I have literally had my gentile neighbors start two actual real apartment fires in the last MONTH because they can’t keep an eye on their cooking, meanwhile I light candles ALL THE TIME AT HOME and never set ANYTHING ON FIRE BECAUSE I AM RIGHT FRIGGIN THERE.
Do you know what I do with Chanukkah candles on?? I turn off my lights and watch them melt and maybe I do something with my hands but I keep an eye!!! On!!! THEM!!!!
It’s NOT that much of a danger. I live in an “adult” neighborhood of apartments (i.e. Not with college students) and again, people have caused two fires this month while making breakfast. One fire burned down most of the building next door to mine. regular old adults using a microwave or stove!
But when I light my candles for either Shabbat or Chanukkah I am WATCHING them. I have tin foil nearby, I have water nearby, my religious observances (which aren’t fulfilled by an LED light) are not, in my experience, the greatest fire hazard around. You know what is? People making breakfast people not cleaning LINT out of their dryer.
Also LED lights do not fulfill the Jewish obligations that candles/oil do. We literally cannnot use LED lights please stop suggesting this.
gentiles on this post have been weirdly convinced that they’re the only ones who know about decorative electronic menorahs and that they just need to educate the ignorant jews
What the fuck? If you want to have your candles go live somewhere those are allowed instead of putting others at risk and making everyone around cater for you.
today on Weird Goyische Meltdowns
The National Fire Protection Association reports “Between 2012-2016, U.S. fire departments responded to an average 170 home fires that started with Christmas trees per year. These fires caused an average of 4 deaths, 15 injuries, and $12 million in direct property damage annually.” but go off on the Jews for doing their thing.
I keep trying to not worry about rising antisemitism. Antisemitism is nothing new and if we up and left every time someone made a Jew joke, we’d never be still. And since I don’t have the means to leave the country, I can’t spend my emotional spoons worrying myself sick. But I also know that a lot of people who have tried to convince themselves of the same thing ended up murdered, and every community today exists because someone knew when it was time to get out.
I just got an email from my synagogue updating the congregants about new security efforts. We’re a small synagogue. Friday night services usually get around 15 people. We’re out in the boonies. We’re not fancy or rich. We don’t even usually do Saturday services because we’re too small. But the board unanimously decided to have armed guards at every service and event. Someone had already sponsored 6 months’ armed security for our Hebrew school, in case someone wants to come in and murder our children in cold blood. They’re talking of steel doors and a safe room, and self-defense classes for congregants.
Do you non-Jews understand? Do you understand the heartbreak and anxiety that we feel because we KNOW that these are practical steps for a non-zero possibility that someone will want to vandalize us, or set us on fire, or murder us and our children for no reason other than that we are Jews? Do you understand that this is happening in 2018 and it never went away? That your silence is complicit? That every equivocating tweet about “Zionists” and a philosophy you don’t understand, every time you defend kicking Jews out of your so-called progressive movements, every time you tell Jews that they’re basically white and privileged so stop complaining, it is another bullet in the chamber?
Do you know how often I had nightmares as a kid of this exact thing? Of a shooter walking into my synagogue and killing me?
I remember years ago there were packages being sent to temples across the country with suspicious powder in it. I was terrified to go to temple for weeks because I was sure it was going to be sent to mine.
My mom had to hold my hand and coax me inside each time we went. I was terrified.
And I love being Jewish. I fiercely adore my religion. It defines me in a thousand and one ways. It is the best of me.
But it’s also one of the worst parts of me. Because I am constantly scared.
And now more than ever with all the hate and vitriol spewing from the goddamn president of the united states.
This is not the fault of both parties. This is Trump’s fault. This is the GOP’s fault. They caused this fissure of hatred that is bubbling up in this country. They caused the bombs being sent to their opposition. They caused a fear I always had to happen to the Jews of Pittsburgh
Alright, gather round kids, because we’re going to talk about Jewish represention.
This isn’t my first essay about Jewish representation in Hollywood, but while that one focused on the development of Jewish characterization in television and especially in media set in modern times, this one will focus on the role Jews play in Holocaust related narratives.
