. . . But I Digress

Donald Trump gets attacked by an eagle.

it’s run by a fascist

it’s been trending further right for years

it needs serious reform

things you can’t say about the USA:

it’s unique in any of the above mentioned issues

it’s the most right wing or conservative place on earth

Which meant that they'd sometimes have students call them at home to ask questions. And sometimes, I'd be the one to pick up the phone, which meant that the following dialogue occasionally ensued:

STUDENT: Hello, may I speak to Professor Lastname, please?

TEEN PARGOLETTA: Professor Lastname HE or Professor Lastname SHE?

STUDENT: . . . . um.

PARGOLETTA PARENT WITHIN PHONE-GRABBING DISTANCE: Give me that! (fond eyeroll)

I was raised completely detached from my matrilineally Jewish heritage. The only thing I know is that they were Eastern European Ashkenazim. My grandmother never talked about her family much because they were really terrible people. I feel like that bled into being ashamed to be Jewish. To the point that my mother identifies as just a white Evangelical... even going as far as getting a Southern Baptist Cross engraved on my grandmother's headstone. She and my sister only care about their Jewishness to play politics. My mom falls in line with whatever Trump is doing, and my sister is an antizionist tankie. I am the only one that cares about keeping our Jewish heritage alive.

I always so out of place and like an imposter. I never got to learn about being Jewish so I'm always playing catch up. Hebrew is, for some reason, more difficult for me to pick up than any other language I've learned. I don't think I will ever be able to come to the bimah and read the Torah on the High Holidays. I don't believe I'll ever hold a bar mitzvah for the same reason.

I don't own a tallis or a kippah. I feel like I don't deserve to. I don't know enough about being Jewish because it was taken from me without ever really knowing. I feel like everyone, especially here can tell that I don't know anything and that's why I feel so alone.

Every Jewish soul that ever was or ever would be stood at Sinai together. Sometimes they wander off a bit and end up somewhere far away, but they're still Jewish, and they still find their way home. It's like there's a call reeling them back in. Converts aren't aliens who decided to join the tribe, they're our long-lost siblings who felt that call and followed it all the way back home. Same with born Jews who got disconnected from the community. We don’t care where they started from, we’re just happy to get our family back.

Read over what you’ve written. You write like you crave to be Jewish, but you won’t allow yourself to be because you don’t live up to your standards of Jewishness. Don’t you see how twisted that is? You yearn for home, you feel that call in your soul. But you won’t let yourself to go home, because you think you don’t deserve it. Well, if you need to hear it, I’ll tell it to you right now:

You deserve to come home.

I've been a singer since I was six, and I promise you it's much easier to sing a foreign language than speak it. Cantor Benjie-Ellen Schiller herself, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual and Professor of Cantorial Arts at the Hebrew Union College Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, has spoken about how, in college, she could speak only about four words of Hebrew, and she found her way into prayer through song. And if you don't think you have much of a voice . . . who cares? Sing anyway. It's the synagogue, not Carnegie Hall.

Rabbis love people who come in wanting to explore their Jewish heritage; having those conversations is literally part of their job description. I don't know where you are, but if there's a Jewish community near you, email the rabbi (/cantor/kolbo) and ask to make an appointment to talk to them about wanting to re-connect with your heritage. I don't know a single rabbi who wouldn't be delighted to get that email.

And if you just maybe want to visit a synagogue to see what it's like, you can generally do that. If you're not in the US, you might have to email the synagogue first to let them know you're coming, and even in the US these days, it's good form, just so that any guards or greeters know to expect you. But beyond basic safety precautions, we do love guests, and someone is very likely to come say hello and make sure you know what's going on. (At my synagogue, we can in fact go a little over the top on the friendliness sometimes, but we mean no harm by it.)

now, you might ask, “why are they repeating ‘baby killers’ and accusations of ‘eating children’ so often?”

“why is this so ubiquitous on social media and even now in real life?”

There’s a dangerous myth spreading on social media. It’s radicalizing people and inspiring real-world violence: Jews have been falsely accused of "blood libel,” which has led to the persecution, massacres, and the expulsion of Jewish communities.

actually, you probably wouldn’t ask why, because you’re reading this post, which means you’re either Jewish or an ally and already know all about blood libel.

still, it is growing in pervasive popularity, and it is as dangerous now in 2026 as it was in 1144, and every other time it has stained history, and has inevitably led to the murder of Jews.

what needs to be understood is that it is the very worst, most monstrous accusation most people can think of. in many ways it usurped the charge of deicide (though that is where this concept originated, Jews as the killers of Christ), a charge leveled specifically against Jews to prove them as a unique and inhuman evil, the corrupters and perverters and destroyers of everything pure, good, and innocent. Jews kill children on purpose, in fact, they even slaughter and consume them and use their blood for their profane rituals. it’s an easy lie, and a seductive one (it’s also absurd, but when has Judenhass ever been logical?). get the people to believe that and of course they’ll hate those responsible for it. let the messengers be those who are respected, admired, adored, and it will travel that much faster, be given that much more legitimacy.

this time, the charge is even more horrific because children have undeniably and wrongfully died in the midst of war, and that is being categorized as intent, as targeted murder, rather than as terrible casualties. the questions aren’t even about conduct or whether enough was done to prevent these deaths, whether there are soldiers and other officials that do need to be held to account. that doesn’t incite enough distress, that wouldn’t reasonably cause Jews around the globe to be attacked for it. instead it’s boiled down to the basest accusation: they’re Jews. killing kids is what they do.

the medieval town square is now every corner of social media. the trusted monks are now the celebrated entertainers and influencers and politicians.

I’ve borrowed this quote before and will again (and so does this astute video): The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.

henmazzig:

Most people will admit they’ve absorbed something from the racism or sexism baked into movies and TV. That’s why we scrutinize problematic messages in media, and why every push to change them meets so much resistance. What people see affects how they think about others. In 2026, this is hardly a new idea. Yet even though false antisemitic ideas have been widespread in Western art and media for centuries, few are willing to accept that they might have absorbed anti-Jewish ideas. Like it or not, you have to work at it, actively, the way you would with any other bias you didn’t choose to inherit. Because the background hum of this society is that Jews are to blame for almost everything that goes wrong. It’s not a true story. Never has been. But it’s one that’s left its imprint on generations, and gotten millions of Jews killed in the process. That idea doesn’t disappear, even if it changes clothes.

(x)

“Nine centuries, one libel, and its genius has always been that it travels best on trusted lips - not the monster’s, the beloved’s.”

https://antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Antisemitic-imagery-May-2020.pdf