רִבְקָה

Lodz, Poland. photograph by Shterna Goldbloom for their series, "i am the other / איך בין די סטרא אחרא". they describe their inspiration for this series thus:

Qatar—the country that funds Al Jazeera and is currently hosting Hamas senior officials—spends more money lobbying the US government than Israel does.

China, Japan, and Liberia each spend roughly twice what Israel does on lobbying. Where’s the outrage about the Liberian lobby being a threat to US democracy?

Hell, the Bahamas has a greater influence on American politics than Israel. I see you freaked out about shekels; where’s this energy for the starfish pennies?

“but AIPAC!”

AIPAC isn’t the biggest pro-Israel PAC, it’s just the Jewish one, and pro-Israel PACs don’t even scratch the top ten of special interest groups.

Y’all’re just weirdly obsessed with the narrative that Jewish money drives American politics.

Source:

Person who focused on it in undergrad: yea I’m a bit of an expert on that field; it was my major

Person who has done at least some graduate level work on the topic: yeah I specialize in [subsubfield]

I am a Holocaust historian, I am Jewish, and I’m part of the 3G survivor community. Judaism is fascinating in terms of memory construction, because our history is deeply intertwined with our liturgy and observance. This leads to many Jewish individuals considering themselves experts on Jewish history, when actually they’re conversant in a very specific, highly curated version of Jewish memory.

As a Holocaust historian, this becomes more acute because people with survivor grandparents assume that having those bonds and receiving their relations’ memories makes them well-versed in those histories. No, it makes them well versed in receiving their grandparent’s memories.

And that’s fine. That’s important. But memories aren’t the same as history. And when we receive our descendants’ personal histories, we are receiving their MEMORIES, shaped inevitably by lack of context, time, and trauma. Or to put it differently, we are receiving their primary source documents.

And that’s important. We need primary sources; without primary sources we would be literally unable to practice history. BUT, the practice of history requires that we interrogate primary sources within all aspects of their context, not accept them at face value.

This can became really messy when you study the history of your own minority identity group. In those circumstances, the experiences of y/our ancestors become a mythology that a large portion of y/our group accepts as fact. But then, when put under the scrutiny of critical historical interrogation, a lot of those agreed upon truths can be exposed as myth, and not fact. And that’s when y/our identity group turns on you.

A notorious example of this are the multiple versions of Tosia Altman’s death. The parts everyone can agree on:

-the attic of the celluloid factory where Tosia may or may not have been hiding in caught fire, potentially because someone didn’t dispose of a cigarette correctly, or because Tosia was heating ointment to treat the wounds she’d received in the fall of Mila 18 and the fire got out of control

-she jumped from the attic

-the Gestapo showed up and cleared the scene

-she was dead

That’s where the similarities end. Some say she was already dying from smoke inhalation when she jumped. Others say she was gravely injured and close to death on account of burns, wounds sustained in the fighting, and injuries from the jump. Some say she died immediately after the jump. Some say that she was alive after the jump, and then arrested by the Gestapo, and taken to the hospital where she was either: interrogated and denied medical care until she succumbed to her wounds, or tortured to death.

The things I have learned in Hebrew school: 1. This is the Alef-Bet in Hebrew. It is your people’s tongue. It is sweet on yours. 2. They want to kill you 3. This is what you say when they accuse you of killing their god 4. This is what you say when they accuse you of controlling the government 5. The Mishnah has six books, arranged by subject. 6. This is how to hide a kippah in public 7. There are two main commentaries on the Gemara on every Talmud page- Rashi and Tosafot 8. They killed your family 9. This is the prayer for the anniversary of a death 10. This is how to feel afraid 11. This is how to feel ashamed of being afraid 12. Do not read “children”, read “builders” 13. Your children will be afraid of building a life anywhere they cannot flee from at midnight 14. This is how to feel anger 15. This is how to choke 16. On it 17. It back 18. When you are dying 19. When they are killing you 20. Say the shema

Jews: “That’s as antisemitic as it gets.”

Progressive: “Hey, criticizing Israel isn’t antisemitic, and how dare you paint the DSA with a broad brush!”