#jewish reading list

[notaplaceofhonour]

Antisemitism Required Reading

I get a lot of ignorant comments & tags on my posts about antisemitism, and I’ve already spent way too much time & energy engaging with them. So to preserve my sanity, I’ve made the decision not to engage too deeply with any commenters who haven’t at least read all of these in their entirety:

“Jewish Space Lasers” by Mike Rothschild

“People Love Dead Jews” by Dara Horn

“Jews Don’t Count” by David Baddiel

"More Than a Century of Antisemitism", GEC Special Report

If you’re not Jewish, please read all of this literature before adding anything to my posts about antisemitism.

Jews, please add any books you think should be on the list!

#I'll be adding and updating this post as I find & vet anything I feel should be required reading #antisemitism #people love dead jews #jews don't count #jewish space lasers #required reading #reading list #dara horn #david baddiel #more than a century of antisemitism #mike rothschild #jewish history

[napoleonyaoi]

this is a jewish leftist and antizionist reading list steering entirely clear of zionists or normalizing publishers. there is a form for suggestions. posted by chaiya_redacted

#txt #palestine #resources #reading list #jewish history #politics #decolonisation

[tikkunolamresistance]

REVOLUTIONARY RESOURCES

WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON AN ACCESSIBLE GOOGLE DRIVE PROVIDING PDF AND EBOOK RESOURCES ON ESSENTIAL REVOLUTIONARY READING.

Accessible by this link, you can find resources on Palestine, the Black liberation movement and essential Communist thought:

We believe that it’s essential to the revolution to stay informed and educated, and that education should be fully accessible to everyone.

(NOTE: Our current resources are unfortunately limited to English and some Spanish, but we are working hard on providing resources in more languages. Let us know if you have any translations or materials!)

UPDATED SPORADICALLY:

We aim to have a section on Imperial Japan added soon.

#anti capitalism #anti imperialism #palestine #jumblr #free palestine #jewish thought #communism #socialism #revolutionary reading #reading #to read #reading list #revolition #marx #lenin #engles #ture #black liberation #black lives matter #blm #black socialism #black communism

[nesyanast]

If you're looking to take a breather from real life but still keep it celebrating Jewish culture, I came across this book released last year, "Thistlefoot" by GennaRose Nethercott.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore: a powerful and poignant exploration of healing from multi-generational trauma told by a bold new talent.

The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

#jumblr #jewish #jews #judaism #nesyapost #jewish culture #jewish history #jewish reading #jewish folklore #book recommendation #slavic folklore #reading list #jewish books #books #thistlefoot #feel bad i haven't made a new post in 10 days but everything has been tense #i haven't been reading anything

[socialist-microwave-laser]

i feel torn. people are telling me i cannot support indigenous people, because i don't agree with accounts like blm chicago over on instagram lying, saying the only israeli hostages are soldiers. because i don't feel okay right now marching alongside people chanting 'gas the jews' and holding up swastikas. i feel gaslit as a jew.

is it true that i can't support indigenous folks while being terrified and mourning for the jewish lives lost? how can we share the powerful art of indigenous americans attacking their colonizers and still hold fear for israeli civilians in our hearts? can both be true at once or am i a hypocrite?

i can't pretend to have all the answers for you nonny, i wish i could. i'll walk you through my thought process from a jewish anarchist standpoint, and hopefully that may help you as well. i definitely got a bit rambly and my response is really long, but i think it's all important so i'm just putting it below a cut!

important note about the ashkenazic slant of my response! [link]

1. indigeneity is much less cut and dry when it comes to eretz israel than it does for, say, america, and it's already complicated enough in america

some people say jews are indigenous to eretz israel, some people say most jews are now colonizers in that land. i think this speaks both to the complicatedness of indigeneity and also the struggle of being a jew. determining who is and isn't indigenous in usamerican territories generally boils down to blood quantum under the eye of the state government ("nation on no map" by wc anderson goes into the issues with this approach very well), when it may be better described as a cultural inheritance. in terms of the history of jews. the european colonizations of basically the entire world is very, very recent. (the second temple fell in 70CE, whereas colón only made first contact with the taíno in october of 1492, coincidentally the year spain began its expulsion of jews from the iberian peninsula. this is especially relevant bc many jews began to flee to "The New World™️" trying to escape constant persecution in europe. there are some writings out of jerusalem from this year describing the diversity of people living there, as well as the oppression of jews by muslims at this time.) if you asked me, i think it's too simplistic to call jews either indigenous to eretz israel or colonizers. jews have been on the move and in diaspora since 70CE, a date that is before even the construction of la pirámide de la luna in teotihuacán (more accurately it'd be at least since the fall of the first temple in 500BCE but w/e). the long and the short of it is that jews left jerusalem before the height of teotihuacán, one of the first states in all of mesoamerica. how far back does this definition of indigeneity go? that's not for any one of us to really ask

