as The Jewish Person Who’s Always Complaining About Golems In DND, allow me to explain:
a golem is a creature created with the purpose of protecting jewish people from antisemitic violence. they exist because of antisemitism, they exist because of pogroms, they exist because jewish people have been a persecuted minority in… almost every civilization on earth. you cannot have golems without judaism. a “secular golem” is NOT a golem– it’s something else entirely.
the use of the word “golem” to describe ANY vaguely humanoid animated construct is antisemitic, because it strips golems of their fundamentally jewish origin and purpose. to specifically call an enemy construct a golem, with the intention that the Heroes will brutalize and kill it, is antisemitic. it is antisemitic to treat a jewish symbol of protection from violence as an evil monster that must be destroyed.
you cannot have golems in dnd, because you cannot have judaism in dnd. (do I personally joke about dnd characters being jewish? yes, all the time, because I’m jewish.) you cannot have judaism in a world in which monotheism is literally impossible, because polytheism is a proven fact of the universe. if you can cast plane shift and go to the celestial plane and have a conversation with the gods, plural, then you cannot have judaism. if you can’t have judaism, you can’t have golems. period.
they’re not the same as angels or demons bc angels and demons are a) not specific to any one religion, b) not specific to a persecuted minority religion, and c) not distorted from their original purpose or meaning to be turned into mindless evil monsters.
if you need another example of how golems differ from other “religious-based creatures,” we can look at, say, satyrs! satyrs originate from hellenic myth, which is a religion, so surely they’re comparable! no, they’re not. a) the use of satyrs in fantasy has not been so different from their role in their original mythos as to make them unrecognizable or even the exact opposite of what they were originally intended to represent. b) followers of hellenic myth, for the vast majority of its widespread use, were not persecuted minorities. ancient greeks and romans were the dominant cultural groups at the time! the same has never been true for judaism. c) satyrs in fantasy are not monolithic– the ones that are portrayed as evil or villainous are individuals. “golems” in fantasy are always assumed to be enemy combatants, and are always treated as such. how many times have you heard someone say, “you see a golem, roll initiative?”
I understand the want for a word meaning “animated construct,” but “golem” is NOT it. in fact, the word “construct” is already right there! use that instead! for the love of g-d just fucking use “construct” instead!
whatever fantasy media has led you to believe golems are is wrong. they don’t just have jewish origin, their entire existence and purpose is jewish. they’re a direct response to antisemitism and violence. so I’m not gonna share my toys with you until my people stop being persecuted, assaulted, and killed for existing. until that happens, there are thousands of other words you can pick instead. leave “golem” alone.
and for the love of g-d stop fucking pronouncing it like “gollum” or I will scream
areudirty
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