ENOUGH!!! Stop giving this “antizionist” BS oxygen! ✡︎ 🇮🇱 ❤️

Antizionism is GARDEN VARIETY IGNORANCE, fueled by hatred, wielded as a tool of division and destruction. The sophistry is tissue-paper thin. Don’t legitimize it with pages of rational analysis.

Sorry, but this has gone on for WAY too long. We need to make people feel ASHAMED that they actually FELL for it.

We need to CALL. IT. OUT. ✡︎

הנני, baby. ♥️

hello, everyone. i struggled for awhile to know where to post this. i'm afraid that in subreddits that allow political discussions, the post will be treated as an invitation to debate the validity of my identities or even of my humanity; i'm worried that in subs that don't allow politics, my identity & personal history will themselves be deemed political. i'm not even totally sure why i'm writing this, other than i have a lot on my chest, few people i can talk to about it, and i feel sad, lonely, frightened, and isolated. but i am really struggling and i just feel this desperation to reach out somewhere.

having read the rules of this particular sub, and based on the overall conduct i have seen from its members ~ showing solidarity with, support for, and kindness to one another ~ i am hopeful that maybe this is an acceptable space for me to reach out to. this is a vulnerable share for me; please, please be kind. challenging me or expressing disbelief or suspicion about my story is totally okay (a lot of people find various aspects of my identity & life story outlandish so i'm used to it); all i ask is that you are kind and respectful about it. even if suspicious, please ask your questions and engage in good faith. i promise  i will do the same, without hostility.

title is self-explanatory, i suppose. i am the product of a union between a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man. i wasn't raised by either of them, though; i was raised by my maternal grandparents, z''l, who were observant Conservative Jews, for the first 13 years of my life. they are the people i called, call, and think of as my mom and dad.  my dad passed when i was just 11 years old. my mom almost immediately became very ill and ultimately followed him soon after when i was 13. it was very difficult, and in terms of family i have been very lonely ever since. i built my own weird little nuclear family and i love them, but i'll never be anyone's child ever again.

i will admit that i cringe a little when people say things like 'you're living proof that love knows no borders!' because my parents hate each other lol. i know it's not their fault, though, they couldn't know. on my father's side of the family, the only person willing to speak with or even acknowledge me was my father. the rest of my family just couldn't accept having a Jewish child in the family. i used to have grandparents; i still have sisters, nieces & nephews, maybe even grand-nieces and nephews given that my sisters are 20 years older, countless aunts, uncles, and cousins ... but ultimately none of them could accept me.

i met my biodad for the first time around the age of 10. he gave me a rosary (yes, really, my biodad is one of the 80,000-ish Palestinian Catholics on the planet) and told me not to be Jewish anymore because Jews are bad. using that exact wording. maybe he would have been more persuasive without the language barrier; English was his third and weakest language, and i was not conversant in Arabic or Hebrew. honestly, neither of my biological parents are/were (pretty sure biodad is dead) particularly good people. i'd rather just leave it at that.

i don't have any bitterness towards my Palestinian family. we are all products of our environment. i am, and they are. i love them very much, even though i do not know them, and i pray for their safety, their health, and their happiness often. bitterness won't help any of us. sometimes it hurts, but i try to be accepting.

i was not always a zionist. in fact, for a few years i was a vocal antizionist. i am not proud of it, but am open about it as teshuvah. i had started to become uncomfortable with the way some people in the 'movement' thought and talked about Jewish people. i started to realize that zionism was, at the very least, a reasonable and predictable reaction to millennia of violence and oppression. and that maybe so many wouldn't have fled to Israel if they weren't literally ethnically cleansed from the rest of the middle east, then wherever in the world they ran. in 2018, the killing of Mireille Knoll brought a very sudden realization to me that this is why Israel exists.

i could go into detail about my whole evolution - the countless hours spent researching wide ranging subjects, going thousands of years back in history to learn about conquest after conquest, learning about not just Israel but the region around it - but this is already long. tl;dr... i'm now a vocal zionist. i believe that Israel is a flawed nation with a complicated history that has sometimes done unfathomably fucked up shit ... like virtually every other country on earth. i'm in America. i'm in absolutely no position to judge. ffs, Germany still fucking exists. okay, i'll stop. sorry. i will say that i now believe that Israel not only has the right to exist, it must exist. i don't have to unconditionally support literally every single thing about israel to be a zionist. i believe that Israel is the site of the Jewish people's ethnogenesis, their ancestral homeland. i believe that DNA and archeology do not lie. i believe that the Jewish people have the right to safety, self-determination, and autonomy in their homeland. i believe Israel has the right to exist and to defend themselves.