(i think there's also an issue of white-presenting/-identifying/-whatever jews and specifically ashkenazim claiming this indigenous label that feels very. idk. it's iffy at best to me)

i think the main takeaway i have for this point is that the binary of colonizer/colonized is a lot more difficult than we'd like to think (for an example that hits closer to home, we can talk about african americans' presence in colonized lands, or natives' ownership of slaves in turn. this isn't "whataboutism," it's me illustrating that binaries hinder in-depth understanding of these categories. this discussion could take up books and is not the focus of this post, but please know this is a topic that is very serious and very very nuanced)

2. anarchism and decolonialism is a process, not a destination, and if anybody tells you they know the perfect say to do either of these processes, run the other way

i've see a lot of people in the past few days gesture to the actions of hamas and say "this is what decolonization looks like," and "nobody ever said decolonization will be pretty." this intersects with my fourth point, so i'll leave it at this: decolonizing eretz israel does not necessitate denying the holocaust, calling for the slaughter of every jew "from the river to the sea" (i recommend y'all look into the history of this term), or threatening to spread videos of the torture and murder of jewish civilian hostages throughout social media. this is when i point to the fact that the area that was attacked a few days ago was actually where a lot of leftists lived. also, that the jewish and/or israeli people have been very outspoken about the many atrocities both domestic and foreign by the israeli government for decades. i would say an alternative to what is happening now may have been to work with those protestors (many of whom have been very vocal about the mistreatment of palestinians bc obviously) or like anything that doesn't include holocaust denialism and the rape, torture, murder, defilement, whatever of civilians and children

3. judaism and anarchism teach us to make our homes in the uncomfortable

i'm comforted by knowing that not knowing the correct solution to things means we're on the right track. it encourages us to collaborate, debate, listen, do research, keep our minds open, learn, whatever. i mean when has a jew ever been like "i have the one answer to this complicated problem" and everybody else was like "yeah sweet okay that's solved?" at least in my studies, i've noted that the jewish tradition includes embracing the discomfort of two things being true at once, or nothing quite feeling like the one right answer. this is also an anarchist tradition (at least in the circles i run in). generally, anarchists have the policy of "if someone says they have the one correct solution, run the opposite direction."

basically what i'm saying is, asking these questions doesn't mean you're a bad jew or a bad activist. we all know why pesach is different than all other nights, yet we ask that question every year, and every year we have a discussion that bears new fruit. (the book that really opened my eyes to the homeyness of the uncomfortable is "brilliant imperfection: grappling with cure" by eli clare)

4. our political motivation must be out of love for each other, not hatred of Them™️

this is the most important takeaway from everything, in my opinion, and also my biggest gripe with the loudest leftists online. this is also something i've written many papers about, but i'll try to keep it brief.

if your idea of revolution is based on simply rooting out those you hate, not only will it be horribly unsustainable but your success will hinge on destroying your own motivating force. if you succeed, the people you hate will no longer be present, and you'll have to either pick a new motivating force or pick a new group of people to hate. to use the ussr as an example (bc the notes on this post are already gonna be nuclear-toxic, so what the hell), the ussr spent a LOT of energy after The Revolution™️ policing, surveilling, terrorizing, jailing, and killing its own people. entire generations were never able to trust others because of the constant fear of stepping out of line and being labeled as a threat. in order to keep the momentum of the state afloat, the ussr had to find new people to hate, and that new people had to come out of their own citizenry. it's a common critique of fascism—that their circle of acceptable people will get smaller and smaller until one day it's only one person, and even that one person won't live up to their own ideals.

basically, a revolution built on the hatred of the other rather than the love of the world is a revolution that, in my mind, is not worth having. that doesn't mean revolution must be 100% violence free, lord knows i don't mean that. but having love for humanity allows us to avoid dehumanizing the other (who oftentimes aren't as Other as we think). a lot of landlords are just everyday people who own one property and do genuinely care about their tenants. a lot of cops did genuinely think they were going to make a positive difference. a lot of israelis are just normal, everyday people like you and me (WITHOUT the luxury of being able to just up and move countries). it's worryingly easy to say someone isn't a real activist because they don't vehemently hate Them™️ but honestly to me that's a sign you're on the right track. i am a proud, usamerica-hating anarchist who already has one arrest under their belt, yet here i am still living in the us. and this isn't a contradiction bc dammit i have to live somewhere, and there's nowhere else for me to go even if i did have the money and means to move.

