Shira

Tokenization isn’t representation. It’s exploitation.

When someone says, “I know a Jew,” or “My Jewish friend agrees,” they’re often treating one person as a stand-in for an entire people.

A token is valued not for their individuality, but for the cover they provide:

“See? A Jew agrees with me, so I can’t be prejudiced.”

No Jew was elected to speak for 15 million others.

Listen to Jewish voices. Don’t weaponize one against the rest.

(it's available to read here)

couldn't you invoke it in service of. like. stopping antisemitism?

yeah okay completely fair. absolute agreement. tisha b'av is about mourning for jewish history

THE FUCK

Okay. Tool #1 of 21

why. "don't talk about palestine for one fucking page" challenge failed. can't we mourn our own things rebekah erev? can't we grieve for us?

the page after also fails the "don't talk about palestine for one fucking page" challenge. if you're wondering.

we are one-seventh of the way through. jewish grief and suffering has not been mentioned.

#4 also talks about palestine.

i am going to throw something wendy.

(the black bar is not mine it's theirs. no i don't know why they felt the need to make it look redacted.)

what about antisemitism?

melissa. please. PLEASE let us have a day of mourning that doesn't mention palestinians. that predates palestinians. that has nothing to do with palestinians.

the fuck is that

jo kent katz suggests saying kaddish. i get my hopes up. she talks about why it's good. my hopes go higher.

JO!

what is priestessing jo

NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE ABOUT PALESTINE JO

thank you to jade brooks for not mentioning palestine. this should not be difficult. thank you to judith norman for not bringing palestine into cleaning.

no thank you to lena ruth sclove for deciding you can't meditate without palestine

c'mon lena.

Beth that's the quiet part. Beth you're not supposed to say you're happy jews died yet. c'mon Beth. Beth this is Tisha B'av, you're still paying lip service to the idea of Jews dying as being bad.

well when you tie your identity to victimhood and oppression and when that is the cornerstone of your separation from the broader ethnic group yes that would make sense, your narrative is being reaffirmed and that is a very powerful thing.

rebecca fox keeps palestine out of sewing. thank you rebecca

now, to be fair, my high ground is limited because i don't plan on fasting on tisha b'av, but i don't plan on making a big deal out of cooking either.

Yeah. You know what, Beth? You're right. I am mad. I am mad that you choose to take Judaism and twist it into knots to make it all about Palestine. I am mad that you and your (mostly Gentile organization which @aqlstar has documented being extremely awful) organization refuse to let Jewish rituals and prayers exist as they are. I am mad that you market yourself to a goyish audience as Jewish. I am mad at the nature of what you do. I am mad that media coverage of Judaism has in many cases been co-opted by organizations like yours, Jewish Autism Speaks'.

I am mad, Beth. I am full of rage. Rage at you.

And "Rabbi" Lynn Gottlieb

Well maybe they wouldn't be traumatized if they stopped going to your synagogues and pretending to be Jewish would they now.

Okay, but for real: if you are traumatized by the existence of a language rather than what is being conveyed, that is your fucking problem. Trauma is not a force-the-world-to-bend-to-your-will card, especially not when you show up in other people's spaces, knowing there is a high risk of that trigger being present. Expecting Jews to change our practices for the comfort of non-Jews in Jewish spaces is, dare I say it, colonialist.

Also, wait, English, that famously untraumatizing language? That language with no history of oppression?

The FUCK. I could kind of get English. I'd prefer "the vernacular language", but since for about half of Jews that is Hebrew, I can see Lynn's concern. But there is a defense of English.

There is no defense for using Arabic. There is no defense for demanding Jewish tradition bend and twist to fit those who infiltrate Jewish spaces. There is no defense for requiring Jews to use the tongue of the oppressor simply to be allowed to do whatever bastardized version of "prayer" the infiltrators so kindly deign to allow us. There is no defense for demanding we use a more recent language, untied to our history and past.

It's not taking it. Palestinian identity formation, as even Palestinian historians accept, formed in the mid-to-late 1800s. If there are similarities in traditions, that is either an independent convergence, or the result of Palestinian appropriation of Jewish things. I don't know which, necessarily.

it is the last proposed "technology" and we are finally at a proper tradition for Tisha B'av.

It doesn't. Jewish days of mourning and holidays and traditions exist independent of Palestinians. They are not tied to Palestinians, except inasmuch as they are tied to eretz Yisrael. We don't need to change our religion to meet whatever impossible standard the non-Jews around us demand, whether it's a Communist Judaism, a nationalist Judaism, or a pro-Palestinian Judaism. Judaism predates Communism, nationalism and Palestinians.

Tisha B'av commemorates something that happened in Judea, when Jews were the vast majority of residents. It's not pro-Palestinian, and that's okay. This idea that Jewish traditions and practices need to be approved of by non-Jews is not only erasing us, it's quixotic. There will always be one more Jewish practice to be erased, one last bit of capitalism or universalism or Zionism.

