As a Jew….

 One of the shows I’m currently watching is St Elsewhere.

So far, my favorite thing about watching the show is seeing all the guest stars.

For example, the boy needing leg surgery looked familiar.  I looked him up on IMdb and saw he was Jeremy Licht.  I scrolled down to see what I know him from.  

It turns out he played the infamous, wishful Anthony in the Twilight Zone movie.

The episode I’m watching today features David Packer who played Daniel Bernstein in the V miniseries.  

I think if social media had been a thing back in the (1980’s) V universe, Daniel would have started all his posts defending the planned genocide against humans with: “As an Earthling….”

Different Kinds of allies to Jews

This is something I've thought about before, but after listening to a podcast with Jonah Platt and Van Jones, I was inspired to think about it to an extra degree.

It's that...

I do appreciate white, right-wing people who support Israel. But I can't give them a lot of admiration.  Being pro-Israel is very popular in their groups, so it shouldn't take a lot of courage for them to express pro-Israel sentiments.  An exception might be if they're in the artistic community.  But they're probably already used to going against the tide.  I'm guessing they've already built up some tough layers of skin.  

I appreciate almost all people who stand with Israel.  But my admiration goes to the people who are part of communities where the more popular thing is hating Zionists;  

Van Jones scoffed at Jews who whine that Black people should stand for Jews, because Jews protested for George Floyd.  He talked about how it had been popular to stand with George Floyd. There was no threat of being ostracized.  In fact, it was the cool thing to do.  In contrast, Black people are taking a big social risk/sacrifice by standing up for Jews.

I think Van Jones made a very good point, and I hope it will stop some Jews from whining about that.  

But, I think it only applied to those of us Jews on the left.

Being for BLM wasn't popular on the right.  So if a right-wing Jew did speak up against the killing of George Floyd and/or other victims of police brutality, they would have likely faced a lot of backlash.

Thinking about this has made me feel a little bit more generous towards people who have not spoken up against antisemitism. For some people, depending on which communities they belong to, simply not speaking up AGAINST Israel and Zionism, is an act of courage.  

And yes.  I very, very, very grudgingly admire the people who are antisemitic if they belong to communities where that sentiment is seen as unacceptable. But, of course, I surely don’t appreciate their hate.  

Countries

My heart is split between countries.  Mostly four.

The United States

Israel

New Zealand

Australia.

So...today...for example.

I listened to some of Liz Cheney's very patriotic book about the January 6 horror.

I spent time in our family room where our fireplace mantle is (almost) entirely Australia-themed.  

For my birthday, Tim bought be a whole set of Bluey stuffed animals.  I put those up there and added other Aussie stuff we own—a touristy didgeridoo, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog, a book about Australian Prime Ministers, and a Sydney Swans hat.  

(Okay, and we also have the boxes with our cats ashes, because I felt wrong moving them. But besides that, everything else is very Australian)

I listened to te reo Māori music in the morning and spent a lot of time working with a wonderful new Māori app.  I mean it's new to me. I'm not sure how old it is to the universe.  

As for Israel, I listened to podcasts about Israel and antisemitism while doing garden work and housework.

I know this would be a better post if I actually listed the app and the podcasts.  But it's all on my phone and my phone is charging while I write this post on my laptop.

Sorry.  

If anyone feels the need for more specific info, comment below, and I can be more specific.  I mean as long as you do it soon.  In a few months.  Or weeks.  I won't have any idea what app or podcasts I was referring to.  

Dear M (Part 2)

Dear M,

Do you hate Israel?

Do you believe Israel shouldn't exist?

Or are you just against the war?

You might just be against the war and believe Israel should exist.  But if this is true, you should have posted something about October 7.  You should have posted something about the murders, the rapes, the kidnappings.  

Because that's the kind of persona you presented to the world.  A humanitarian.  A woman with compassion for people of all colors.  For mothers. For children.

I saw you as the type of person who would watch the news stories of October 7 and sob. And go to vigils.  And go to marches.  And speak out.

And yes, I would have expected you to turn around a few weeks later to cry for a ceasefire and to cry for Palestinians.  

A feminist, humanitarian, without skin in the game would cry for all and fight for all.  But you are not that.  At least not to me.

To me, you are just an antisemitic wearing the mask of a humanitarian.  

Dear M

Dear M,

I often wish I hadn't unfollowed you on Instagram.

In my better-angels moments (which are rare when thinking of you) the reason for my regret would be in hopes that we could have a dialogue about Israel.  Maybe I would make you less antisemitic and less stupid and you would make me more intuned with the Palestinian struggle and less stupid.

More often, though, I just want to see your feed...to see how often you tokenize antisemitic Jews.

And I want to see if what I remember is true.  Or did I just make it up inside my head.

Did you really post about bread on October 7?  

Or maybe it was the first thing you posted post October 7.

Many Short Ones Maybe

I've decided to return to blogging.

But instead of writing super long posts, I'm going to try and write many, many, many small posts.

Maybe like thirty a day.

If you by chance have me on some kind of email feed, I highly suggest you cancel.

Shit.  Especially if you get loud notifications for your email.

Unless you're trying to look busy and popular.

But I don't think that trick is going to work on most people.  They'll know you're just getting spam.   

 

Dear Republican Zionists

 Dear Republican Zionists,

You might not believe in systemic racism, but are you willing to agree that there is SOME racism in the criminal justice system?  Can you agree that, at the very least, there are some bad apples...some racist cops and some racist judges?

Whether you believe there IS systemic racism in America's criminal justice system or whether you accept there are at least two racist police officers out there, I very much doubt you would align yourself with left-wing people who say ACAB (all cops are bad) or Defund the Police.

I am guessing you are very much against defunding the police.  

I am guessing that if you did agree there is a little or a lot of racism in the criminal justice system, meaningful reform is the way to go.  Rather than defunding or demonizing everyone in that career.  

Could you perhaps be willing to take that same mindset and apply it to DEI and other such diversity initiatives?  I think it would be much more helpful to the Jewish community, and other human communities, if we wake people up to the antisemitism that unfortunately dwells in DEI and work towards reform.