Blog away the depression

Kurdish traditional tattoos, known as Deq. The art of adorning the face and body with traditional tattoos has a very long history in Kurdish culture. The deq  is descried as “the holy symbols turning the human body into a temple”. Every Deq has its meaning and is part of our lost and concealed history in Kurdistan. Deq tattoos have existed among the people of Kurdistan for more than 10,000 years according to some history sources but it’s now a forgotten tradition and rarely observed by the younger generation of Kurds.

I wrote this for Inquisitr this morning.

The Duggars are already being criticized for trying to convert Catholics. Now Joy Anna and Austin have spent their anniversary trying to convert Jewish people. In Israel no less.

As always, click, read, share. Support your friendly neighborhood writer.

On Friday mornings in a class on the heritage of Babylonian Jewry, Oded Amit has taught a small group of Israelis to speak Jewish Iraqi, the language of his ancestors. Amit, 70, was born and raised in Baghdad, and Jewish Iraqi was the language in which his mother raised him.

“It’s a beautiful language, rich, full of wisdom and wit, but it is disappearing,” Amit told Al-Monitor. “What I’m doing is an attempt, perhaps desperate, to save something of it — to keep it alive a little longer. The younger generation doesn’t speak it anymore. They heard their aunt or grandma speaking it, but for them it’s not a mother tongue, it’s a curiosity.”

For hundreds of years, this dialect of Babylonian Jews flourished in their communities throughout Iraq. When most of them left in the early 1950s, Iraq lost the speakers of this unique language. The dialect is now spoken primarily in Israel and London, the two main centers of Babylonian Jewry. These days, there is no Jewish life per se in Baghdad. Only 12 Jews remain, so the community, more than 2,600 years old, is near its end. This is what motivated Amit, a retired engineer and a multitalented artist, to start his new career of teaching late in life.

Anyone familiar with the language of Iraqi Jews would agree that it is a warm and funny language in its sound, tones and its mix of sources. Like Yiddish, only Jews speak it, and its vocabulary reflects numerous external influences. Amit explained, “While it’s mostly based on Arabic, it has many expressions from Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish and Persian and a little English and French.”

In the early 1950s, most of the Jewish community left Iraq for Israel, but his family stayed behind, along with another 3,000 Jews who chose to cling to their native land. They later left as well, gradually. The rise of the Baath Party in 1963 and the 1967 Six-Day War brought dark days to the Jews. They were forbidden to study at the university. Their phone lines were disconnected, and they were not allowed to sell property or withdraw money from the bank. In 1969, the “10 martyrs” — Jews who allegedly spied for Israel — were hanged, along with four non-Jews, and dozens of others were arrested and tortured.

“We lived a life of humiliation and fear there, and that’s why we looked to the West,” Amit said. “Our cultural heroes were Charles Aznavour and the Beatles. At home, we listened to Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard.” Together with four Jewish friends, Amit formed a band, Capri, which played Western music.

“In 1967, following the Six-Day War, came the end of the community,” he said. “I finished my studies in construction engineering in 1968, and no one would hire me.”

In December 1970, Amit fled with his sister Nadia to Iran, and from there, to Israel. The rest of the family followed them. Amit settled in Tel Aviv and found work with the Israeli Standards Institution. He eventually earned a master’s degree in engineering, but the artistic bug stayed with him.

Amit, a construction engineer and teacher, is also an actor, a musician and a comic. He has his own show, “Oded Amit and Friends,” in which he tells stories and sings. Sometimes, he said, he misses the days of his youth, the Tigris and his friends at Al-Hikmah University, but he will not return. “I’m a total Israeli,” he said. “I even changed my name to a Hebrew name.”

I mentioned to him that his native language is Arabic, his roots are on the banks of the Tigris and he is even an authority in the study of Arabic. Does he — by these measures — not consider himself an Arab?

Um…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdadi_Jews

Records of Jewish tradesmen traveling from Baghdad can be found from the early 17th century, and around the mid-19th century a large portion of the community started immigrating to South and Southeast Asia as well as to the west, creating new communities while preserving their unique traditions.

Hm.  I wonder what could have possibly caused Iraqi Jews to pack their bags and go? 

http://www.midrash.org/articles/aspects/

During the reign of the last and most oppressive of the Mamluk pashas, Daud Pasha (1817-1831), the Baghdad Jewish community was subject to perpetual oppression. Sheikh Sasson’s son, David was imprisoned, but succeeded in fleeing the country, eventually reaching Bombay, India (1832), where he was to establish the Sassoon dynasty. Towards the end of Dãûd Pasha’s despotic rule, many Jews fled the province, emigrating east to Teheran, Bushire, Bombay, Calcutta, Sydney and China, and nearer home to Aleppo, Damascus, Alexandria and Masqat. (Sassoon1949:125, Stillman1979:103, 347fn1)

The Chicago Dyke March included everyone–except Jews

This was because they made people feel “unsafe”

People were claiming “pinkwashing”

THEY USED THE STAR OF DAVID AS A COMPARISON TO THE SWASTIKA 

“Well done Israel–Hitler would be proud” 

“I was here as a proud Jew in all of my identities,” [Eleanor] Shoshany-Anderson asserted. “The Dyke March is supposed to be intersectional. I don’t know why my identity is excluded from that. I fell that, as a Jew, I am not welcome here.”

The Magen David on a pride flag isn’t anymore triggering than any other religious symbol on a pride flag.

I used to live in Chicago and I know for a fact that the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ has not only participated in Dyke March in the past, but that their Pastor has done events on their behalf at the Broadway Youth Center, as one of my former colleagues was in the congregation. Lots of people from all walks of life have been persecuted under Christianity—is that not triggering?

