob Reiner and his wife (he is Jewish, idk if she is) were Chanukah this year.

For Jews, Zionism is linked to Judaism because EY is our homeland. But it's still an opinion you adopt or not. Being a Jew does not inherently make you a Zionist. We recognize Anti-Zionist Jews and non-zionist Jews and Zionist Jews of being equally Jewish.

Even if Israel were the kind of black and white evil people paint it as (which it is not)

It would still not be morally justifiable to attack diaspora Jews or Israeli civilians.

It would STILL be utterly reprehensible and morally inexcusable to do things like:

Set fire to the home of a Jewish governor on a Jewish holiday (Pennsylvania, 4/13)

Shoot people, even embassy workers, coming out of a Jewish museum (DC, 5/21)

Set fire to people peacefully walking to bring awareness to a cause (Boulder, 6/1)

Vandalize and set fire to Jewish businesses (Long Island, 6/8)

Threaten to poison festival goers (Boom Fest, Portugal, breaking today)

If your goal is to help Palestine, you are failing. If your goal is to show Jews that they don't need Zionism or Israel, you are failing.

If you want to argue that Christianity and Islam are inherently proselytic, then knock yourself out. I absolutely agree about Christianity, and from what I know of Islam they seem to be of the same mold.

But I suspect that you couldn't tell me three things about Rastafaris without looking it up.

What, specifically, about Vodou makes it impossible to practice without perpetuating "the erasure of religion, culture, tradition, ancestral knowledge, etc"?

In what way does your description of abrahamic religions describe anything about Baha'i? Literally anything. Is there any single thing you said about "Abrahamic religions" (a category which includes Baha'i) which is accurate about Baha'i?

Can you in any way at all justify your statement that "[t]here is just no separating genocide from [Samaritanism]"?

I don't think you can. I think you have taken your justified antipathy for christianity and what they have done to your people, and allowed that antipathy to be spread to other victims of genocidal christians.

but i just saw a comment on tiktok that read:

You’re amazing! Can you explain more on the Star of David symbol and if most Jews really use this symbol as a Jewish representation or it is more for people in Israel.

and i guess all i have to say is it really is jarring how culturally unaware people are about jewish people.