This post is meant to serve as a jumping off point. Those citations exist for a reason and we encourage you to read further. This post can only address so much.
There was so much that simply couldn’t be covered in such a short post; not to mention a breadth of research that feels like it should be must read material for this topic.
A huge thank you to willatheewisps and a.hearth.witch (on instagram) for going over this prior to posting.
Let us know in the comments if you’re interested in a post going over the origins of the Christian Zionist movement, as well as how it inspired Jewish Zionism.
Did you know that it was a “proto-Christian Zionist” Church of Scotland clergyman & author Alexander Keith who coined the phrase, “land without a people and a people without a land” in his 1843 book?
Autistic converts are braver than any marine because rawdogging a highly ritualized and scripted cultural event like the High Holy Days is so terrifying that Ari Aster himself could not dream it up
"Everything we do can be transformed into a Sinai experience, an encounter with the sacred. The goal of Judaism is not to teach us how to escape from the profane world to cleansing presence of God, but to teach us how to bring God into the world, how to take the ordinary and make it holy."
When Palestinians advocate for a one-state solution and a right of return, we advocate for a better future for Jews too, a pluralistic state with equal rights for both peoples and other minorities. Instead, it’s spun by Zionists that “from the river to the sea” is a genocidal call to drive Jews out, which is nothing more than mere hysteria that ignores that Palestinians are already being removed from their homelands as we speak, even if it’s in a subtle and slow manner.
just say you fucking hate Jewish people you fucking insensitive piece of shit. god
Some of the bravest people i know personally and some of the bravest people in the United States are the anti-zionist jews marching in the tens of thousands in cities all over the country against Israel's barbaric bombing of Gaza right now. You live in an extremist right wing echo chamber that inexorably ties Judaism to Zionism and the Israeli state.
redefining antisemitism to smear supporters of Palestine as antisemites is a state-backed, load-bearing tactic of the Zionist propaganda strategy
Zionists have smothered or recuperated all of our independent antisemitism monitoring bodies, leaving only orgs (like the ADL) which categorize any solidarity with Palestine as Antisemitic Hate Crimes
every single person I know who has so much as voiced support for Palestine has been harassed with accusations of “Antisemitism” like this one, including Anti-Zionist Jews. many have been doxxed as “Antisemites” by Zionist organizations like Canary Mission, fired, and blacklisted for expressing support for Palestine—again, including Anti-Zionist Jews
when you see this kind of harassment and whinging toward Palestinians and their supporters, remember that this is an intentional state-backed propaganda strategy, and has been for the better part of a century
"Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be?
The tendency to forget this vital question is the tragic disease of contemporary man, a disease that may prove fatal, that may end in disaster. To pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question."
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,"No Religion is an Island", p. 264. - Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays
a neighborhood science teacher asked if I believed that the Genesis account of creation was true. I answered, yes. Great, he said. Would I like to speak to his class about my understanding of creation? This modern-day John Scopes thought he was inviting a modern-day William Jennings Bryan to reenact the classic duel.
However, I told the class that while I believed the Genesis account of creation to be true, I also believed the scientific theory of evolution to be true. My response was greeted by puzzlement on the part of twenty-five eighth graders and disappointment on the part of their teacher. I went on to explain that science is one of humanity's great truth traditions, and religion is another. The two have threatened each other since well before the theories of Charles Darwin were formulated. But they needn't be engaged in such a heated rivalry because their goals are so different.
Science can help us understand how the world was created, but it can't tell us why it was created. And religion has no business telling us how the world was created, but we desperately need it to help us under- stand why we're here.
Genesis doesn't discuss the survival of the fittest, but, as you well know, Darwin's scientific creation story does. That story's operativeprinciple of the survival of the fittest became known as Social Darwinism, which taught that only the truly gifted deserve to survive. It is unfortunate that this teaching has become an axiom of modern life. In contrast, our Jewish tradition has always taught that we are responsible for the survival of the least fit: the orphan, the poor, the lonely, and the stranger, to name just a few. And in Genesis 1:27 we are told that every single human being is divinely gifted and deserving of dignity. The opening of Genesis tells about the creation by God of a universe of harmony, balance, and beauty, formed from soupy chaos, tohu vavohu. It is the most profound story we know, and it reminds us why we are here. It sets forth our work, and our challenge. But is the story true?