I’ve seen the Crescent on pride flags before for LGBTQ Muslims. Why isn’t that considered triggering to Kurds because it’s on the Turkish flag? Or triggering to Jews whose families were expelled from places like Algeria and Tunisia, which also have the Crescent on their national flags?

Update: Iliana Figueroa, a Dyke March Collective member, spoke to Chicagoist Sunday afternoon about the mounting criticisms on social media that Dyke March is facing in the wake of the march for the decision to ask the three people to leave. She says the Dyke March Collective is not anti-Semitic, and the decision reflected the members’ desire to support pro-Palestinian participants who believed the flags symbolized Zionism.

“Yesterday during the rally we saw three individuals carrying Israeli flags super imposed on rainbow flags. Some folks say they are Jewish Pride flags. But as a Collective we are very much pro-Palestine, and when we see these flags we know a lot of folks who are under attack by Israel see the visuals of the flag as a threat, so we don’t want anything in the [Dyke March] space that can inadvertently or advertently express Zionism,” she said. “So we asked the folks to please leave. We told them people in the space were feeling threatened.”

Figueroa also said she gave the people her cell phone number and offered to discuss the decision with them more later. She added that they didn’t leave immediately, but stayed at the Dyke March rally for “a few hours.”

Figueroa added that the collective will release a statement on the incident after it finishes crafting one, and that members have asked pro-Palestinian organizations and others to release statements of solidarity with Dyke March as well. In the meantime, the collective is facing accusations of anti-semitism on social media.

Okay what I’m getting here is that some non-Jewish, non-Palestinians saw a Star of David and immediately thought “ISRAEL,” decided that the best thing to do was kick them out of the parade preemptively because a religious symbol on a pride rainbow may trigger Palestinians, but they didn’t care at all how kicking out LGBT Jewish people out of a pride parade would trigger Jewish people. Oh but they aren’t antisemitic. Oh and also they’re asking for pro-Palestinian organizations to release statements of solidarity, but not Jewish organizations (whether pro-Palestine or not).

So in other words, you can be Jewish and LGBT, but only if you aren’t outwardly and publicly Jewish because you might “inadvertently…express Zionism.” (Dollars to donuts they wouldn’t be able to accurately express what Zionism is or would be befuddled that you can be a Zionist and also pro-Palestinian.)

The Neo-Babylonian Empire and it’s neighbours, circa. 580 BC.

But the parade was met with controversy when collective members carrying rainbow pride flags with a Star of David center were told to leave because the flags “made people feel unsafe,” reported Windy City Times. “Anti-semitism is everywhere. I’m not surprised at all,” LGBT historian Sukie de la Croix commented on Facebook. “Nobody is more intolerant of differing opinions than the gay community.”

[T]he parade was met with controversy when collective members carrying rainbow pride flags with a Star of David center were told to leave because the flags “made people feel unsafe”.

In the link provided in the article, the following was written:

Gadot killed zero people.  Let’s keep this straight.

Are Iraq and Afghanistan banning Star Wars because Adam Driver was in the Marines during the war, even though he never saw combat?

Also, if you want to bring up the war between Israel and Lebanon during Gadot’s term in the IDF…it was the July War.  It started because Hezbollah (internationally recognized terrorist organization, note) fired rockets into Israel.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that if a neighboring country that has invaded yours several times (even if they lost) fires rockets that hit civilian and military targets, you take that as a declaration of war.  On top of that, Hezbollah kidnapped several Israeli soldiers (and remember, soldiers are drafted, so the term is just “Israeli citizen of a given age” in this context) Oh, and the Lebanese government had refused to disarm Hezbollah and during these incidents praised the organization…

Seeing this movie will support your Jewish pals.  The vast majority of the opposition to this movie comes in two forms:

Antisemitism masking itself as antizionism (often including lies about Gal Gadot)

People complaining that it is only good representation for white women, when the whiteness of Gadot is debateable (and this tends to devolve into goysplaining Jewish identity to Jews, which is antisemitic)

The Blood Tribe in southern Alberta has honoured the success of one of its members, Eugene Brave Rock.

A ceremony held at the Tatsikiisaapo'p Middle School on Thursday saw the 39-year-old actor bestowed with a headdress — the highest honour given in First Nations culture.

“Not just anybody can get a headdress,” said his aunt, Ramona Bighead, who attended the ceremony.

“Only the most notable people get one. We felt that Eugene deserved that honour.”

Brave Rock is making waves in entertainment circles for his recent role as “Chief” in Wonder Woman, the DC Comics superhero film distributed by Warner Bros.

Blood Tribe actor from Alberta speaks Blackfoot language in Wonder Woman movie

REVIEW: This is the Wonder Woman we have waited for

Born and raised on the Blood reserve, Brave Rock was highly influenced by his Blackfoot culture.

Bighead believes her nephew has displayed leadership to the community while earning the headdress honour.

“For him being an actor, in my opinion, he’s probably going to portray an Indigenous person on screen again,” she said.

“Now he has the full right to wear a headdress. No one can ever say, ‘Hey, you have no right to wear this.’”

Bih…Then why you’re supporting Star Wars, a movie starring a US Army veteran? Are you only against “IDF who murder thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians ” but not “US armed forces who murder millions of innocent non-Palestinian civilians ” ? Hmmmmmmmm I really wonder why? 🤔 Could it be that you have antisemitic double standards?

Bih...Then why you’re supporting Star Wars, a movie starring a US Army veteran? Are you only against “IDF who murder thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians ” but not “US armed forces who murder millions of innocent non-Palestinian civilians ” ? Hmmmmmmmm I really wonder why? 🤔 Could it be that you have antisemitic double standards?