I will focus specifically on Holocaust movies, that is, movies that take place in territories in belonging to Germany or experiencing German occupation led to any of the deaths included in the six million figure. While one might be tempted to include movies taking place during the war (anything from Casablanca to Captain America: The First Avenger), their relevance to an essay about Jewish representation in their own narrative is minimal at best, as the Western narrative of World War II centers on the West (specifically, the United States and Britain) and its defeat of the Germans.
What do I mean by Jewish representation in their own narrative? The Holocaust is a historical event, not a story, after all. However, collective memory associates the Holocaust with the Jews – and for good reason. The Jews were the main target of the Nazi regime, and although exactly when the Holocaust began is hard to determine – did it start with the first concentration camp, the first anti-Jewish discriminatory law, or the rise of Hitler? – there is no question that not only were more Jews murdered than any other group targeted by the Nazis (the second largest group to be targeted while under German rule were the Poles, not including the Soviets, at an estimated 1.3-3 million victims, while famously, as I previously stated, six million Jews died {although I’d argue that the Romani population, which lost a much larger percentage of their total population, were more affected by the Holocaust, and numbers can be misleading}), but also, in addition, Jews faced public restrictions not shared by other groups – “no entrance for dogs and Jews”, the ghettos, etc, were all reserved for Jews (not to say that no other group faced humiliation, just that the Jewish one was the most prevalent, early, and widespread).
So the Jews were the main targets of the Holocaust, and the historical narrative – our collective memory of the Holocaust – tends to reflect that. And yet, the stories actually bring told about the Holocaust, specifically and especially in Hollywood movies, aren’t at all about Jews.
Take the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, for example. The tragic story of a German boy who discovers a concentration camp near his house, befriends a Jewish boy, and one day sneaks in and (spoiler) ends up being gassed. Or Schindler’s List, the touching story of a man who, although starting the movie as a ruthless capitalists, ends up saving 1200 Jews. The Book Thief, about a girl adopted by a German family who hide a Jewish man in their basement, her friendship with a boy who joins Hitler Youth, and her relationship with Death.
Beginning to see a pattern?
This isn’t to say that there are no Jewish narratives out there. A notable exception is The Diary of Anne Frank, who was a real Jewish girl writing in hiding about her thoughts and feelings as a teenager. But this is type of exception that proves the rule – after all, Anne Frank doesn’t exemplify the Holocaust as we think of it – humans treated worse than animals, slaughtered in the millions. The Diary ends before we could get to the part. It doesn’t discuss the horrors that Jews experienced, but the supposedly universal experiences of a teenage girl, no matter that – and perhaps despite the fact that – she happened to also be Jewish and in hiding the entire time.
Jews aren’t allowed to express our own grief over the Holocaust. We must be seen through a filter – specifically, through the heroism of “The Good Gentile”, and at times, “The Good Nazi”. We are taught to be sympathetic not to the often dehumanized or minor Jewish characters, who are background, the backdrop for the true heroes of the story – not the survivors or victims, but the goyim.
The worst aspect of this is The Good Nazi trope. Where Hands Touch is a very recent and horrifying example of it, about a biracial (half black!!!) girl falling in love with a Nazi’s son. I genuinely cannot imagine a worse story to be telling right now, with racism and antisemitism on the rise. This insistence on humanizing the Nazi is born not out of good will, but a fascination with them. Literally romanticizing the Nazis is a bad thing – it creates an image of a state that was filled with unwilling Nazis, people who were simply there to survive.
Only that’s bullshit. There’s a reason we can count the Righteous Among the Nations – because they were rare. We’re talking about a culture in which antisemitism was so ingrained, not only did people not object when sanctions against Jews were enacted, but they cheered. “The Jews taking our jobs, engineering our fall from former glory…”
Sound familiar?
