Antisemitism in Witchy Spaces
And no, I will not be putting it under a cut.
I started recording every time something happened in hopes it would show how antisemitism actually manifests in witchcraft circles. It eventually got to be five parts long and instead of having people reblog incomplete versions of the post, here is the whole thing in its entirety. Give it a read. Seriously. Read the whole thing so these things can happen less.
Facebook Witch Group: post is made by a user with a profile picture of a clear nazi swastika. After being notified, admin declares the user is allowed to stay because the group is a “judgement free zone.”
Facebook Witch Group: Jewitches were assumed white by default and pitted against other groups, as if Jewish people are leveraging their identity to “play up” their own oppression and undermine others. Many openly Jewish witches are harassed out of the group.
One of the mods in that same group discovered they “might be Jewish” and became the sole authority on Jewish issues despite having zero connection to the culture or any kind of confirmed Jewish heritage. They were eventually caught lying about their entire race/ethnicity/background.
A witchy discord group implements a rule that outlaws all mention of all closed practices (including Judaism) “to protect from appropriation,” even if the person has legitimate claim to the practice. When I pointed out this basically forced me into hiding, admin says, “you can be Jewish. Just not here.”
A user identified themselves as a Kabbalist. Later in the discussion, they were surprised to learn Kabbalah was Jewish in origin, admitted they didn’t know a single Jewish person in real life, and argued that Kabbalah couldn’t be that bad because Arianna Grande also used it. (”Are you saying she’s wrong too??” yes)
Another user is called out for appropriating Kabbalah and proceeds to sling antisemitic jokes until they are banned.
Just. So many more people appropriating Kabbalah and becoming hostile towards any Jewish person that expresses discomfort. (Including one person that even gave themselves a Hebrew username)
A group of users too big to argue with talking about how amaaaazing working with Lilith is. A few Jewish folks respectfully ask them to be mindful of her origins. They’re not given attention. (Or what attention they are given is only to debate her origin.)
Discord server has rooms for every major subcategory of Paganism and one room for “Abrahamic.” Christian witches completely dominate the conversation.
I mention on my blog that I am a proud Jewish person. One of the comments shortly after is “go be Jewish in Israel.”
A Nazi sympathizer joins a Discord group, reveals themselves, is banned, and proceeds to try and join over and over again through different accounts.
I check my blog activity to find a nazi witch blog had gone through my feed and liked a ton of stuff so I’d be sure to see their username (they did this to other notable tumblr blogs as well.) Looking at their bio revealed their agenda of proving Nazis “weren’t all bad,” and their dash included an open invite to a holocaust denial discord server.
A tumblr thread gets big of a bunch of witches arguing to cancel the word Sabbat because of supposed antisemitic origins. Jewish people chime in to insist that we really don’t give a shit about Wiccans using the word Sabbat, and not to speak over Jewish people and declare what we’re offended by. Tumblr arguments ensue.
I get “called out” for baking challah. That’s not antisemitism but it made me laugh really hard. (It’s okay for goyim to bake bread, obviously. Just don’t be weird about it somehow.)
“High magic” and ceremonial practitioners ignoring or brushing off their tradition’s origin in blatant appropriation.
A user shares a magical Hebrew chant to a group for everyone to use. It includes a name of Gd, even though the group is largely Pagan. They didn’t realize that was a part of it because they don’t speak or read Hebrew.
Another discord group asserts in the rules that members of closed cultures may be openly themselves and discuss their craft, but not in an educational way. Meanwhile, a mod practices exclusively Hermetic Kabbalah. I don’t have the strength to get into it.
Discord server-wide prompt ping: Tell us about your Christian upbringing! (This isn’t “pure” antisemitism, but it sure does erase those of us who weren’t raised in Christian households)
The nazi witch blog starts making rounds again, dropping asks in multiple inboxes to the effect of: “Jews are anti-pagan and anti-gentile, so why can’t we be anti-Jewish?” (Hopefully I don’t have to explain why that’s a shit take
I joined a discord server and see people discussing different religions, at some point I point out Judaism doesn’t share every major Christian belief. People start challenging this, one person even saying (essentially) “Jewish people might not believe in Hell, but Judaism does because they believe in the same God as Christianity.” (????)
That same conversation, Modmins quickly shut down discussion and some members suggest we not speak about religion to avoid making lurkers uncomfrotable/ to avoid giving people a reason to hex us. Even though religious discussion had already been going on. (I left after that.)
Another Jewish tumblr brings up the history of violence against Jewish graves, and explains how taking graveyard dirt is considered an act of desecration by traditional Jewish law. Another user argues that because their practice considers it a rite of honor, taking graveyard dirt from a Jewish grave should be okay. They explicitly said they would take it from my grandparent’s graves. They said they would take it from my grave. Multiple people have to explain why you shouldn’t eagerly desacrate people’s graves.
Another Jewitch once shared a story with us: A woman claimed she was able to contact (or had already been contacting and working with) that person’s ancestors who were killed in the Shoah.
A person discusses why Kabbalah is appropriation. One person’s counterargument boils down to: “I was told I was Egyptian in a past life, therefore I may have been Jewish, therefore I have rightful access to Kabbalah now.” (Side note, pretty sure I’ve also seen people mention “past lives” where they were killed in the Shoah.)
A discord server adds new roles, including Qlippoth and “Kabballah.” I inform them that 1) They didn’t spell it right and 2) I hoped that it would be respected as a closed practice. The mod response was essentially, “it’s not closed, are you a Rabbi?” When i asked “are you Jewish?” they would just continue to assert that my voice on the issue wasn’t valid unless I was a Rabbi. (Rabbis have no one unified belief on pretty much anything, btw.)