The last words that they have on Tisha B'av are not anything about the many things we could mourn on that day -- the loss of our independence, our exile from our indigenous homeland, our expulsion from Spain, the start of the First Crusade, or any of the other things that happened on Tisha B'av. No, they are about Palestine.

Palestinians arent a religion, that makes no fucking sense (not at you, at jvp). You cant day youre being inter***faith*** by having a randomass national person there. thats missing the ***faith*** part.

If you refuse to see the problem is the terrorist organizations like hamas, taliban, jihad, houthis, the Iranian Islamic Regimes, the corruption in the UN, and not Jews/Israelis you support death of innocent civilians.

hamas is given billion of dollars and not one bomb shelter, that is a war crime. No protection, and that is not Israel's fault.

The UN and doctors without borders are making women and children perform sexual acts for basic supplies. You don't care about them though. You dont care hamas open fires on citizens, or that their charter calls to kill every Jew and destroy Israel.

You deny physical evidence, from areas like archeology to biology. Your movement is anti-indigenous.

Would you leave the USA, Australia, Southern Africa, New Zealand, Canada to allow indigenous populations to have their LAND BACK. If your answer is no, then you need to really think about what youre actually calling for.

Okay, sure, let's have it out. I imagine I'll pretty much piss off everyone with this.

First: the only confidence I have in my understanding of the political situation of the Middle East is that I have no fucking understanding whatsoever of the political situation in the Middle East. Sure, I've read plenty. I have friends of many many stripes. But I'm not a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect here, folks: I know enough to know how much I don't know, and how much I know is tons.

Second, you say that person is a "zionist." There are three things I find pretty annoying about this as a defense attorney. One is that the term is not defined, and the other is that there is a complete lack of evidence. The third is the implicit assumption that being a "zionist" is enough to wholeheartedly condemn anyone.

Let's tackle these one by one. And, once again, I am neither a scholar of Jewish history nor Middle Eastern history nor anything except American criminal law.

First: definition. There are many possible meanings of zionist that I see people use. One potential meaning of "zionist" seems to be "is Jewish, but fails to disavow Israel as fast and loud as I personally want them to." Sometimes the meaning of "zionist" is just "is Jewish." Sometimes it's "a Jewish person who wishes for a return to a very distant ancestral homeland." Sometimes it's "wholehearted supporter of Israel's war crimes." A lot of pointless arguing, it seems to me, is centered around someone saying they are zionist, i.e., they would like Jewish people to someday have a nice homeland where they don't feel like a strange political chunk in another country, and another person hears that they are zionist, i.e. they enjoy wholesale slaughter of civilians.

Second: No evidence. Self-explanatory. You are an anon. I don't know why I'm supposed to trust your word. I read police reports for a living and I am supposed to be able to trust them, and let me tell you how many lies they contain.

Third: the assumption of condemnation. I literally defend the human rights of sex criminals in court. I defend murderers. What we are talking about, right now, at best, is a human person expressing an opinion, however potentially damaging and offensive (depending on definition of zionism and truth of accusation). Do you think I'm gonna say that Jewish people who express an opinion are inhuman and deserve segregation from the rest of us?

Do you think I'm ever going to stop reaching out my hand to people who use violence? Do you think I'm ever going to lose the hope that someday they will lose the fear that makes them resort to violence?

Finally, now that I've spent some time listing my problems with your case, so what.

Let's use an example closer to home. I'm an American, and I do in fact believe that America is a nation and will continue to be so, and that tearing down all government to give it back to indigenous people (something that is, to be clear, to my understanding, not comparable with any kind of political situation in Israel) is not possible as things stand. And yet nobody's here interrogating me about Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran or whether I support ICE's jackbooted thuggery.

A little further from home? If I met a Russian person, my first ask would not be "Tell me in detail your thoughts on Ukraine and Putin."

And in those two examples, I myself and this hypothetical Russian person are actually members of the country in question that is doing the thing. A Jewish person who is not Israeli isn't even that.

Listen. I think there's a lot to be unpacked about how the insularity of Jewish culture and the separateness of it from the countries where it lives is both in the interest of continuing the Jewish ethnicity and in the interest of the people who want Jewish people exterminated, and how the double-pull of those two interests maintain a tension that otherwise might dissipate. I think there's something real to be analyzed about how modern anti-semitism isn't a recurrence of medieval anti-semitism but a different thing, a sign of fascist thinking.

I think there is a horrific tragedy for everyone involved that the group who was decimated beyond belief in the blackest events in human history now has a very loud and visible nation channeling their survival into rage and violence.

I think that there are lots of Arab nations around Israel that would gladly see every person in it subject to that same rage and violence, and I'm not down with that shit either.

I think the history of who colonized who and when and what pogroms did what and how violence and why are all too fucking complicated to untangle.