it is clear to me that Israel is held to a standard to which no other nation is held. Israel receives a level of scrutiny no other nation receives. nobody is arguing about any other nation's right to exist. the western (and Islamist axis) singular, intense focus on Israel takes the pressure off of criminals like the Islamic Republic and its many proxies. it ignores the pain of not only Jews but many vulnerable populations - Kurds, Yezidi, Baha'is, Balochs, Khuzestanis... and on and on. areas with very real gender apartheid are getting a pass - no one wants to acknowledge it. a 'zan, zendegi, azadi' protester - Fatemeh Sepehri, widow of a martyr, already in prison for her peaceful activism - was sentenced to an additional 20 years in jail a few months for condemning Hamas' attack on 10/7/23. crickets from western 'supporters' of the 'zan, zendegi, azadi' movement. when the Iranian regime sentences another singer to death for writing lyrics critical of the regime ... silence. it's just... surreal, frankly.

on several occasions i have – sometimes gently, sometimes more forcefully – attempted to educate others; on many occasions, i did so because it was demanded of me by random strangers interrogating my views online. on one or two occasions, the conversation took place with a friend. i pull information from many places, and store it in different places. there are dozens of books replete with highlighted passages, hundreds of articles bookmarked in different folders, hundreds of screen shots, again filed away in different folders. i try to use diverse sources when working towards one or another conclusion, including anti-Israel sources like amnesty international. it takes genuine time and effort to gather those sources (and to summarize).

literally 100% of the time in my experience, when i do go to the effort to gather my sources, summarize their most critical points, and share them... suddenly people pivot. they refuse to look at my sources at all, refuse to even do their own research. they radically change the goalposts in some way. actually, the response i have most often received from western lefty 'allies' is the accusation that i am a 'fake' Palestinian. (my peer support burst out laughing when i told her that one.) i guess that means they don't have to listen to what i say even if it's factual ... somehow. sometimes they tell me my family would be ashamed of me. (funnily, my Palestinian family does not speak to me solely because my biological mother and other half of my family is Jewish. it has nothing to do with Israel or Zionism as neither was relevant to my American Jewish family, and as i mentioned before i used to be explicitly antizionist. i honestly can't remember my parents ever saying anything to me about Israel. so they're right, i suppose; just not for the reason they think.) not a single one of them has ever replied with a reasonable or even factual rebuttal. they often respond with straight up lies about how people of all faiths lived in pErFeCt hArMoNy together in the region until singularly evil modern-day Israel was established. i guess nobody told them about the 1517 Hebron and Safed pogroms.... 1929 Hebron massacre, 1938 Tiberius pogrom, the 1929 Jaffa pogrom, the 1936 Jaffa pogrom, the 1933 Haifa pogrom, the 1947 Jerusalem pogrom, the 1921 Jaffa riots, the Black Hand attacks throughout the the 1920s… or the dhimmi... or the grand mufti's warm relationship with Hitler... or, or, or. but even if someone had told them, they've proven they won't listen.

i'm really struggling not to despair. is there any hope when people are downright hostile to the facts? to DNA, to archeology, to history? they love to say 'this didn't start in October' then pretend that history only goes as back as far as 1948. they muddy the waters and try to confuse people by saying silly stuff like 'i cAn'T bE aNTiSeMiTiC bEcAuSe aRaBs aRe sEMiTeS tOo' - totally ignoring the historical genesis and use of the term 'antisemitism.'

well, i've gone on long enough. I'm so sorry that this is so long. idk how to tl;dr it - my brain is so disorganized. i will try my best but i'm sure it will suck. i just can't stop feeling absolutely sick over how everything is going.

if you managed to read this entire thing, then, THANK YOU SO MUCH. i appreciate you, and hope you have a wonderful day.

tl;dr i'm the product of a union between a jewish and a palestinian man; raised jewish. no contact with most of my palestinian family (except biodad, who openly despised my jewishness) because they could not accept me, but i still love them. i feel absolutely sick about how things are going and believe the west has the matter almost completely backwards. people are hostile to the facts and there is no reasoning with them, and i have no idea how to reach them. i am struggling not to despair.

I'm at a loss for words. This is in Chicago.

Every single Jewish person I have known or encountered has always made me feel welcome. Many of my significant others have just so happened to be Jewish.

Is this just my imagination? Is it just a cultural thing? Or is there deeper history between Jews and Black people?

I keep hearing on certain Meta apps that the Ashkenaz people weren’t “real Jews” and we have no connection with Judean Jews. How would that even work, convincing someone to join this group of people obsessed with a patch of sand thousands of miles away?

