Cave Johnson from: The Portal games is Jewish!

Submitted by @puppy-the-werewolf

Me when I see a character that is cool and religiously ambiguous

all-your-favs-are-jews:

*Puts on my yarmulke but it’s actually a little propeller beanie*

YES

YES

YES!!!

tikkunolamorgtfo:

acinderellaheist:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

About ten days ago, I wrote a series of posts regarding the difficulties Jews and people of other minority faiths encounter in western society when it comes to having our holidays respected and recognized. I got a lot of feedback from Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Jains, etc. echoing my sentiments (some of which was absolutely heartbreaking), and I have additionally seen a variety of other posts on the matter that underline my point. When reading all of the notes and comments relevant to these posts, I noticed a very similar theme reappearing time after time:

“I didn’t take off for X holiday because I’m not that religious, but the scheduling was very inconvenient for my more observant friend or family member.” 

Indeed, I had previously quoted former MLB player Gabe Kapler, who once made the justification to play baseball on Yom Kippur by saying: 

“I am not really a practicing Jew. It would be selfish to be a practicing Jew on only one day.”

It would seem that many people have been led to believe that observing a Jewish or Muslim or Hindu holiday is cheating unless you are sincerely devout. 

Well, I have a special message for those people: 

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NON-CHRISTIAN SECULAR OBSERVANCES

This is important, so I’m going to say it again: 

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NON-CHRISTIAN SECULAR OBSERVANCES

Think of all the times you have been chided by secular Christian friends for not celebrating Christmas.

“It’s not really even a religious holiday anymore,” people will tell you. “It’s just a nice time for families to get together and celebrate.” 

Well, guess what? So is Rosh Hashanah. So is Eid. So is Diwali. 

A secular Jew might not want to go to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to fly home for Rosh Hashanah dinner to be with their family. 

A non-practicing Muslim may have lost interest in regular religious practices, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still look forward to Eid celebrations.

A lapsed Hindu can still have fond memories of celebrating Diwali as a youth, and want to continue on with their family traditions. 

There is no written rule that says only people from Christian backgrounds can be non-religious and still celebrate their cultural holidays. There is no law that says only Christmas and Easter can be boiled down to family dinners and fun festivities. 

BEING A SECULAR PERSON FROM A MINORITY FAITH DOES NOT INVALIDATE YOUR RIGHT TO YOUR OWN CULTURAL BACKGROUND. 

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t prayed in years or don’t believe in God. If you want a day off for your holiday, take it. No matter what, it’s still yours. 

With the Jewish High Holidays coming up, I thought it would be a good time to reblog this. 

idk, maybe I am just emotional right now? but like? thank you for this post @tikkunolamorgtfo  thank you for this post so much. i am teary

I have never taken off for the high holidays since I started working because I just couldn’t justify missing a day of pay for it. When I started my current job last year I was still in the probationary period when the holidays came and did not know I could take them off without penalty? and I got so many lowkey antisemitic comments from coworkers because the executives of my company are all Jewish and all take off for these days! and these people were saying how they were just taking OUR HIGH HOLIDAYS off to take a day off!!! and weren’t “really Jewish”!!! and how I was “a good Jew” for working on Yom Kippur!!! and I am still angry about this. 

This year I am taking all of them off. 

YES! Good for you — do not let people intimidate you. You have every right to be Jewish in any way that is meaningful to you, whether that means going to schul or not!

This is a good time to reblog this again. You don’t have to meet some kind of observance threshold to take time for holidays — and your employers or schools can’t mandate proof from you.

returnofthejudai:

If I were describe my mood over the last several months with regards to being Jewish in the USA it would be the following: exhausted, dispirited, too tired to be angry.

The situation with the Magen David in Chicago is a borderline extinction level event for my faith in the left dealing with its own internal antisemitism.

And so I’ve been focusing on the quotidian. On simply trying to live my life while I can because I feel like any day now we will be screwed and no one will come to defend us because both the far left and far right hate us and the center is apathetic. No one lives forever, right?

