I found this really excellent thread on Twitter that pretty much nails why Pence’s Holocaust Remembrance Day tweet was so gross and offensive.
‘the rapture’ is not anywhere supported by the actual scripture, btw. i don’t usually go “your religion is wrong” to anyone, but rapture-believing evangelicals are a doomsday cult. a literal fucking doomsday cult. they are deliberately destroying the earth, trying to make the end times come faster.
YES, so i recently wrote a paper about jewish pirates and merchants for a thesis and used a shit ton of archive information and secondary sources (which are detailed below).
As we know, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Some remained behind, known as conversos, who managed to hide their Judaism and remain behind. Others went into Calvinist Holland, but a majority of them went to Brazil, which was Portuguese-owned. The Jews there were known as marranos (pigs), but they were the first group to begin harvesting and collecting sugar by themselves. The marranos grew to have nearly 200 sugar plantations that they worked themselves— they traded with the Dutch, primarily. Sugar was hella expensive and Spain was hella jealous.Once the Iberian peninsula split (~1640s), Spain came in and took the land for themselves, either massacring or otherwise coercing the Jews to give up their Jewishness. They were kind of out of options, because Holland was engaged in war with Portugal and England was still not super friendly to the Jews, so they moved to the Caribbean.
Jews had been on Jamaica since about 1510, though they called themselves Portugals. They managed to get together a plea for England to get into Jamaica before Spain took it over, so Cromwell sent the English.
During the time in-between, Jews (Moses Cohen being the most famous Jewish pirate) roamed the seas with other “Brethren of the Coast”s. Because the Iberian diaspora had sent them all across the Old and New World, they had vast intelligence networks. Jewish merchants in Jamaica knew when ships in Spain were leaving, what they were carrying, and where they were going. Jewish pirates took revenge on the Spanish and, unlike the English, release the slaves from their bonds and either kept them on or took them to Haiti.
Jews are the best don’t let anyone fucking tell you otherwise.
Regarding the Jewry, Hereby Expelled from Spain, 1492. trans. Aaron Marx, coll. Jacob Rader, The Jew in the Medieval World (Cincinatti: Hebrew Union College Text), 1999.
Amsterdam Jewry’s Successful Intercession for their Immigrants and Businessmen, January 1625, trans. Jacob Marcus, coll. The Jew in the Medieval World.
Blacker, Irwin. Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1596-1600. Vol 3.
Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1661-1668. (National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England), 7/24/1667.
Taylor, John. Taylor’s History of his Life and Travels in America and other parts, with An Account with the most remarkable Transactions which Annuaille happened in his daies (1688), trans. John Robertson.
Ockley, Simon. The History of the Present Jews throughout the World, 1791, coll. Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World.
Secondary Sources
Davis, David. Inhuman Bondage (Oxford University Press: New York), 2006.
Finkelstein, Norman. The Other 1492: Jewish Settlement in the New World, (iUniverse: Nebraska), 2000.
Glitz, David. The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, (UONMP: Albuquerque), 2002.
Holzgerg, Carol. Minorities and Power in a Black Society: The Jewish Community of Jamaica, (Lanham: North-South Publishing), 1987.
Kritzler, Edward. Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, (Anchor Books: New York), 2008.
Selzer, Michael. Kike! A Documentary History of Anti-Semitism in America (Oxford University Press: New York), 1972.
Taylor, S.A.G. The Western Design: An Account of Cromwell’s Expedition to the Caribbean (Kingston: Institute of Jamaica and Jamaican Historical Society), 1969.
Tolkowsky, Samuel. They Took to the Sea, (London: Thomas Yoseloff), 1964.
Zahedieh, Nuala. The Merchants of Port Royal, Jamaica, and the Spanish Contraband Trade 1655-1692 (Leicester: Leicester University Press), 1978.
This was my submission for Jewish Perseverance Week a couple of years ago and it feels like time to bring it back.
My family are Sefardic and even though our tradition is to just light one menorah per family, this little thing always manages to put in an appearance anyway.
A few years ago, I was walking home from work when I was stopped by a rabbi and his wife. I was confused because we don’t have many Jews here and, for safety reasons, nobody is too open about it if they are. “Excuse me, are you Jewish?”
I shrugged. My mother’s family were Jewish but my last real contact with Judaism died with my grandparents. What was left of my Jewish identity was comprised of a few linguistic and cultural quirks, antisemitic neighbours who hated us, and the very occasional contact with observant family who live in other countries.