Another mod came in eventually to try and be more helpful, but still hesitated to make any changes. (The suggested changes were either taking off the Kabbalistic roles, or adding roles that were more inclusive to other types of Jewish magic. We’ve got more than just that.)
This could be more ignorance than “true” antisemitism, but I’d be amiss if I didn’t preserve someone asking “What about Hermetic Quaballah?”
In a discussion about Lilith, one person asserts to my face that Jewish people cannot be witches without forsaking and publicly denouncing their entire religion and culture. Therefore any Jewish anything was up for grabs for witchcraft purposes, and all Jewish witches present were mistaken in some way.
Another person in that same discussion describes an (incorrect) origin story for Lilith, which involved Judaism’s malicious plan to take local mythical figures and portray them as demons to oppress the other local religions and further their “rabid monotheism.”
Through the comments of the old thread, I learned about Wiccans trying to make their own mezuzot, which is hilariously off base.
A semi-prominent witchblr user has an epiphany, and begins posting about how “most conspiracy theories hold a large amount of truth.” While they say they don’t want to delegitimize Jewish pain, also believe that Jewish people control all the banks, and the Holocaust was a “strategic move” to create a narrative of Jewish oppression and delegitimize any conspiracy theories
At least one other tumblr witch sees this blog and comments with enthusiastic support. (along the lines of “Yes, the truth is coming out! Preach!”) Their account looks really normal otherwise, so they were just quietly interacting with the community while harboring these beliefs.
Joy of Satan, a well-known neo nazi propaganda site disguised as a Satanism resource, comments on one of my posts with a link to their homepage.
Somebody in a Discord chat goes to the #closed-practices room and asks a genuine question about Lilith. Several goyim respond with incorrect information and challenge any Jewish voice trying to speak in dissent. One person even says they have spoken with Lilith directly in the past, and anybody who believes she is restricted just doesn’t understand Lilith/the Divine as well as they do.
A popular Facebook group focused on calling out cultural appropriation begins making rounds. Jewish people (and lots of POC) are shamed if they do not find something as offensive as the collective group, even if the other group members are not actually members of that culture.
A narrative forms that tarot is a closed practice, ignoring Jewish mysticism’s influence on it and insinuating that Jewish people have no right to reclaim it while other people profit off of our appropriation.
A person (not even on anon!) Comes into my inbox saying that “Abrahamic religions” are anti-Pagan, anti-satanic, and anti-women, so they should be allowed to be “anti-Abrahamic.” They also conflated Lilith with a Hindu deity with no actual backing for it. Turns out they’re a Joy of Satan promo blog.
Someone digs up an old post on Lilith share her personal story (and try to receive validation that they’re the exception and should be allowed to appropriate her.) When she doesn’t get what she wants, she asserts I “need to do shadow work” for responding in my (terse, but not malicious) tone, and asserts she knows more about Lilith than us and that Jewish people are disrespecting Lilith. She then digs up OTHER posts I had personally made about Lilith to comment on what “bullshit” they are.
Someone asserts that Jews are only co-opting the term “appropriation” from other minorities (and don’t have our own legitimate claim to it) and that Judaism is only closed because we “think we’re the chosen ones” and therefore better than everyone else. (This is a deeply GROSS misunderstanding of the chosen people thing, btw.)
A popular occultist account on Tiktok responds to Judaism being a closed practice by “joking” that he’s going to beat our heads in.
A group gets recommended in a chat I’m in. When I warn them about the antisemitism I experienced in that group, I am met with doubt and asked to provide (what would have been months-old) screenshots of the offense and people insinuate that I am actually working to silence other minorities (because the group was social justice focused) in some way for levying these “allegations.”
A group signs me on to be a moderator for no other reason than the fact that I am Jewish. They didn’t really know anything else about me, but they knew they needed representation in that area. Benevolent, but still notable.
Later on, a mod tries to insinuate that I have never truly experienced oppression or felt unsafe because of my background, and refused to recognize that Jewish oppression existed at all without adding a “but…” or saying I was playing a victim card and somehow undermining her own struggle. Just for saying antisemitism exists, not that it’s more or even equally important as other types of oppression. Just that it exists. I leave the group.
Somebody makes the distinction in a group that not all Pagans are witches and not all witches are Pagan. A moderator of the group says they “disagree” and believe all witches are Pagan. I (and others) reassert that our respective religions don’t fall under any definition of the word and we do not identify as Pagans. Their reply: “in your opinion.”
I gently point out (in what was a friendly conversation up to this point) that something they were doing could be seen as appropriative or offensive if they didn’t go through the proper channels. The tone switches abruptly and suddenly they’re accusing me of “believing in cultural superiority” and gatekeeping knowledge. Another person joins the conversation solely to back them up, and says I am “pouring out negative energy” by talking about this.
This same person also calls me a false witch, asserts that my power/magic is meaningless, etc. There was no reason for them to believe this other than my religious affiliation.
A person asks me to sic Lilith on somebody on her behalf. I tell her I’m not comfortable doing that on command, especially with strangers. It felt like she just wanted to use my traditions “through” me and get free magical labor. (This same person later called me a r#tard and a sh#male when she got banned from a group I helped run.)
I make a post venting about antisemitism. In less than ten minutes, somebody has reblogged it connecting my vent to Israeli politics. The original post never mentioned Israel.
I share a post that covers a rough history of antisemitism over the past 1000+ years. Though the post only mentions Israel in brief passing (and was much more about the historic geographical area than the modern country,) somebody concludes that I am “anti-Palestine.” For…. reblogging someone mentioning Israel in an academic context. I guess. Anon is sure to send me all of their opinions about it.
I reach out to a mod of a group with concerns about appropriation and offer to help educate the mod team if they have any questions about stuff. I get banned.
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