I’ve been trying to resurrect the “fight” I had just a few months ago, but it feels like trying to tap a dry, exhausted well. 

Thus the question for me, regarding my place as a Jew on the American left, is whether or not I would want to join a club that obviously doesn’t want me as a member, or at least doesn’t want me as a member unless I agree to performatively self-flagellate and throw the majority of Jews under the bus. And I’m struggling to find reasons to say that I want in.

This, as with so many of my experiences of antisemitism, has to do with the warnings of my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust. They said that one day the world will forget the Holocaust and if we don’t do something to make others care about antisemitism, no one else will be there to protect us.

And so, with little energy and enthusiasm, and much frustration, I will try to step back into the ring and assume that our excision from the left isn’t a fait accompli. 

As Hillel taught, Jews have to be both for ourselves and not for ourselves. Too many on the left are trying to make us choose one or the other. And if my posts do nothing more than tell non-Jews who would demand we make that choice or be exiled to take a long walk off a short pier, then I suppose I will have accomplished something.

I feel much the same way.

Too often, Hillel’s famous words are taken in reference to the individual, but here I see an application to the community — we treat one person as the whole of humanity, so we can treat the whole of humanity as one person:

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If the greater group to which we have thrown in our lot with, who are meant to be our allies, turn and ignore us, then who is left for us?

And if I am for myself, then what am I? And in that moment, what are we in the eyes of those who were to be by our side, as we are by theirs? What (not who) who they see us as?

And if not now, when? And if it isn’t happening now, how long must we wait? How long until we see if this is an obstacle that can be overcome or yet another age where we are only useful as props in the moment? How much more must we try to teach even though our lessons fall on us listening ears?

I’ve always interpreted the last sentence as a rallying cry — but never until now have I understood that it could be shouted at someone else.

Today is the seventh day of Chanukah!

Hey! I have a question about streimmel. I always wondered how it can be autorized, because it’s with fur and the way to obtain it is cruel (as far as I know). The Torah tells us that we can’t hurt animals. Do you know why it’s ok to use them ? 

Thank you in advance :)

[I know the asker’s account is already deactivated by now but I’m still answering anyway for anyone else interested.]

Hi,

It is true the Torah prohibits us to treat animals cruelly (tzar baalei chayim). However, nowadays, animals are not killed for shtreimelach. 

Shtreimelmachers [Shtreimel makers] buy fox tails from goyim who already killed the animals for its body fur. The body fur is worth a lot of money. The tails on the other hand are worth nothing and usually sold for very cheap. Shtreimelmachers pay lots of money for these “leftover tails” but not enough money to kill an animal solely for the tail.

PS: I heard this from my shtreimelmacher.

My wife’s friend just witnessed the following on the bus today: 

Two strangers were having a big argument and started yelling at each other. At one point in the middle of their shouting one of them shouts: “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU’RE FIGHTING WITH!!” 

Man 2 *sarcastically*: “So who am I fighting with?!”
Man 1: “I am the son of the King!”
Man 2: “Son of the king? Well, so am I!”
Man 1: “Oh really? Is that so? You are not behaving like one.”
Man 2: “Well, you aren’t either!” 
Man 1: “…” 
Man 2: “…”
Man 1: “You are right! You’re right.”
Man 2: “So let’s give each other a hug, sit down next each other and talk.”

*Both of the formerly arguing men hug, sit down and talk nicely for the duration of the busride* 

Mi K’Amcho Yisroel! 

Me: /posts something about why Christian appropriation of Jewish ritual is bad, actually

Edgy!pagan: Actually, you’re wrong, and people privileged by Christian hegemony/structural racism should be able to pillage whatever they want from minority religions

Me: No.

Anti-theist: This is why all religions are bad.

Thank you for bearing with me as I dealt with a lot in meat space and addressed my mental health needs that I had put on a back burner.

