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@srooooon
If you're upset that Elon Musk threw up a Nazi salute today, but have spent the last 15 months harassing (((Zionists))) in the name of Gaza/Palestine, then you're not mad about the Nazi salute, you're just looking for an excuse to dunk on Musk.
You're not an ally against Nazis, you never were, and you're not fooling anyone who actually is.
“elon musk did the nazi salute, remember to check on your jewish friends uwu” you all celebrated when jihadi terrorists live-streamed the torture, kidnapping and murdering of israelis on 10/7/2023 but ok
Had someone very seriously suggest to me that you could bake latkes to make them healthier and I was like. absolutely not. the oil is the point. the oil burned for eight days and eight nights and gave us light to see by. it is still possible, against all odds, to live in a time of miracles. the oil is the point.
don’t let diet culture ruin your chanukah babes!
uhh "healthy foods" isn't necessarily diet culture. fried food is unhealthy because it's fried, not because it's oily, iirc there are problems with burnt oil that make it unhealthy, I am not an expert on this but I know it's the reason I've been adviced to steer away from fried food as someone with stomach issues.
you still use oil when cooking potatoes in the oven! you have to, unless you want them to burn. first time I ever made fries in the oven I figured you just need potatoes and seasonings and then they burnt to a crisp in 5 minutes, then I realised my mom used to add olive oil for more than just flavor. I actually never thought to use the same method for latkes, I should try it this year. If I still had an air fryer i'd try that but I don't.
if someone cooks latkes in canola or sunflower seed oil, do they also miss the purpose of the holiday because it was olive oil? I don't think so. is air frying missing the point if it's easier than pouring the potato mix into a hot pan full of oil and having it sizzle everywhere and burn you?
fuck diet culture and all but why shouldn't I make latkes in the oven if I wanna? why does it have to have a point? I genuinely don't get it.
as someone whose digestive system is constantly coming up with new and exciting ways to hurt me, I like to think my baked latkes are still latkes!
I know the "point" is the oil but idk let's not gatekeep the way in which people choose to celebrate/commemorate fun holiday traditions?
it's 2024 and there are still people saying ___lives matter unironically. this so obviously pro-israel shit like why is on my fckn feed
show me where these tweets mention Israel in any way. if we can't talk about the systemic, societally ingrained hatred that impacts Jews and is rising across the diaspora at a startling rate without you mentioning Israel, the problem is not Israel. the problem is you being a bigot.
mentioned many times that I didn't name this blog, but every time someone gets really pressed about it...it's because they're busy being antisemitic. so! that's interesting to observe.
Thank you, oh G-d for these goyim who say these things repeatedly, publicly, and loudly. Thank you to these goyim who see our pain and support us through it. Thank you.
And in a great example of exactly what these tweets are saying about antisemitism never having anything new:
Dual loyalty with a giant dose of 'the Jews have nothing to complain about so everything they say is manipulation for nefarious purposes'
Jews 'stealing' because all dem joos are all just dirty thieves don't ya know
The tweets are right, once you start to notice antisemitism, it's genuinely the same shit over and over and it's damn near inescapable.
3. Jews are only relevant if we’re “useful”
^Note
Date: 10/26/24
Mandalorians as Jewish Allegory
First of all, we have this quote right here:
"We'll rebuild [Mandalore]. Isn't that our history? For thousands of years, we have been on the verge of extinction, and for thousands of years we have survived." ―Din Djarin
If you just replace the word Mandalore with Israel, it is a completely plausible thing for a Jewish person to say.
Anyway, on to my essay:
History:
Both Mandalorians and Jews have an indigenous homeland that is intrinsic to their culture and belief system, (Mandalore and Israel respectively). Throughout their entire history, they have been consistently under attack from various regimes seeking to commit genocide against them, (Jedi, Empire for Mandalorians, Romans, Nazis, Soviets, Arab colonialism for Jews), and yet each group has managed to remain alive and retain their culture. The Siege of Mandalore has a lot of parallels to the destruction of the Temple, and the Mandalorian Purges are very similar to the antisemitic Pogroms. Both groups are forced out of their indigenous homelands and into a diaspora, under which they are consistently hunted and attacked. Eventually, both groups regain control of their homeland from the colonizers who held previous rule over it.
