"One of #HeyAlma’s favorite #Jewish #books of last year was “Hazel Says No” — and no, it’s not just because our site gets name-dropped.

#Author #JessicaBergerGross’ debut #novel follows 18-year-old Hazel Greenberg Blum, a Jewish girl from #Brooklyn finding herself, literally and metaphorically, after her family moves to small-town #Maine. While there, Hazel is forced to turn down the untoward advances of her new principal and deal with blatant #antisemitism, all while trying to get into #college and become a #writer. The #book is authentic to #Jewishness and young #womanhood, proudly defiant and has oh-so-much heart."

https://www.heyalma.com/hazel-says-no-is-perfect-for-your-jewish-book-club/

“AA: There is also a way to argue, on the flipside, that the project of Israel is essentially a project of assimilation into the Western world order—that there’s nothing inherently Jewish about what Israel is doing, and that it actually represents assimilation into a colonial framework. But then, of course, there’s a way to read this that’s very direct: This is what Jews are doing in the world. Secular Jews, religious Jews, cultural Jews, all kinds of Jews.

EL: You’re absolutely right. That was the strategy we on the Jewish left used for a long time, to say Judaism was colonized and the Zionists are Jewish antisemites, in that they reject what the antisemites reject—the diasporic, exilic, “parasite” Jew—and want instead to become real Europeans. But when so many people who call themselves Jewish are doing things that we have a problem with and calling it “Jewish,” we cannot just dismiss it, or claim that it’s not real Judaism. If you look at statistics, at least in Israel, the support for Netanyahu and the Gaza war, including the most racist genocidal statements, is correlated to how religious people are—the more religious, the more supportive. There were times when you could expect the Haredi communities not to go to the army, not to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day, not even to speak Hebrew. And that’s changed.”

https://jewishcurrents.org/when-jewishness-means-genocide

#jewishness #zionism #israel #genocide #philosophy #EladLapidot #conversation #JewishCurrents

A Childhood in Jewish New Orleans

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-childhood-in-jewish-new-orleans

When I was 13, I lost my bat mitzvah photos. This was fine.

https://gender-defiant.ghost.io/two-kinds-of-stealth/

#parents #protecttranskids #allyship #lgbtq #transgender #translaw #transhealthcare #transrights #genderqueer #pride #transjoy #genderdiversity #judaism #jewishness #sheminiatzeret #stealth

Richard Kind Is the Perfect Second Banana

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/richard-kind-is-the-perfect-second-banana

Excerpted from Contemporary #Humanistic #Judaism: #Beliefs, #Values, Practices
by Adam Chalom and Jodi Kornfeld

"Sometimes ideological #secularists—particularly early twentieth-century #Zionists working for a #secular, Hebrew-speaking #Jewish state and socialists creating new expressions of secular #Jewishness in #Yiddish—also adapted traditional Jewish forms to their #political agendas."

https://thehumanist.com/magazine/spring-2025/features/excerpted-from-contemporary-humanistic-judaism-beliefs-values-practices

I have a few thoughts on this article that I’ll share at a later date. But one that immediately comes to mind is that authoritarian types LOVE trying to define Jesus away from: His appearance in the #Bible, how He’s been embraced and defined by the ancient traditions of the #Church, and His #Jewishness. Always be wary of people who claim to be Christian but try to wrench Jesus around their agenda rather than conforming their lives around #Jesus.

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/18/his-mission-is-to-eradicate-woke-jesus-how-money-lies-and-religion-are-abused-to-gut-democracy/