asexual people & judaism

with Heaven's help this blog is for you if you're ace, grey-ace, demi, or any other form of non-allosexual, and jewish by patrilineality, matrilineality, or conversion (past, or if you’re currently in the process). if these don’t apply, feel free to follow anyway, but be aware that this is not about you.

[dancefevers]

he’s not a dilf but i’m glad he’s a dylf

[glintglimmergleam]

A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969 - Print-O-Craft

a groundbreaking, award-winning anthology

hey jumblr, thought you might like to know that the wonderful queer Jewish anthology A Rainbow Thread is on sale until the end of June! $25 marked down to $18 (chai of course) and Print-O-Craft is a wonderful indie publisher.

I don't work for them, and I don't personally know the editor Noam Sienna, I just own and love this book. this is not a series of contemporary essays/reflections, it's a sourcebook of Jewish texts from the past 2000 years that are explicitly gay.

you can use it for workshops, sermons, chevruta learning, or just power thru it in one day like I did and feel overwhelmed by the rich non-hetero history of our heritage. (lol maybe don't do that last one , take it slow...)

if you're interested in LGBTQ Judaism and/or understanding which of our traditional sources were already queer, this is the book for you.

happy pride & shabbat shalom!

[acejews]

hey i know i’ve been inactive for a while, sorry! i’m still ace & still jewish but moved most of my ace and jewish activity to twitter/irl 

and also, to sefaria! i collected a source sheet of some of the jewish textual sources about asexuality that i like www.sefaria.org/sheets/246516 

[jewish-privilege]

Antisemitism vs anti-semitism, could you explain the difference please? I'm not great at understanding grammatical nuances like that.

yikesinspace replied to your link “Daniel Radcliffe cries when learning about anti-Semitism his…”

Wait I’m genuinely sorry and I’m not trying to be sassy, but why does this matter? In many years of Jewish learning (from Jewish people) I feel like I’ve only seen/used anti-Semitic?

There are two main reasons. One, it lends credence to racial pseudoscience that there’s a race identified as “Semites.” Semitic refers to a linguistic family grouping (Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic), in the same way that Germanic (English, German, Dutch, etc) or Romance (Galician, Romanian, Italian, etc.) also refer to language families. They don’t describe people, ethnically, racially, or otherwise. 

Second, you get things like this:

Even if Semitic referred to a group of people, and again it does not, antisemitism has NEVER referred to anything other than the hatred of the Jewish people. It’s not the hatred of people who speak Semitic languages. It’s the hatred of Jewish people. When you phrase it as “Anti-Semitism” it’s more easily appropriated by, you know, antisemites, to derail and erase antisemitism and accusations of antisemitism. 

Here’s a more thorough explanation.

[acejews]

here’s a google doc for filling with divrei torah from womens', nb, LGBTQ+, disabled, PoC, etc. voices!! also, for finding them if you're looking! split up by parsha and/or relevant holiday self-promotion highly encouraged

this totally isn't my project -- someone posted it in an fb group i'm in (”Hagbah: Where observant progressive feminists lift up Torah”) and said this and that they encourage sharing the link around

https://docs.google.com/…/1ZASlgqQZdlyfVrP2mCzAvzo4PR…/edit…

share your amazing torah!!

[littlegoythings]

New York Is Holding A Statewide Primary On Rosh Hashanah

“Holding an election on Rosh Hashanah will unfairly impede on the ability of Jewish New Yorkers to participate in the election process.”

[glintglimmergleam]

if you feel at all sad during Hanukkah this week, I invite you to remember that at this very moment somewhere on this planet, a small and probably sticky Jewish child is wearing a construction paper candle as a headband and singing off-key in front of beaming parents in order to celebrate the Miracle of the Light

[deadtower]

tbh, goyim, you have really got to stop thinking of being jewish as only a religion. PSAs about antisemitism are a little more widespread nowadays but it’s still very obvious you only see us as a religion, or a “faith”, or whatever. yes, judaism is a religion, and yes, you can convert into it, but it’s difficult to convert in and you have to be the one to initiate it because we don’t proselytize.

the jewish people are an ethnicity as well as a religion. judaism is the religion of the jewish people. we are a people indigenous to the levant, exiled 1800 years ago, and forced to resettle in other countries where we were force-assimilated and many of us through those 1800 years lost our ethnic features while still retaining some—our noses, our dark curly hair, etc., which obviously aren’t on every jew but are common in families where the bloodline was kept strong.

it’s really tiring to see people saying “your religion” or “the jewish religion” or “freedom of religion” with reference to us because we are a people and a culture and an ethnicity. we’re far less persecuted for our religion than we are for our cultural dress and our ethnic features. a lot of us don’t even subscribe to the religion part but still celebrate the holidays bc they’re cultural holidays.

so please, like … remember this when you talk about our people or antisemitism. antisemitism is not a religion issue as much as it is an ethnicity issue and a particular brand of racism that has somewhat different rules because we’ve been exiled from israel for so long. like … just keep that in mind when you start discussion about our people pls lol

and yes goyim can reblog

[orvii-deactivated20180402]

hanukkah oh hanukkah

come light the

menorah

lets have

a party

we’ll all

dance the

horah

gather round the table

we’ll give you a

treat

dreidels to

play with

and latkes

to eat

[romansilver-deactivated20200514]

imjo

in my Jewish opinion

[progressivejudaism]

Now There’s a Dreidel-Fidget Spinner Hybrid

Now that it’s November, that means Hanukkah isn’t too far away. And just in time, there’s an effort underway to create dreidel-fidget spinner hybrid. (Fidget spinners are handheld…

Thoughts?