I am back!

If you sent an ask that wasn’t responded to, please resend it, and I am back open for questions, comments, and post suggestions!

didyoumeanxianity:

Tonight begins Yom HaShoah.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is the day the international community remembers the horrific atrocities, the world’s indifference, and the victims of the Holocaust. Ideally, anyway, but that’s a conversation for another time.

This is not that. This is the day Jews around the world mourn our 6,000,000+ dead. Two-thirds of European Jews. One-third of the world’s Jewish population.

Our population still has not recovered.

Those are big numbers. So let me bring them home to smaller ones. My grandmother (z”l) was born into a family of eight (she made the ninth). My grandmother and four others survived the Shoah. Four perished. Two in KZ Ravensbrück. Two more at the hands of the SS Politzei. May their memories be for a blessing.

The survivors? Two hidden children. A young seamstress that survived brutal work camps. A boy told to ride his bike as far away as he could that found a way onto a kindertransport. A young woman who’d been on a teen trip to the British Mandate who heeded her parents warnings not to go back home. Two of them are still alive today, and the rest lived to ripe old age and saw their lineages pass down to children, grandchildren, and, in my grandmother’s case, a great-grandchild.

They were the lucky ones, but what they survived left permanent marks. They cannot forget the Shoah and neither shall I.

There are only two of them left, and their biggest fear is that the Shoah and its tragedies and lessons will be forgotten.

Remember them. Remember their family. Remember the Shoah.

Remember.

Never forget. Never again.

May the names of the millions be for a blessing.

mintytrifecta:

חג פסח שמח!!!

In an amazing stroke of very funny irony, my kid’s first return to in person family services resulted in S making a new friend. The kid was nice, S’ same age, they got along like PB&J.

S seemed confused by how lost the new friend was during the service, but tried to guide them through as only an elementary schooler can.

New friend’s parents sat with me so the kiddos could sit together.

It’s amazing, y’all. New friend’s parents are both Lutheran pastors. They were visiting because they’re members of our new town’s interfaith partnership group. My kid managed to find, in under half an hour, the only non-Jewish child at the service and become best friends.

(Before anyone gets upset, New Friend is a sweet kid, and we’re getting them together for a play date soon. And New Friend’s parents are very nice. I just thought it was Hilariously ironic.)

mintytrifecta:

I always think I don’t own enough books or Judaica.

And then I have to move.

Where the heck was I even keeping all this stuff? It’s a two bedroom dwelling! WHERE WAS IT ALL?!

didyoumeanxianity:

If you are a Christian that wants to host a Passover seder this year:

1) Don’t. It’s appropriative and gross.

2) Still don’t.

3) Jesus never participated in the type of seder that Jews have today. He lived (if he existed as described in your Christian holy books) during the Second Temple Era of Judaism, when worship was Temple-focused and ritual sacrifice was a key facet of the holiday. The modern seder takes most of its traditions from rabbinic Judaism, which was not the Judaism of Jesus.

4) Don’t do it. Don’t. No, there is no good reason for you to do it.

5) Given the Christian antisemitic violence traditionally inflicted on the Jews during this time of year (the lead up to Easter), it is EXTRA awful for Christians to try and appropriate our traditions related to Passover.

6) Don’t. Pesach is our holiday, and our religion is a semi-closed practice. Don’t appropriate our stuff. Don’t make our stuff about Jesus.

7) There are no exceptions to the rule that Christians should not host Passover seders.

Hope this helps.

It’s that time of year again, folks!

Dear Goyim,

Do not host “seders.” Just don’t. If you’re invited to a Jewish one, I hope you enjoy it, but non-Jews should not host seders.

Xoxo,

DYMX

Today in Black Jewish History: MaNishtana (Rabbi Shais Rishon)

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/where-are-the-jews-of-wakanda

Don’t mind me, shamelessly being a nerd as well as a Jewish POC.

Where Are the Jews of Wakanda?