They were buying newspapers with racist cartoons, posting signs in their windows saying “no entrance for dogs and Jews”, vandalizing Jewish property, beating Jews in public, kids mocking and bullying their former classmates… They were active participants every step of the way, even if they didn’t vote for Hitler (although a great deal of them did). They were sending their children to Hitler Youth, indoctrinating the next generation in the same drivel they were being taught – in movies, in books, on the radio, on the backs of fucking cigarette cartons, they were all being taught to hate Jews, and they did. They believed that Germany was being brought to its former glory, that Hitler was doing it, and that the Jews were at fault for their fall and defeat in WWI in the first place, so all of this was justified. And in case you were wondering, people knew about the camps. They always knew – it’s mentioned in letters and diaries. People knew about the horrors, and they went on with their normal lives. Jews would come to them for help and they would report them. The would loot the houses of their Jewish neighbors, even just move in because, well, the Jews probably stole the money used to buy it, so why not steal it back? It’s not like they were returning to take it back from them.
And yes, they went about their ordinary lives. They had jobs, and friends, and hobbies. Many of them were “nice people”. Except that they were Nazis. And they were teaching their children to be Nazis. And we don’t need stories about them being good people. Especially not now.
We need stories about Jews and Romani people and all the other victims. We need to focus on the stories of those who the Holocaust changed, to the point that you can see it in their DNA. We need to stop looking at the Holocaust through the eyes of the perpetrators, and start looking at it through the eyes of the people who’s stories we keep dismissing.
Stop erasing Jews from our own fucking narratives, is what I’m saying here.
This is Shelby Shoup. She is a Jewish woman who is facingbattery charges for throwing drops ofchocolate milk, and is being doxxed and having her and her family’s personal information exposed. Her venmo is shelby-shoup, if you can donate and help her, please do.
[image 1: “Shelby Shoup, a Jewish woman at FSU, was arrested for throwing chocolate milk at members of the GOP-Nazi Party days after our people were slaughtered while praying. Now she’s the target of a massive antisemitic harassment campaign.
image 2: Everybody asking about the legitimacy of Shelby’s Venmo: yes it’s real, no it’s not fake. Please donate to help her cover legal fees, counseling, etc. shelby-shoup]
People are acting like she deserves this, like it’s a despicable act, but she literally threw drops of chocolate milk at them, and she’s facing battery charges. Some people say she should be charged with assault. She’s being targeted heavily by antisemitic attacks, which surpises no one. I haven’t seen anyone talk about her yet, and I really hope she is able to get through this because she does not deserve these charges or these attacks.
UPDATE:
[image 1: “Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke has now gotten ahold of Shelby’s case & it’s on his timeline. He was involved in the Unite the Right rally at which Heather Heyer was killed. Shelby is now afraid for her parents safety. @floridastate plz comment. REPORT & SPREAD THIS WIDELY.
image 2: From David Duke’s Twitter, “This behavior warrants expulsion.” On a tweet about Shelby.]
David Duke knows about Shelby. The Grand Wizard of the KKK knows about this vulnerable Jewish woman. Please donate and help her if you can, she is fearing for her family’s safety and it’s very, very common for jewish people to be attacked and have people look the other way.
In terms of what I’m seeing on Twitter re: calls for solidarity with the Jewish community by gentiles, it’s predominantly coming from Muslims. The pastors/ministers I’ve seen tweeting support are almost entirely from the Black community.
White Christians, y’all are unsurprisingly fucking silent right now, and that includes so-called progressives. Just know: I fucking see you.
This has been my experience as a southern Jew. Christian African Americans and Muslims and Jews show up for each other. We kick the f*cking KKK and neonazis out of town, we help each other wash off graffiti. White Christians, wake up.
You know, the news is really sheltering gentiles from the full horror of what happened this morning when they keep using the phrase “Brit Milah.” Yes, that’s what was happening in the synagogue this morning, but do you know what it is?
It’s a baby naming.
Every bit as important as a christening or first birthday.
That is what this shooter opened fire on. A baby naming with people praying for that baby’s health and happiness and future.
In case you had any doubt fascism has come to America. Squirrel Hill is a neighborhood I visited and patronized more times than I could count during my seven-ish years in Pittsburgh. I have friends there. Thoughts, prayers and support to the victims. Fuck this guy and his enablers. You have blood on your hands.
DarkestElemental616 