[jewish-grantaire]

As someone who for mental health reasons uses fidget toys as ground objects a lot I LOVE this

[chiribomb-deactivated20220820]

I think a lot about how a “goth Jew” aesthetic could actually be fleshed out. What would it entail, besides black? A lot of mainstream goth aesthetic uses explicitly xtian symbols – crucifixes and saint icons, etc – and this works with the driving force behind the goth look, to use very traditional, conservative elements and turn them on their head. Xtianity is the majority and the default, and subverting it is about subverting expectations and power dynamics. Plus, if you’re going for pure shock value, misappropriating symbols that people hold very sacred is really effective. But, as a Jew, I’m not interested in wearing a rosary as a necklace, shock value or no. My very existence as a Jew in a non-Jewish society is subverting power dynamics and an act of rebellion and non-conformity. And I have no interest in directly translating the concept and wearing menorahs and stars of David in the same way that people wear upside-down crosses; I don’t want to disrespect Jewish symbols, and doing so would not accomplish the same goal anyway, since Judaism is not a stand-in for mainstream conservatism. Rather, I would replace it with a completely sincere display of Jewish symbols, not to subvert the symbols, but to say “hey, I’m here and I’m in-your-face Jewish, my existence defies you.”

Nor do I particularly care for a lot of the “pagan” elements, since “witchcraft” is both prohibited in Judaism and usually appropriated from other religions and cultures (sometimes including Judaism) in ways that it shouldn’t be, and then filtered through an xtian lens, and then turned into something “edgy.”

Death iconography is a big part of goth culture, but what is it in Judaism? We have had a lot of death. Would “Jewish goth” incorporate death as a solemn tribute to its role in the formation of Jewish collective consciousness, a way of saying, like so many Jewish holidays, you tried to destroy us and we refuse to forget, but we survive anyway? Or would it follow Judaism’s de-emphasis of the afterlife and say, in rebellion, that we’re here and reveling in life as it is now? How does that translate into something recognizably “goth”?

What are the indispensable elements of “goth” that can’t be parted with? Is it black? Is it skulls? Is it Victorian fashion? Victorian fashion itself is like xtianity: it represents using something stereotypically ultra-conservative and turning it on its head as part of counterculture. Some goth/rockabilly fashion is built on pop culture and horror/sci-fi from the 50s, another time that’s romanticized and conservativized. Using pop culture from a time period people idealize as being tame and proper and turning it into something edgy and new is a reaction to consumerism and conformity. But Jews have had a fraught relationship with conformity. It represents assimilation, an ongoing threat/pressure/desire. It’s too current to be made edgy. Jews, and other minorities, have a different relationship to the 50s than other people do. So what would the Jewish counterpart be? 18th century Eastern European shtetl fashion? 1920s Lower East Side inspired? I kind of like that idea. It’s got the historical callback, but also represents the time of the radical Yiddish political movements and that’s kind of neat.

I dunno. What does it mean for something to be Jewishly goth? Obviously, you can be Jewish and goth the same kind of way as everyone else, if you want to, but what would be something distinctively Jewish, if you wanted to do it?

[purronronner]

This is really interesting

[nerdyqueerandjewish]

I like how you’re thinking

Also the other day I was covering my head with a black scarf, I had black lipstick on, and my magen david necklace was visible and when I looked at myself I was like “ @chiribomb would be so proud rn”

[keshetchai]

i think you have to dress like you do for yom kippur or for your wedding while you are possessed by a dybbuk 

…i actually have a whole pinterest board dedicated to fairytale Gothic with some jewish influence

[mbichabal]

@ariminak what do you think? Sorry for long post jajaja

[willowelijah]

2017 Ace Community Census

In light of asexual awareness week i would like to share with you the 2017 ace community census! If you are ace and over 13, please fill out the survey. it takes about 30 minutes.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVqE0TYYYdNl1wAgiohPQnTw52uJZmnIl89Lrhbb63NM6Euw/viewform

[mapsontheweb]

Map of Jewish Ethnic Origin Countries.

[baby-goalie-skaps]

Greek Jews actually had their own grouping for a while before being almost eradicated. They’re called Romaniotes.

[kuttithevangu]

:’(

[fromthedollhouse]

It’s World Mental Health Day! (October 10th.) So I thought it might be useful to compile mental health resources for the Jewish community into one post. If you know of any that aren’t listed, please feel free to add them.

RELIEF – connects/refers Jewish people to therapists and other mental health resources (focuses mainly on the frum community)

Elijah’s Journey - suicide prevention for the Jewish community (Facebook page)

The Aleph Institute – provides spiritual support for Jews in institutional environments such as prison, health facilities, and rehab

No Shame On U – aims to de-stigmatize mental illness by providing comprehensive education

OHEL - comprehensive services for those facing mental health issues, with professionals fluent in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew

Yad Rachel - for mothers facing postpartum depression, also helps educate family and health providers

Shema Koli - support for victims of abuse

Frum Support Forums - for mental and physical health

(NY) The Jewish Board - provides services for a number of things, including crisis support, supportive housing, and mental health services.

Torah and the Twelve Steps - spiritual-based rehab for those recovering from substance abuse

(UK) Jewish Helpline -  0800 652 9249

(Mexico) Jewish Crisis Line -  1118

(The two following aren’t specifically mental health resources, but I still felt they were important to add.)

A list of Jewish LGBT+ organizations

Keshet - Jewish LGBT+ educational resources

Many cities also have Jewish Family Services, which will often be able to refer you to a therapist or other local resources.

[progressivejudaism]

A few days late but still (always) relevant!

[acejews]

Jami is a Jewish mental health resource for the UK 

[goy-bullshit-translator]

I’d like to clarify

Messianics are not welcome at this blog. You do not qualify as a Jew, and your opinions mean nothing. Thank you, and have a nice day!

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

I would like to clarify that I do not actually want Messianics to have a nice day