Culture:
Mandalorians are either born into the culture or adopt the Creed, which is similar to born Jews and Converts. There are groups of Orthodox Mandalorians, such as the Children of the Watch, who observe the traditional laws regarding the Creed, as well as headcoverings, (similar to Orthodox Jewish people). In contrast, there are also more liberal factions of both Mandalorians and Jews. There are specific foods and religious clothing associated with both groups, their own languages, their own mythical beasts. Also, both cultures have a ceremonial bath/Mikvah associated with rituals and conversion.
Overall, I think it's fair to say that Mandalorians are an excellent allegory for Jewish people. Mandalorians are Space Jews. You can't change my mind.
This Is The Way
Am Yisrael Chai
just read a post with “12,500 years” of palestinian history mentioned and boy fucking howdy now they’re claiming palestinian history goes back before the entire history of civilization, before the entire holocene.
my god, you don’t need to lie about palestinian history. palestinians won’t magically lose their right to self determination if their history in the region is only a few hundred years old.
I think some of this is so revealing, really - because it shows how conditional respect for human welfare is for some of these "activists".
All it takes to respect and want the best for Palestinian people, including an end to the violence they're subjected to, and support for their self determination, is a recognition of their humanity and inherent equality, but in the ideological framework of some of these people, being human isn't enough - you must also be pure and free of any kind of possible wrongdoing.
In some people's minds, it's ok to hurt the bad guys, good even. And the thing that makes the bad guys bad can be inherited from ancestry. So they need to prove that the side they support is inherently good, and the side they don't is inherently bad. They need to trace this goodness or badness throughout all of history to demonstrate this.
It's a fundamentally racist way of thinking. It's inherently violent.
It hasn't occurred to some that neither of these groups is inherently bad or good. That neither possess any kind of intrinsic quality of purity or sin. They don't consider that they should be evaluating people's actions as individuals over their membership in either group.
We don't need either group to be free of historical wrongdoing, we just need them to be equal, free, and human, to want to solve the problem.
it’s like we’re watching all the things we said was wrong about western leftist movements rearing their ugly heads all at once
i do have more to say on this if i can get my brain to create more words
we’ve been telling leftists for years that they’ve recycled the right wing evangelism and authoritarian politics of their parents into a “leftist” version that informs on why so many leftists will so easily swallow authoritarian ideas and actions and lies and i for one am getting sick of being gentle with them about this bs
like we’re literally at the point where leftists will swallow ahistorical shit and conspiracy theories with the same ease their parents will swallow bs from fox news or qanon
i’m seeing propaganda and outright lies about jews and palestinians every single day and it’s not trumpers parroting this nonsense but 20-something leftists, and these 20-somethings are using these lies to dehumanize jews and palestinians alike — because why would only being in the region for a few hundred years make it suddenly ok that palestinians are experiencing a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions, and why would you lie about jewish indigeneity to the land of israel if you weren’t convinced that indigenous = good and righteous while not indigenous = bad and evil
and don’t even get me started on how this is all coming through the lens of western political theory and western definitions of race/racism
we’ve been telling leftists for years that y’all are disturbingly susceptible to propaganda, to authoritarianism, etc, and you people just keep on leaning into it
idk this was a very disjointed addition but basically what i’m saying boils down to this: why can’t y’all be normal and just care about this humanitarian crisis without doing everything you can to prove horseshoe theory right
I totally agree with what you're saying here.
I think a bit part of why this is happening is because some of these ideologies are thought of as "cool" and so people jump on board without any understanding of these ideologies or their histories.
To be frank, the amount of genocide denial from leftists I notice, as a Buddhist, is insane. Especially from people citing Noam Chomsky. I'm tired of telling people that the Cambodian genocide happened, for example. But there are even more cases.
What especially bothers me is the accusations towards other ideologies of imperialism because Marxist ideology is notable for its imposition as a Western ideology onto non-Western cultures.
It makes it so clear that many of these people don't have a problem with atrocities, they only do if they disagree with the person committing it. But we can and should disagree with violence and destruction on the grounds that, no matter who the perpetrator is, all people have universal value as people.
I have literally asked someone “if you care about genocide so fucking much, have you called your senator to demand more aid to stop the genocide in Ukraine?” and their response was “is there a genocide in Ukraine?”