Regretfully I must admit that the story is not true, or at least not yet. When will it be true? When we accept our responsibility as God's partners in creating the world described in Genesis.
-Rabbi Rick Jacobs (b. 1955)
An excerpt from my Temple's Rosh Hashanah prayer book. Under the cut is just a testimony from me but feel free to reblog for the quote alone.
It really stuck with me because I was raised Protestant. I even attended a private Christian (nondenominational) school for three years. Sixth through 8th grade (for non-Americans, I was the ages of 11-14 give or take).
I was taught that evolution wasn't real. I wrote an 8 page essay on why Charles Darwin was wrong and that The Bible was correct. Little did I know I actually did believe in evolution, and so did most of my peers as I reasoned that over a long time of adaptations maybe there could be a different species
I was shell shocked when I switched to a public high school (14 years old) and flat out told evolution was true (or well as true as a scientific theory can get). I lost my trust for authority, and I realized how damaging my education had been.
I'm AFAB, and so I was taught my responsibility was to be quiet and to please my husband. I often asked far too many questions, especially when it came to the teachings of the Bible, to the extent my own teachers, men and women who were supposed to nurture my curiosity and be my guide into the world, shunned me.
Starting my Jewish journey, I sobbed. I sobbed after the first service I went to. It's so different from what I had been through before. I'm so glad I'm allowed to ask questions and it's even encouraged. I'm glad the Torah is scrutinized and we are encouraged to study the book and even admit when G-d has done wrong.
My partner, knowing my past, pointed this specific excerpt out to me. I had to fight back tears. I feel so loved and welcomed in Judaism.
"...Jewish tradition has always taught that we are responsible for the survival of the least fit: the orphan, the poor, the lonely, and the stranger, to name just a few. And in Genesis 1:27 we are told that every single human being is divinely gifted and deserving of dignity."
One of the most interesting ways that Christocentrism rears it’s ugly head is when a Jewish person does something because of our religion and here come all the ex-xtian atheists to say “GOD DOESNT CARE IF YOU EAT PORK” or “YOURE NOT GONNA DIE IF YOU WORK ON SATURDAY”.
Like yeah, no shit. As a Jew I don’t fear god. I don’t think he is gonna impose consequences on me if I break his rules. That’s not how the relationship works.
If I do something because Jewish tradition says to, it’s because I’m honoring my community and keeping my culture alive. God doesn’t really enter the equation. He can have given us a rule, but if you know any Jews you know we have nine to eleven ways of following any rule and it depends on what suits us in the situation.
So if you slip a Jewish person trief to “show them” that nothing bad will happen to them, you are an asshole of the highest order and have fundamentally misunderstood the rule they’re seeking to follow.
Judaism does not include fear of God. It is a partnership with history and community and culture. And god can come, too, if he promises to be cool about it.
Image description: In an Autumnal color palette, a drawing of a tiny griffin hardly larger than the nearby apples and pomegranate fruits. The griffin holds a wooden ladle of honey in its claws. The signature on the corner says Erin Roseberry 5780. Description ends.
Rosh Hashanah Griffin: beloved by the Jews of tumblr and their friends for the fourth year running.
Fun fact about this artwork: a postcard version of it is in the special collections of the Library of Congress, as part of the Small Press Expo (SPX) collection.
This is a friendly heads up that the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages has opened applications for their language classes beginning in Michaelmas term (October) 2023. They offer classes in 18 Jewish languages, including Old Yiddish. Classes are on Zoom, so applicants can live anywhere in the world. The deadline to apply is September 5, 2023.
@your-url-is-problematic The best part of making this post has been reading all the tags people have left on in. I have loved seeing people enthusiastically talk about which classes they want to take or just get incoherently excited in general. It has made me feel really good about the present and future of Jewish languages. ❤️
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
janainaart
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
kaledo-art
titsay
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
germansingergirl