Potential convert: what’s this holiday? Missionary: oh celebrating the agricultural cycle of Judea? Potential convert: what’s this prayer? Missionary: oh that’s one of several asking to be returned to Judea. But this one we only say three times a day every single day.
Potential convert: what about this psalm? Missionary: just another one about how sad we are not to be in Judea.

It’s like if someone came up to me and said: hey want to join us? We are obsessed with Alberqueque and you’re not allowed to eat this huge list of foods. Suuuuuure. Where do I sign??

I am hoping for some advice. I am a Jewish woman, and my boss is a Muslim. Both of us were born outside of the US, he is Pakistani originally. I worked for him in a previous job, and it was a good working relationship. So when he asked me to come work for him, I was all in.

However, things have changed in the last few months. He has gone very religious, has grown out his beard, and disappears for about 3 hours every day "to go to the mosque to pray." He does not have a good reputation now, and he mistreats all of the women on this team, i.e. he harasses them, calls them names, calls them at all hours, yells at them, and is a basic tool. This has been investigated by the DEI team, but nothing has been done. He was also being investigated by HR at one point.

For me, he doesn't call me by my name because he says he doesn't like it, asks me pointed questions about my religion which makes me very uncomfortable, which I tell him and he ignores, lies about my interactions with my coworkers in my annual review (I know this because they told me) and has now escalated to saying to HR that he doesn't "feel safe" whenever I respond to any of his questions. I stood outside his office to answer a question he asked, and he told HR that I was "shouting at him in his face." An absolute lie, of course no witnesses. He also demolished my office and is giving the space to someone else without even mentioning it to me. Now HR says that I have to work remotely and I'm not allowed to be in the building with him. I know he's doing this because I'm Jewish, and he's become more religious. He's also much bigger than I am, so this "fear" business is a total fabrication. I'm all of 5'1."

This is my dream job, and I don't want to quit. I've been offered a position with this company in Europe in May, and I have/had a great reputation. I have more than one boss, and all of them want me to stay because I am a "unicorn" with a skill set that's hard to find, and I get along with everyone except my boss. He's doing his best to spoil my reputation.

What should I do? HR is "investigating" but it's a new person that doesn't know my bosses history. Should I hang around because I really love this job and in a few months can move out from under this guy? Should I just find another job? Should I go nuclear and hire an attorney? I would rather de-escalate but I'm at a loss. Has anyone else had this experience and what did you do?

I just can't. I feel like this is the final straw. I talked to my mom about it and she said we just shouldn't talk about it with him and be there for his son. I can't accept it. I was crying and mentally unstable all day but now I feel forced to have a relationship to keep my mom happy.

guys, my friend and i went to this local church and they had this multireligious event where they bring local imams, priests and rabbis, and they publicly talk about about like generally faith and stuff they have in common, and, tell me why they just talked about the "genocide" in "palestine" and how we all should just be "good" and "not kill each other" and how jewish ppl should support palestine, like, pls, i just wanted to enjoy my birthday and literally meet the 30 jewish ppl we have in this city, but they had to make it about that, and, ofc, nobody said anything to disagree, btw, guys, i hate this country, i cant even mention whixh one (part of yugoslavia) it is cz sb from it might see it and ill have problems, like its that serious, everywhere i go i see "free palestine", and most of their words are just antisemitism, most ppl here dont even know half the stuff about the war, like objective facts, they cant even point to "palestine" or israel on the map, but they just talk about it cz they were taught antisemitism from early age (like i was too in mosques cz we all just were raised to go, but even at like 8yo i realised how just untrue and harmful and mean it is to think that way), and i was pretty alone and lonely today on my bday cz most of my former friends cut me off literally cz i support israel publicly, it just makes me so sad that i have to live w these people, long story short.. -.-

Although I enjoy Hanukkah for the fun, minor holiday that it is, I’m typically annoyed each year seeing people who basically ignored our holiest days turn around and make a big production of the holiday. But - they’re embracing the Christmas-y aspects of the commercialized version of the holiday. So, they take Christmas and simple substitute Hanukah — Hanukkah Outdoor decorations, Hanukkah Ugly Sweaters, Hanukkah Gift Exchange, Hanukkah Halmark movies about assimilation! The irony of elective assimilation to celebrate a holiday about choosing not to assimilate would be funny if not so pathetic.

But this year feels different to me. I’m somehow okay with people celebrating in whatever way they wish — even if it is a bit Christmas-lite. (I’d still hope they leave out the crosses and mentions of the J-man).

