#yehudim

[nonbinaryjudean]

"Mrs. Gibri, from Tripoli, Libya, and her neighbor, Mrs. Feeri, from Hungary, new immigrants, stroll in front of house, Beer Sheva." 1956

Found on Wikimedia, from the National Photo Collection of Israel.

[hyper-angelic]

[batmanego]

hannukah part one

[eretzyisrael]

Source

[kaylorantisemitism]

that.jewish.activist: this isn’t my usual activism post, but rather it’s a little post about the history of kaifeng jews 

(post description provided under the cut)

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “kaifeng jews, up until recently, thought they where the last jews in the world and there was a good reason for this. kaifeng jews had no idea jewish communities outside of china existed until very recently, but there is more than that.” 

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “kaifeng wasn’t the only chinese city with a jewish community. other cities with jewish communities include hangzhou, ningbo, yangzhou, ningxia, and beijing. at one one point or another all of these communities were in contact with the kaifeng community. people are unsure of what happened to these communities and we know little about them today, except for the fact that they at one point existed and were in contact with the kaifeng jewish community”

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “after seeing the deaths of the other chinese jewish communities, kaifeng jews came to the conclusion that they must be the last jewish community in existence, so the community did everything they could to keep judaism alive.”

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “the last rabbi of kaifeng died in 1810 and with his death there was no one left in the kaifeng community who could read hebrew, which meant no one was able to read the community’s torahs.” 

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “in an attempt to try to translate their torahs, the kaifeng jewish community put one of their torahs in the market place with a sign offering a reward if someone was able to translate it, but sadly no one was.”

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “in the 1850s the kaifeng jewish community was stuck by extreme poverty and they sold all of their torahs and other jewish texts. in 1861 the kaifeng synagogue was destroyed in a flood and was never rebuilt afterwards.”

a tweet from @jewish_activist reading, “despite all of this, the kaifeng jewish community still did everything they possibly could to stay jewish and pass whatever items and traditions they could to following generations.”

a tweet from @jewishactivist reading, “i almost forgot one thing, but i’ll add it now. after every time the kaifeng synagogue was destroyed in a flood (they happened often), a stele was made and erected detailing kaifeng jewish history, rituals, and practices.”

[grecoromanyaoi]

tunisian synagogues:

The now abandoned synagogue of Matmata.

the Or Torah (lit. “Torah’s light”) synagogue in Tunis’ historic jewish quarter (and previously ghetto) Hafsia/Al-Hara. it stands abandoned and desecrated.

the Mishkan Ya’akov (lit. “Yaakov/Jacob’s seat”) synagogue in Zarzis. it was built around 1900 by Zarzis’ relatively small Jewish community, and in 1982, the Torah scrolls were destroyed and the building damaged in an arson attack. it has been rebuilt by the 100 Jewish people left in Zarzis. 

Le Grande Synagogue De Tunis, designed by Victor Valensi, was built in 1937. not 5 years after its completion, it was looted by the axis forces.

El Ghriba (lit. “the miraculous”) in Djerba. it was built in the late 19th century where a 6th century synagogue once stood. the Jewish community in Djerba is over 2,000 years old, and El Ghriba is believed to be built with stones from the first temple. Jews from all over Tunisia and the Tunisian diaspora pilgrim to El on lag ba’omer. last year (2020) the festivities were cancelled due to covid but this lag ba'omer there were about 7000 pilgrims.

[nicejewishgirl]

does anyone know how to directly donate to the Synagogue of the Breslover Hasidim in Uman?

[frannyglassfan]

okay jews i need your thoughts:

have you noticed that jewish poetry tends to follow a specific style?

like i’ve noticed jewish poetry tends to tap into collective memory a lot. and often there is a dreamlike quality to it. most recently i read “Night Feeding” by Muriel Rukeyser and it felt very ancestral, reminiscent of like The Red Tent by Anita Diamant