I think the only way truly forward for Israel and Palestine is some kind of truth and reconciliation type thing and that Israel as it stands is too scared to see all their atrocities come to light.

I was raised atheist with college professor parents, so you can bet Jewish people in academia were part of my life from an early age. I don't understand antisemitism literally at all. It's completely incomprehensible to me. I also think Arab culture is gorgeous and studied Arabic in college. I don't discount the idea that I have subconscious biases; I've done my best to unpick them, but it's lifelong work.

The whole goddamn clusterfuck is a great example of why violence begets violence begets violence. I reject the idea that One Final Ass-Kicking on anyone's part will solve any one of these problems. The only thing that ends violence is not choosing violence. And that can't happen until enough people in and out of power want the violence to stop. There. Not here. There. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to come from within.

And that's a decision -- I must add -- that I seriously could not have less to do with. White Americans should not be making any of the related decisions.

Here endeth the essay, with one final note.

It is best for the civilians caught in the middle to not encourage the continuatiin of violence. And it is best for those of us drowning in the splash effect as the whole world (minus you and a few others) have gleefully turned on Jews.

You are also giving a sign of hope, which has been rapidly disapearing, about the possibility of being able to safely live in the US.

Unless they have chronic can't-shut-the-fuck-up disease, like me.

The US Golden Age of Jewry is over. It is something us American Jews are acutely aware of.

Often its defended by the refusal to engage with zionist jews. Which like, zionism doesn't prevent jews from experiencing antisemitism. If you only listen to jews who are who you deem to be the perfect victim, you aren't listening to jews.

Scammers coming into my messages trying to tug my heart strings by threatening to hate me forever if I don't help.

Me:

@scam-alerts, are you really out here claiming randos in a message on tumblr might be trustworthy to send money to? When you can see the link in the message goes to gofundme, which doesn't pay out in Gaza?

Are you really out here trying to tell me that gazavetters is a trustworthy vetting source when it's been proven time and again @gazavetters are scammers????

Are you on the internet in the year of our go fuck yourself 2026 acting like Gaza scamming isn't one of the most successful tumblr scams of all time that was based on making people fear they'd be called racists or baby killers if they didn't assume every single rando in their inbox or messages was totally trustworthy??

"We don't call them scams, so you shouldn't either." No. That's not how that works. I call a scam a scam. You don't want to call it a scam, that's up to you. But it's real fucked up that you are here saying you're an authority on scams acting like Gaza scams are some rare thing or that MOST Gaza posts AREN'T provably horseshit.

Did I step on your scam? Is that what this is? Are you running this scam while running a so-called scam-alerts blog, and you're mad because you're worried my posting these messages could lose you money? Because that's what it feels like. Why fucking else would a so called scam-alert blog be trying to talk someone out of calling out a deeply suspicious scam that we all learned years ago is not trustworthy?

If a rando shows up in your inbox asking for money, they are most likely scamming, and the bigger the sob story, the more likely the scam.

So, someone who runs scam-alerts got into my replies to say gazavetters is trustworthy when it's very well known at this point that gazavetters ISN'T trustworthy and that I SHOULD trust randos asking me for cash when they have link that I know DON'T WORK IN GAZA.

And they just happen to be doing something so nice like drawing stuff for people who give money to supposedly valid campaigns that are very likely not valid at all because gazavetters has been proven to be scammers. And, if gazavetters is as crooked as we know it is, this person might very well be pretending like they're not getting a kickback from those donations to encourage further donations that they are very likely getting a cut from.

In short: I think this person who helps run scam-alerts is running a scam with gazavetters to get a payday off donations to the so-called verified list that has been proven repeatedly to be completely untrustworthy. This is my opinion based on the circumstances.

okay bb.

1. israel is the reestablished JEWISH STATE. judaism permeates EVERYTHING IN ISRAEL LMAO. the work week, the school systems (jewish religious schools are still public. you have public secular, public arab, public religious AND THAT’S JEWISH. you can send your kid to another religious school but the main ones are jewish), the bus schedules, the names of streets, THE HISTORIC SITES, the food, the calendar, many of the laws.

2. half the world’s jews live there.

“i’m talking about zionists not jews”

zionism is the jewish rights movement, my good googly eyed bitch. it was created BY jews FOR jews.

what did zionists want to establish? a JEWISH STATE.

“christians are zionists.”

dude i’ve seen muslims claim to be zionists. plenty of non indigenous people supported AIM. plenty of non black people supported the freedom riders and joined them even. doesnt mean shit.

in addition, why do you call it jewish supremacy if youre not talking about jews? why do you list out every antisemitic libel and stereotype if it somehow isnt about jews? why do you mock jewish holy texts and erase jewish history if you somehow don’t mean jews?

every

100 years

the ancient

hatred

changes into

fresh

clothes

thinking

we won’t

recognize