I settled on “I’m a little bit Jewish?” He said it’s like being a little bit pregnant – you can’t be. I reluctantly told him a little about my family.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to a stranger. It was that I was uncomfortable being around proper Jews again having severed my ties so completely. I was frustrated at being viewed with suspicion and excluded from the small slivers of Jewish life which exist here. I’d spent years ignoring my heritage because I wasn’t frum enough for the few Orthodox people I’d met along the way and I wasn’t Ashkenazi enough to feel particularly comfortable with the Reform people I knew. I wasn’t a “proper Jew”.
It felt like I was missing out on a huge aspect of my cultural inheritance and I’d even started to let Christian friends take me to church in an attempt to patch that hole. I quietly resented them for believing that they had “saved” this Jew who needed Christ, but at least they seemed to want me around. That phase didn’t last for long. Nothing about that felt right.
And then, as I was trudging back to my parents’ house after a truly awful day, a rabbi and his wife appeared. I was genuinely shocked by their inclusivity. Suddenly proper Jews were insisting that I still had a place. They seemed mildly amused by my assumption that I didn’t count and even invited me to dinner as though I was one of them.
They asked if I would take a menorah home and showed me the blessings written on the box. I told them I’d forgotten how to read Hebrew but they still weren’t deterred. They gave me literature in English, in Hebrew, in transliterated Hebrew. They even offered to find me some in French for the rest of the family. Whatever I needed to know, they explained. They didn’t judge me and they didn’t even patronise me. I’d expected to be admonished but it felt more like being welcomed home. I left with a hanukiyah, a forest’s worth of paper and a bemused expression.
I let my mother light the candles and was surprised to hear Hebrew flow so naturally for the first time in probably a decade. We left the menorah out well beyond Hanukkah. I think we were just enjoying having something Jewish around.
Slowly, little things started to happen at the family home. Candles came out one Friday night… and then the next one… and the next… Nobody really acknowledged it, it just became a thing that we did. Bread was replaced with matza on Pesach.
“It’s Yom Kippur tomorrow, do you still want me to cook or…?” “Shana tova, do you want to help make baklava?”
By next Chanukah, the family menorah was brought down from the loft and unwrapped from its dust cover. Somebody played Ocho Kandelikas and it was the first time I’d heard Ladino since my grandmother died. Somehow, somewhere along the way, we’d stopped being “a little bit Jewish”. We’d found our place.
I love Hanukah. I don’t care for people telling me it’s a “minor holiday” when it marks the end of my family’s weird, extended rumschpringe. Not only that, but it reminds me of what our community should be. I’d experienced so much elitism, suspicion and exclusion from fellow Jews that I didn’t even think I was Jewish. I’d experienced so much antisemitism from goyim that I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be.
And then I experienced an act of kindness from a couple on the street and my life changed.
This time five years ago, a Jewish couple gave me a hanukiyah. The exchange lasted less than 10 minutes but in that time they returned to me my family, my people, my culture, my history, my faith. And if I go to synagogue and lose my place in the siddur 10 times, that’s ok now. If I still occasionally say kaddish when I mean kiddush, I’ll laugh about it and the world won’t end.
My wish for all of you is that you can feel as assured of your place and as welcomed by your people as I do now, regardless of your knowledge, background, or level of observance. I hope you get to enjoy the culture you inherit and know that you belong.
The new discovery is of particular note for its wealth of manuscripts, precious religious writings—in Hebrew and Yiddish—record books of shuls and yeshivas; mystical writings, and more. Additionally, the collection contains post-war and wartime materials, such as poetry written while in the Vilna Ghetto by Abraham Sutzkever. All other materials that have previously been found from this time period in Eastern Europe precede the outbreak of WWII.
it’s also because Leonard COHEN (!) was Jewish and this is a quintessentially Jewish line, and changing it to that level of Annoying Certainty is stripping it of its Jewish meaning and imbuing it with that particularly American smug evangelical Christian attitude that makes me tired, so very tired
THAT IS EXACTLY WHY
I don’t think I’ve heard any cover artist sing my favorite verses
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
um woah
They did those lines in Sing!
Leonard Cohen wrote literally over 80 verses for the song. Each of the over 300 (!) versions has maybe 5-7 of those verses, gleaned from copies of Cohen’s notes. Mixing and matching those verses is totally okay (Cohen himself said he liked the combo of verses Jeff Buckley chose more than the ones he originally recorded). What is not okay and what will never be okay is changing the words in those verses in any fundamental way to change the meaning. Reworking “remember when I moved in you/and the Holy dove was moving too” to come from the perspective of the receptive sexual partner? Totally chill. Changing the intrinsically Jewish nature of “well maybe there’s a god above” in any way? I’ll fucking stab you with the bobby pin holding my yarmulke on.
