"A few weeks ago, I published an op-ed in eJewishPhilanthropy titled “How the language of #Jewish #Peoplehood can move us forward from the current crisis” (Jan. 15). In that piece, I proposed shifting our focus toward revisiting the constitutive values of Jewish Peoplehood and providing fresh answers to foundational questions: What does being responsible for fellow #Jews mean today? Which components of our ethos remain vital? How do we navigate the tensions between these values when they clash?

In response, some readers asked: Why now? What has changed? What is the urgency?

So much has changed in Israel and the Jewish world since #Oct7, 2023, raising questions about some fundamental aspects of what it means to be a part of the Jewish People."

https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/why-embracing-jewish-peoplehood-is-a-matter-of-urgency/

#Radical #sovereignty, rhetorical borders, and the everyday #decolonial praxis of #Indigenous #peoplehood and #TwoSpirit reclamation

#IanKharaEllasante
07 Apr 2021

ABSTRACT

"As #SettlerColonialism has forcibly constricted vast expanses of #Indigenous lands, criss-crossing them with superimposed borders, it has sought to redraw the boundaries of Indigenous identity by imposing definitions and categories that invariably lead to Indigenous diminishment. Strategic and eliminatory categorization is essential to the settler-colonial imperative. This essay explores settler-colonial exercises of rhetorical imperialism that deploy language, connotation, and categorization to dismantle Indigenous cultural systems. The author discusses the political stake in who is designated Indigenous, the drive to remake Indigenous nations in the image of the settler-state, the enforcement of #cisheteropatriarchal #capitalist norms, and assimilationist strategies aiming to disrupt #Indigenous formations of #gender and kinship. The author argues that Indigenous assertions of peoplehood as a definitional and unifying framework and Two-Spirit as a self-identifier are acts of resistance that they term 'oppositional identification' and 'contrast mechanisms.' They are exercises of rhetorical and radical sovereignty, tantamount to everyday #decolonization."

Full paper:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2021.1906437

#AfricanAmericanScholar #NonBinary #GBLTQI #Decolonize #Capitalism #Activism #Reclamation

Well the #JFNA conference in Tel Aviv this week is not quite the staid affair we've come to expect.

Proud of #Israelis for loudly rejecting anti- #democratic #judicial “reform” legislation, and proud of US #Jews for making themselves heard. We're been too long on the sidelines on these issues.

Reactionary politicians in #Israel treat us like we don't matter at all to the #Zionist cause. They choose #nationalism over #Jewish #peoplehood. That way leads to disaster.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-people-wont-forgive-wont-forget-protests-at-rothmans-jfna-session/