They’d never even heard of the Uyghurs, and acted like I was unreasonable for pointing out they were blaming Israel for genocide based on vibes (literally they said that, I provided a mountain of evidence that it does not meet the of a genocide and they said it “had the vibes of one”) but utterly ignoring multiple real actual genocides around the world while claiming to care about all genocide victims. Then tried to deflect responsibility like “I just know what I read on Tumblr” so ahistorical propaganda you’re treating as fact? That’s what you know and it’s all you think you need to know?
Nina is lucky with Xir friends my former “friends” told me Ukraine no longer matters and “white-on-white genocide” gets second precedence to Gaza.
imagine caring about multiple humanitarian crises at once
Imagine not caring that civilians are getting massacred for no reason because the victims are white.
that descibes most tankies and a lot of white saviors in America
Hey Jumblr,
Reblog this and tell me one thing you'd like for non-Jews to know about Jews and Judaism.
There are only 15.8 million of us in the entire world. We are in no way a “major world religion,” and the idea that we are is a misconception that stems from the fact that the two largest and most historically and geopolitically powerful religions in the world, Christianity and Islam, were founded on the appropriation of our sacred texts which were never intended to be used by anyone other than the Jewish people. If you think you know anything about Judaism because you’ve learned about “Abrahamic faiths,” you probably don’t know anywhere near as much about Judaism as you think you do.
We aren’t trying to convert you. We simply are not. If I’m trying to tell you something about Judaism I’m just trying to share information or offer an alternate perspective or clear up misinformation, but literally we are never trying to convert you.
I get that it’s a knee jerk reaction to shy away from these discussions because you feel like this all comes with a hook, because that’s what Christianity does, but that isolation leaves you susceptible to misinformation and echo chamber thinking about Jews
Judaism is an ancestral religion not just in that it can be passed down through family but in the sense that we place a lot of emphasis on our ancestors and our connection to them and their experiences. Our cultural memory stretches back thousands of years and it is continuous. There is no doubt to us that the Ancient Israelites are our ancestors, and later evidence only proved it.
That we have about as much in common with Christianity as religions like the Roman, Messopotamian, and other pagan religions do. Atheists like to point out how Christianity stole various holidays from various religions but for some reason we aren't given the same courtesy.
That we are a people, an "ethnicity," a nation. Even apart from our religious beliefs and practices, we have a culture, we have a physical and communal lived Jewish identity. We cannot stop being religious and just melt away into secular Leftist Western society. If doesn't matter if "the Bible" isn't "historical" enough for you - we are a literal people group that physically exists, and we are entitled to the same rights as everyone else - freedom, independence, self determination, our own culture. It isn't because we're "the chosen people" and somehow better than you. It's because we ARE a people JUST LIKE you, and you cannot make us dissappear because you find us somehow inconvenient.
spring-boarding off that last one, the concept of “the chosen people” in judaism isn’t some sort of “divine right” / “one true religion” thing that elevates us over anyone else. it’s referring to an agreement between hashem (g-d) & the jewish people that we will follow jewish law & that g-d will protect us if we do. there are other gods and religions; this one is just ours.
It's insanely sad to read post after post of gentiles talking about how at least we all have each other and all we can do now is draw strength from our queer and leftist communities bc Jews literally cannot do this. Like you all completely and so utterly turned your backs on Jews this year and we have no one. Except other Jews. Who make up 2% of the American population. It's so great for you all that you can hold hands and sing Kumbaya but you made supporting Hamas and retweeting twitter funny men with literal terrorist hate symbols in their usernames normal. So no some of us cannot draw strength from the queer and leftist communities. Some of us just have to sit here and take it as you all reassure each other that none of this is your fault even though it so obviously is.
What I keep seeing is black creators talking about how they’re alone because other groups did not show up for Harris. Not white women. Not Latin men. Not Arabs. Not Asians. Not Christians or Muslims.
You know who did show up?
Jews.
Jews showed up. To the tune of almost 80 percent. The second largest group behind black people to vote for Harris. And you know what. Most of us are ZIONIST. that thing the rest of you turned into the dirtiest of words.
We showed up.
It’d be nice if literally anyone could keep that in mind with the meteoric rise in antisemitism.