– this is the jewish new year, we are entering the year 5778. It comemorates when adam and eve were created.
– If you see someone jewish, or have jewish friends and family, say “L’Shana Tova (Le-Sha-Nah-Toe-Vah). It’s a greeting and a wish for a happy new year!
– We dip apples in honey to remind us of the sweetness of life and to bring sweetness into ourselves for a new year
-We eat a circular challah to symbolize the cycles of time, the challah often has raisins in it to add extra sweetness
-This is a happy holiday, full of joy
Beginning on Friday, September 30th is Yom Kippur:
– This is the jewish day of atonement, when we think about our wrongdoings of the past year and think about how we can commit to doing better in the next year.
– Many Jewish people fast, abstaining from food and water from sundown to sundown. The fast is roughly 25 hours. HOWEVER, if you need to eat, you may. There are lots of reasons that people may not fast, like recovering from an eating disorder, a medical condition like diabetes, or having to take medication with food. The elderly, children, and pregnant people should not fast.
– This is a solemn holiday, many people spend all day in synagogue in deep prayer.
– On Yom Kippur, wish someone a peaceful or meaningful fast. Some people may take offense to the concept of having an “easy” or “enjoyable” fast because Yom Kippur is not about ease or comfort.
– There is a breaking of the fast at sundown, this is usually a joyous event
Together, these make up the High Holy Days, the most important week in Judaism.
So, there’s this trend that happens in liberal/activist spaces, where the second gentiles find out you’re Jewish, they no longer trust you unless you immediately, completely denounce every aspect of Israel down to its very existence.
I have experienced this interrogation and distrust personally, in activist spaces at UCSC. At one point I even made a Facebook post about it because I was curious if it was just me and discovered that every other Jewish person I know at UCSC had also experienced something similar. Leftists do not welcome or trust Jews who have any qualms about disavowing Israel.
To be clear: I’m NOT talking about acknowledging that the Israeli government is committing human rights violations against Palestinians. That should be obvious, and isn’t inherently antisemitic. What IS antisemitic is this trend that has been going on for years in liberal activist spaces, where the second a Jewish person is involved in literally anything, ie Existing While Jewish, gentiles HAVE to bring up Israel, and quiz us on it until they’re satisfied that we have completely denounced it, including its right to exist. And if we don’t denounce every aspect of it to their satisfaction, then obviously we must support the genocide of Palestinians and are cast out of activist spaces.
That’s what’s going on with Gal Godot. The plot of Wonder Woman had NOTHING to do with Israel or Palestine but because she is Israeli, because she served in the Israeli Army (which by the way, is mandatory, and also she served as a goddamn fitness instructor) gentiles are pouring out of the woodwork to deem her “problematic.” And I’m fucking pissed.
Gentiles are encouraged to reblog this, because I am TIRED of seeing this shit in supposedly liberal spaces. We Jews can’t be the only ones calling this out. That’s a catch-22, because our opinions of Israel and antisemitism are ‘’’untrustworthy’’’. 🙂
I just want to add on to this that, if anyone is saying Gal Gadot advocates killing babies (and yes, I have seen that on Tumblr reblogs), that is explicitly blood libel (yes, even if it comes from someone on the left), and I would really like to see goyim calling that out.
Remember that before the Holocaust, there were 18 million Jews in the world. They killed a third of us.
Remember that pre-war Eastern Europe was the center of world Jewry, and it had a thriving Jewish society with Yiddish theater, poetry, literature, art, and political activism. An entire society was destroyed.
Remember that before the war, a third of Warsaw’s population was Jewish. The vast majority of those Jewish residents were murdered.
Remember that Salonika (Thessaloniki) was a city in Greece that had a Jewish majority for hundreds of years. It used to be known as Sabatopolis – the Shabbat city – because before electric light, ships going by on Friday night would see a dark shoreline because the residents could not light lights. In the 16th century, it was known as the “mother of Israel” and was a center of Jewish life where Eastern European Jews would come to visit and study. Fewer than 1800 Jews from Salonika survived the Holocaust.
Remember that in Krakow, what used to be the Jewish quarter is now a tourist trap for the groups who come to look at what once was. The Jewish community owns several beautiful synagogues but only regularly uses one because there are so few Jews left. Without the tour groups who regularly pray with them, they would have trouble getting a quorum of ten men by the beginning of the Shabbat service. The other synagogues are museums now.
Steel Phoenix Studios 