be weird and sexy

Washington Post is paywalling the article but it looks like Taylor Farms — a consumer bagged salad brand that also supplies produce to grocers and fast food chains like Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonald's, Chipotle, Burger King, KFC, and Meijer —may be at least one of the sources of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak.

It sounds funny, silly even, but whenever Jews disagree in this context, it's never entirely about the disagreement; it's about feelings of betrayal over fellow Jews thinking, acting, perceiving, and behaving differently. It's about feelings of insecurity borne of second-guessing your own perspectives. It's about that deep-seated fear, that if That One Group behaves improperly, it will bring the rage of the gentiles down upon us all.

The American Jewish community is in a....profoundly disunited state right now, and we're being deeply toxic to each other on social media; I assume you've seen my own interactions here, in which my coreligionists accuse me of engaging in blood libel and ignoring/downplaying the genocidal violence Hamas imposed on Israeli and other civilians on 10/7/23. It's so easy to take it personally. To get mad. To think "omg please don't post that where the non-Jews can see it now they're going to hate us even more!" But being a modern Jewish historian allows me to take a step back, and remind myself: Jews have never agreed on how to do Judaism in diaspora. We have never even fully agreed on how to do it not in diaspora, but under the governance of a larger empire (see: Chanukah deep lore). This is a normal, established aspect of our historical continuum, and being part of that makes me neither a Good Jew nor a Bad Jew, but just another individual, contributing however I can to this eternal discourse.

It's easy to make "hurrr two Jews three opinions!" jokes, and I have/do. But those jokes aren't the result of some inherent Jewish proclivity towards internecine disagreements; they reflect instead of wide variety of factors Jews must take into account every day as we engage with the rest of the world as a global minority.

When I see a post about the history of, say, the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in the 90s, and a fellow Jewish person posts OH GOOD WE'RE TALKING ABOUT AN ACTUAL GENOCIDE in response. My first feelings are those of overwhelming fear and embarrassment. Because the gentile who see that will store it in the rhetorical ammo they deploy against all of us.

I am simultaneously living the patterns of Jewish history, while observing their longevity. It's weird, but cool. I think.

Some women are expected to be strong at times when they can't. Her feminism would involve reassuring her that it's okay to not be strong.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're too stupid to ever amount to anything. Their disability activism would involve reassuring them that they're capable.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're smart and gifted, and are expected to live up to impossible standards. Their disability activism would involve allowing them to fail, make mistakes, be stupid, etc.

Some children are constantly reminded "you're the child, I'm the adult" in order to deny their autonomy. Their youth rights activism would involve treating them like an adult at times when they feel ready for it.

Some children are treated like adults in order to justify increased expectations or to downplay abuse against them. Their youth rights activism would involve allowing them to be a child.

Then maybe...

Maybe...

THANK YOU!

THIS! ^^^^^

They love trying to reframe it every time. They love to omit the fact that a significant portion of Israelis are not indigenous at all to the region. Many of them were brought over by organizations like Jewish Colonization Association. And yes that's a real organization. And yes thats the name they chose.