It's crazy because this isn't the first time this has happened this year but no one ever talks about it no one ever cares. A week or two ago a woman was murdered by having her throat slit in front of her two kids by a guy who screamed "free Palestine" and all the comments on the article were theorizing that it was a false flag attack actually organized by The Jews. A few weeks before that a synagogue was bombed in France by a guy who literally wrapped himself in a Palestine flag as he did it and every single news organization cropped the images so you couldn't see the flag. Several Jewish women have been raped in France "for Palestine" and several other Jews in the country murdered. Some Jews were kidnapped in Australia by "activists." In the US an elderly Jewish man was murdered by protesters months and months ago and absolutely no mainstream news reported on it. A plane in Russia was stormed by a mob looking to find Jews and kill them because they mistakenly thought the plane was landing from Israel. A few days ago in NYC several Jewish men were stabbed in the span of a couple of hours in separate incidents by people screaming "free Palestine" and they're still hospitalized. A terrorist convicted of bombing a synagogue in 1980 and killing four Jews in France is now teaching a social justice class at a Canadian University. There was a crowd chanting "Heil Hitler" at the Israeli athletes at the Olympics while waving Palesfine flags. Students at Columbia University made a chain to block Jewish students from attending their classes. They cornered them in a library and chanted "globalize the intifada." Students at UCLA made their Jewish classmates wear badges to identify which had passed their Good Jew test and could be allowed to pass their mob to attend class. Hate crime numbers around the world have gone up by thousands of percentile points and the increase has been driven almost entirely by LEFTISTS and their crazy insistence that the full blown murder of Jews for being Jewish by terrorist organizations "isn't antisemitism" but is in fact a form of "resistance." Against the Jews who secretly control the world. This has been happening for months and months and months and nobody cares and you all just gaslight Jews and tell us we are being hysterical and this is all our fault anyway and now it's normal again to have full blown pogroms in every country in the world where mobs chase down people screaming "Jew! Jew!" to try to kill them and you are STILL. ALL. JUSTIFYING IT. You guys have become literal full blown Nazis and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Nazism has been normalized again and it hasn't been normalized by the right, it has been normalized by the left through your desperate desire to roleplay a Huger Games type revolution against a tiny minority group who can't hurt you back.
“You helped the Jew”
I don’t like making my own posts, but after waking up to the news that there was a pogrom in the Netherlands, I would just like to say this:
I am a North African Jew. Many would call me an “Arab Jew”, because I look like an Arab and I am treated like an Arab here in North America unless I’m wearing a kippah. My family was terrorized, murdered, and exiled from Libya in the 1960’s and we cannot return because they would kill us
White people may feel uncomfortable saying this, but I do not. Arab society has a problem with antisemitism that must be seen. Middle Eastern Jews have been talking about our experiences with Arab antisemitism for many decades and are constantly silenced. There is an undeniable, vitriolic, hatred of Jews that has been normalized in Arab society, and Arab extremists are now being emboldened to act on that hatred, not just in Arab countries but anywhere in the world
I don’t believe that Arabs are violent or dangerous by nature. They don’t hate Jews by default because they are Arab. This is not about individual Arab people, and individual Arab people should not be punished for problems in Arab countries or the antisemitic actions of other Arabs. This is about the antisemitism that is deeply ingrained in Arab society and culture
Individuals have the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to participate in this hatred. Yes, when you have grown up your whole life being told that Jews are your enemy and that it is good to fight them, it is much harder to make the choice to not act on this because it is all you know, but there are many who still choose peace with Jews. I have many Arab Muslim friends who have no problem being friends with a Jew. My family have many stories about Arab Muslim families trying to save Jews. I have had also many experiences with threats and intimidation and even assault by Arab Muslims because I was wearing a kippah or Magen David
My Arab friends who come to Shabbat dinner at my house and the Arab men who pushed me onto the ground and spat on me and called me a yahood are all equally Arab. The Arabs who call for peace and the Arabs who hunted down Jews in Amsterdam yesterday are all equally Arab. The difference is because my friends and the people calling for peace see Jews as human beings like them, whereas the people committing violence have allowed them to be swayed by Arab nationalist antisemitism
I always hold my tongue when I talk to white people about my experiences with Arab antisemitism or post about them because I know that many people will insist that you can’t criticize Arab extremists without being racist. YOU can’t criticize Arab extremists without being racist because you are a racist white person. I am a North African Jew with firsthand and familial experience with Arab antisemitism both in Libya and in the other places we have lived. I am tired of holding the burden of other people’s racism so I’m posting this without caring if it makes them mad. I’m not going to be responding to hateful responses. I will just block you, so don’t bother
Currently witnessing an ex friend who specializes in international law in one of my old communities advise others on how to claim citizenship in European countries based upon heritage in response to Trump's win is absolutely enraging.