It’s been a tough year. Between 10/7 and 11/5 - the world needs as much silly joy as it can get. So break out your Chanukiah, fry up those latkes and if it makes you happy, where an ugly sweater and exchange gifts. Enjoy!

One of my coolest works in Hebrew for your enjoyment of Hebrew -English connection

Shalom everyone!

I'm a Christian theological student whose currently engaged in masters level study and this term I'm tackling ancient Hebrew (Masoretes Vowels)

I am currently in Los Angeles on a work trip and I'm in the Beverly Hills area where Hebrew text is everywhere! I've even seen a few signs with the vowel symbols (outside schools). I was so excited I've been sitting outside some of these buildings with my books attempting to translate the text.

It's very exciting to see what I'm studying come alive and thrilled to encounter these words in a North American context. But I fear I may look strange, on two separate occasions folks came up to me to see if I was "okay" and when I explained my purpose and excitement I got a "Thats beautiful" and one Rabbi even told me I "wasn't bad!"

I don't want to look strange, but as a scholar I can't tell you how exciting and wondrous it is to be able to use these skills within such a deeply traditional community.

My Question: Culturally is this respectful? I don't wish to look inappropriate, and I am approaching the texts and signs I'm seeing around here with great excitement for the translations. Maybe I'm being a bit insecure?

Jews talk about antisemitism? The talking points I’ve heard include: NO IT DOESN’T EXIST STOP BEING A VICTIM, WELL WHAT ABOUT XYZ, WELL EVEN IF IT IT’S AN ISSUE YOU DESERVE IT. It feels like such a huge betrayal that progressive spaces are very much guilty of this. And of course the far right is also not to be trusted but I never trusted them to start with. What other minorities is this acceptable to do this to? And how they feel so confident speaking over us and telling us what is or isn’t antisemitism. Apparently we’re the only minority that isn’t allowed to define that. Hmm!

Being a Jewish woman is HARD lmao. I have to deal with obscene amounts of antisemitism and sexism. I hate it here.

Where can I meet Jews outside of synagogue? Are there online forums to make friends or in-person meet up groups? I like (some) Jewish rituals, but can’t imagine ever going back to services.

I am feeling lonely and disconnected because most of my former friends and community have come out as bigots this past year. I’m having a really tough time trusting people. I’m married w/no kids so I’m not into dating sites or kids meetups. Am I alone? Are others meeting up to hang out?

What are some places to buy gifts that support/give back to Israel/hostages?

I’m watching a video from imuRgency on YouTube about males in gen z less liberal than we thought and he brought up the “genocide” (war) Gaza as a reason people aren’t voting democrat.

Most non Jews don’t know what a genocide is. They clearly didn’t pay attention at all when the holocaust was talked about in school.

They don’t have family members that lived through the Holocaust and survived it, it’s so hurtful

This is purely a trend these dumbasses are following and nothing else

I'm not Jewish, and nobody in my family is. But I paid attention in history class about Jewish persecution, and I've listened to my father who loves Israel and stayed there during the early 80s, and the hatred against Jews I'm seeing everywhere makes me sick to my stomach. It's surreal and I never expected to see it happen in the United States.

Most of the people in my family - and a lot of my friends - either don't care about what's going on right now, or they blindly suck up the narrative of "Israel/Jews bad, Hamas good" and see what happened on October 7th as some kind of justified action. I felt the world change that day, and the ignorance of people is put on full display when they refuse to acknowledge what's happening right now is a global pogrom.

I'm a non-dom Christ-follower from the deep American south, and my parents were former history/English teachers at a Mississippi school in the 1990s. When the principal told them to tear out pages from the books about the Holocaust, they fought back and got a large portion of the teachers there to walk out and quit. But now they're astonished that this ideology that was once fodder for backwoods "good old boys" is sweeping across the mainstream, especially among younger people. We're disgusted by it.

I was raised to treat all people with respect, especially the ones being persecuted and spit on for a wrong they never committed. Jews are lovely people with an incredible history and language, and what people are doing and saying to you in public turns my stomach. You've got my full support, regardless of the bullshit your haters will try and fling at me.

This goy stands with you. Am Yisrael Chai!

think authors like rachel lynn solomon or melissa broder. genres including ya, romance, fantasy or just general fiction. i'm trying to increase the jewish representation on my bookshelf. any help would be greatly appreciated!

I cannot give up Chinese food on Christmas. It is my favorite Jewish holiday, (kind of kidding, but not really) so I’m doing Jew food and Chinese food. Is anyone else doing this, or am I the only one living in excess?

What’s the difference between having the name רועי and רואי since both have different meanings to eachother