This same person has been (((anti-Zionist))) for the past 13 months and went on a whole antisemitic rant about Jewish indigeneity and aliyah.
I get that people are scared, but the hypocrisy is absolutely astounding. I sure as shit know that if anyone in that community who was Jewish openly stated they were going to immigrate to Israel in response to Cheeto man that this former friend would go absolutely batshit on them.
I wonder if part of the left's antisemitism is that they love to play the victim, hate when they can't include themselves in legitimate victimhood, and hate the Jewish response to victimhood where we refuse to do the self-pity parade and throw feasts in honour of our survival instead
if pulling a flag down is the excuse for trying to lynch jews in the streets…the pro pally side rips our flags down all the time. you also protest outside of children’s cancer wards and nova and holocaust memorials and chant gas the jews and intifada and break into jewish businesses and assault jews in the streets and—
so what, is it time to beat the shit out of you? please.
this is just an excuse. nazis came up with excuses for pogroms. arabs had excuses for the farhud and other massacres. christians made up bullshit like well poisoning so they could mob us. there’s ALWAYS a barely veiled excuse where jews are blamed for crimes committed against us.
the entire pro palestine movement is built on these lies.
I’m so so tired of this world where every attack on jews is justified no matter what. Every attack on jews is “the attackers just couldn’t hold in their rage anymore” which is such a dangerous thing to say. What else will you justify with “anger.” A pogrom is a pogrom is a pogrom.
I just
I am so so tired.
I’m so so tired of this world where Israel is the agressor & plays the victim when there are consequenses of their actions
Also
It bugged me that I couldn't find a video of the entire genocidal song, but then came Maccabi Tel Aviv fans: they arrived at Ben Gurion airport, fleeing from the fake pogrom, and started singing the entire song...
Ole ole
Ole ole ole
Let the IDF win and fuck the Arabs
Ole ole
Ole ole ole
Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there’
Only one side is murdering children&singing about it
Even if this was true (and it isn't from what I've read - this shit was premeditated before they even got to Amsterdam), collective mob justice punishment against everyone who has the same ethnicity/national origin as people singing a racist song is like, bad, Ing.
Anyway, I hope someone rams you and your mom with a car or throws you in freezing water and beats everyone you're related to in the streets, since that's apparently what you think an appropriate punishment for saying something racist in public is.
Funny how you say it's fake without providing any sources. Also: they attacked the ones that were in the chant, that was the purpose
Oh and guess what: me and my relatives wouldn't go through that because we wouldn't sing about killing arabs or some shit. Literally what the fuck. Imagine if it was reversed and it were people chanting about killing jews. They would also get their ass beaten (and deserved, for the record). But when zionists SING about KILLING arabs it's suddenly okay because arabs bad jew good? Be for real.......
The funniest part about this response is that people are and have been chanting about killing Jews for over a year now, publicly and proudly all over western countries. "Globalize the intifada" "burn tel aviv to the ground" "kill all zionists" there's so many examples from the past year it's really hard to be obtuse enough to ignore, so congrats on being so deep in an echo chamber you've missed a year's worth of people all over the world calling for the death of Jews. And guess what? No one's been pogroming those who gleefully harass Jews and call for their destruction.
if you have trouble reading the original post, it says,
“to my boycott queens: don’t watch ‘Nobody Wants This’ on Netflix. it’s hyped on TikTok, but I did my research first. it’s a romcom about a girl falling in love with a cute, funny rabbi, portraying Jews as nice, loving people. what timing, right? the producer, Erin Foster, is a proud Zionist who supports genocide and plays a part in the brainwashing culture. Please divest from this Hollywood culture and don’t be a part of it. They always try to dehumanize Muslims and sugarcoat everything that’s white.”
I haven’t seen the show, but as far as I know, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. some of the characters and actors playing them are Jewish, that’s it. saying Erin Foster “supports genocide” because she condemned a massacre is detached from anything resembling reality, but that’s par for the course. far more interesting and troubling here is the complete and unvarnished dehumanization of Jews and anything involving Judaism, including any representation and any stories portraying Jewish people as…people.
The sad and frustrating thing about this is that there is already internal community discussions about this show and the way that Jewish women are depicted in it.
Which from what I have seen of these conversations is that it upholds some of the most really upsetting and disgusting misogynistic antisemitism. That this show has left Jewish women terrible in regards to representation and themselves.
That while the show does a great job on Judaism and Rabbis it is so shitty towards Jewish women.
So with shit like what we in this screenshot it makes it even harder to have these conversations.
While I don't agree with single thing being said in this review I do agree overall I think that points being made and brought up are important which is why I'm sharing the review.
In early 2023, JITC Hollywood Bureau heard that podcaster Erin Foster was creating a series loosely based on her life. How she, a non-Jewish
THAT'S THE SAME SHOW?!
That's the show that I've heard uniformly portrays Jewish women as awful catty stereotypes?
That's the one we shouldn't watch because it portrays Jews as nice, loving people? I'm going to cry??
yes, unfortunately. I didn’t dig into this in the original post because “portraying Jews as nice, loving people” is so horrendous in itself, but the irony is that a lot of Jews, especially Jewish women, don’t feel that it even does that.
(I read a very good/nuanced breakdown of this from a Jewish woman on IG and now I can’t find the post, but):
Why is Nobody Wants This facing backlash?
When it comes to the depiction of Jewish women on TV, stereotypes fall into the intersection of anti-semitism and misogyny. Jewish women have been stereotypically portrayed as greedy, pushy, aggressive, domineering, overbearing, neurotic, and liars – traits that are considered undesirable. Two of the most significant Jewish tropes that rely on these characteristics are the Jewish American princess and the Jewish mother.
Unfortunately, critics and audiences have noted all these traits as existing in Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. Some consider Rebecca neurotic, pushy, and selfish based on her introduction, which are typical traits of the Jewish American princess. Most criticisms of the show also point to Esther, Noah’s sister-in-law, who is presented as aggressive and domineering throughout the first two episodes. Noah’s mom, Bina, also immediately comes across as overbearing, controlling, and unwelcoming – characteristics of the Jewish mother trope. The characters all have other layers and soften throughout Nobody Wants This season 1, which could change the opinions of some audiences.
It’s important when discussing stereotypes to look at the opinions of people directly impacted by the depiction. What’s a theoretical debate for some is a lived reality for others, which shouldn’t be forgotten. Based on the reactions from Jewish women, there is a wide range of opinions about the show. Though Jessica Radloff liked the series overall, she wrote the following in Glamour:
“While I love Noah’s commitment to Judaism, and just the fact that he’s one of the best TV boyfriends I’ve seen in some time, I can’t say the same about the other Jewish characters on the show—primarily the women. Would it be too much just to see Jewish characters in shows without feeling othered?”
Esther Zuckerman of TIME had a much less favorable opinion of the series, feeling more upset by the Jewish women stereotypes. Zuckerman wrote the following:
“[T]he series seems to loathe Jewish women, who are portrayed as nags, harpies, and the ultimate villains of this story. I wanted to be swept away by a rom-com. Instead, I was faced with the reality that maybe this show actually hates me.”
[…] Ultimately, the subject is complicated, and there’s no consensus among Jewish women about whether the depiction of Nobody Wants This is harmful to their community. The show falls into a middle ground where it’s not explicitly labeled positive or negative.
Opinion | ‘Nobody Wants This’ Pits Jewish Women Against ‘Shiksas.’ No…
[…] Nearly every Jewish woman in the show is like this: manipulative, spoiled and selfish. They own ugly jewelry companies, breastfeed their children until they’re in kindergarten and try to control their families with money. They’re out to get Joanne and her equally blond sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), because they see them as interlopers and as competition. [see above Esther Zuckerman quote]
By contrast, Noah is an actual saint — or if you prefer, a mensch. He’s a man of God who is depicted as the moral center of the show; he’s so perfect that at one point his brother, Sasha (Timothy Simons), who also has shiksa fever, calls him the “Jewish Jesus.” But also, no matter how inappropriate or commitment-shy Joanne is, Noah is a steady and adorable presence. His only flaws seem to be that he’s on a terrible basketball team, because duh, Jews are bad at sports, and he gives Joanne’s mother a bouquet of flowers that is way too big.
As I tore through the 10 episodes of this (admittedly) very binge-able show, I had the dawning realization that it seems to hate not only Jewish women. It seems to hate all women. Pretty much every woman on the show is depicted as superficial and relationship-obsessed.
Joanne and her sister have a successful podcast that neither of them can be bothered to do any real work for — at one point, Joanne is quick to blow off a business dinner that could net them a huge payday. They crave the affirmation and attention of teenagers and describe themselves as “mean popular girls” who are going up against the other mean popular girls — the Jewish women. Their mother is a New-Age flake whom they’re very dismissive of despite the fact that she’s sweet and seems to care deeply about them.
The show’s creator, Erin Foster, converted to Judaism before she married her Jewish husband. Zuckerman and I aren’t the only ones to notice the negative depiction of Jewish women on the show, and The Los Angeles Times asked Foster about it. She elided the question in a way that’s telling, saying:
“I think we need positive Jewish stories right now. I think it’s interesting when people focus on “Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people” when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?”
Maybe Foster missed the very popular 2023 Netflix movie “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” (based on Fiona Rosenbloom’s young adult novel), which featured a hot, cool, young rabbi played by Sarah Sherman of “Saturday Night Live.” It also features a Hebrew school classroom filled with a diverse array of Jewish children, showing that there is no one way to “look Jewish.” My kids loved that movie so much that my younger daughter asked if Sherman could be her rabbi.
If you want a positive, contemporary and delightful depiction of Jews, I’d watch that instead. And if “Nobody Wants This” returns for a second season, I hope the showrunners bring the characters into the 21st century rather than continue with another tepid, less-funny rehash of “Annie Hall.”
there is a grim irony here in regards to reception: non-Jewish viewers are shown a depiction where Jewish women are treated with negative stereotypes and vilification, but that’s not who they’re meant to empathize with - they’re meant to empathize with the main character, played by Kristen Bell. their avatars in the story aren’t the Jews. and Adam Brody is sexy and charming, which is the main takeaway from the people who like it (which is…fair, I get it).
meanwhile, non-Jews who are not bothering to hide how much they utterly despise and dehumanize Jews and do not want to see Jewish existence depicted in ANYTHING are turning this into a conspiracy, pretending that its audacity to humanize Jews and to show that we’re people is an elaborate plot to trick viewers into forgetting we’re genocidal monsters.
and then Jews are stuck, as usual, on the outside - either critical killjoys who won’t let people enjoy things because we are concerned about how inaccurate or vindictive depictions of our people are (even if that’s unintentional - Erin herself seems lovely and has been outspoken against the ongoing antisemitism and very clearly loves being Jewish and her husband’s family, the depictions in the show she said do not reflect her reality because they were kind and welcoming to her, but she felt the narrative needed conflict for comedy. doubtless this could’ve been handled better, but here we are). OR we are greedy, manipulative, shady connivers trying to trick people into sympathizing with us. either way, we lose.
I want to add to this that even if the show mentioned Israel or included an Israeli, the “what timing, right?” commentary would still be completely unacceptable, and we know that - but these are the people who will go, “I don’t hate Jews! I just hate Israhell!” it’s a grift, it’s a bold faced lie. they hate Jews at their very core, and they always end up exposing that.
Disclaimer: I only saw half the show.
Not even going into the absolute vile clownery that OOOOP (from the screenshot) was talking about, the reason I personally disliked the show was because it is of course marketed as being about a Shiksa and a Rabbi falling in love, and watching the show I felt that his Judaism or Jewishness could very VERY easily be replaced by [insert other religion here] and it wouldn't fucking matter.
Him bring Jewish meant nothing at all beyond surface level "oh here's why we can't be together" plot lines. I felt very little Jewish joy watching the show, and little to no "oh yeah I relate to that!" moments with regards to Jewish customs or habits or idiosyncracies.
Speaking as someone who grew up reform in America, and then orthodox in America, and then dati leumi in Israel and then chiloni in Israel, I think I've seen a pretty broad spectrum of Jewish culture. This show had none. Some of the actors were Jewish (not even all) but beyond that the Judaism was a weird, lukewarm punchline 90% of the time.
I might finish it just for kicks, who knows.
I wonder how many people on tumblr who are sharing posts about never killing yourself and suicide hotlines are also the same ones who told Jews to go die in Poland because we asked them not to promote fascist beliefs.