israelis are human beings, just like you and me, and being torn to bits by the atrocities. these people aren't soldiers, they aren't far right politicians, they aren't anything like that. they're human beings, and we can never forget that

#though i do mention a couple books i am not saying those are the only books to read about this. for one i don't include a book on indigenou #lib. that is at least partially bc i don't want to give off the impression that i'm listing every single book i've ever read #some of this wording is clumsy. please assume good faith as i hope i've demonstrated that i am saying all of this in good faith #anonymous #jumblr #jewish anarchism #medinas israel #israel #am israel chai #palestine #leftist antisemitism #anarchism #decolonization #tsiyyonus definition #sources cited

[thefactsofthematter]

title: now i know your name, but not who you are

i got carried away and wrote a drabble 😁 love u @we-are-inevitable

-

September, 1899

“My name isn’t really Jack.”

They’re sitting in Jack’s (or, rather, not-Jack’s) penthouse, feet dangling over the edge, watching the sunset after a long day of selling.

“What?”

Jack shrugs. He keeps his eyes fixed on the horizon. There’s a sudden tension in his demeanour that says perhaps he didn’t mean to blurt that out.

“I’m… well, my name isn’t Jack Kelly.” He takes a deep breath. “I chose that name. I wasn’t born with it.”

David is quiet for a second.

“Oh. Well, mine isn’t really David either. I suppose we’re even.”

Jack frowns.

“Actually?”

David shrugs.

“Yeah. It’s my middle name, technically.” He pauses, and then opts to elaborate. “My actual first name sounds too Jewish, so we switched the order of them when we came to America, and changed all the spellings to look more English. It’s safer that way.”

“Oh.”

It’s quiet for a moment.

“Why’d you change yours?”

Jack goes still beside David, like he’s halted even his breathing.

“I’d rather not talk about it. I don’t know why I brought it up.”

“Alright. That’s fine.”

David doesn’t push a matter when he knows it’s not worth it. He’s curious, as he always is, but there’s no satisfaction in an answer if it makes Jack upset.

It’s quiet, once again.

“My name is Francis,” Jack finally adds. “I changed it a long time ago, but sometimes I miss it… I wonder who Francis coulda been if I gave him a chance to grow up, you know?”

In a way, that’s nonsense— Jack and Francis are the same person at the end of the day— but David thinks he might get it. There’s clearly a reason Jack felt he had to reinvent himself, so the question remains: who could he have become if that mysterious reason didn’t exist?

It’s the same as how David wonders who he would’ve been had he never come to America, how different his life would be. He wouldn’t know Jack, and that in itself makes it clear that this is how things were meant to be.

“I know. He’s still a part of you, I think. I’m not sure a name can ever really leave you.” He pauses. “The name my mother gave me was Eliyahu. It’s Hebrew.”

Jack leans his head on David’s shoulder, relaxing somewhat.

“I like it.”

“Thanks.”

And they sit there for some minutes longer, watching the sunset and leaning into each other’s sides.

They’re Jack and David, and at the same time, they’re Francis and Eliyahu.

As they are, and as they once were.

Perhaps they’re one and the same.

#and it’s like. they’ll never fully understand where the other came from or why their names had to change #but they know each other’s names and they’ve trusted each other so that’s somewhere to start yknow #idk this is one of those pieces where i didn’t think too much i just wrote #it was fun!! and i had to read a bunch of jewish baby name lists to settle on daveys birth name #my writing #jack kelly #davey jacobs #javid

[zhooniyaa-waagosh]

Finished Judaism's 10 Best Ideas by Arthur Green. I got it through it way faster than Essential Judaism, but only because it's 1/6 of the length lmao. It was a really interesting book though and had some great insights into a lot of traditions, including a list of jdeas for incorporating Shabbat into your life more when you can't follow it strictly.

I have My Jewish Year (Abigail Pogrebin), Living Judaism (Wayne D. Dosick), and Jewish Literacy (Joseph Telushkin) all next on my list because they're all available on Hoopla and I'm on the hold list on Libby for Here All Along (Sarah Hurwitz) but the waiting time is 14 weeks.

There's some physical books I want to get sent from libraries in my area but that would require going to the library to pick them up, so they'll probably have to wait until I have my license. I also have to finish Essential Judaism (though I've been tearing through it) and I have Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant, which I've read a bit of but it seems very aimed towards people converting because of Jewish partners.

#i also have a lot of other non-jewish books on my reading list to get to. . . . . . #hush and shush

[historysideblog]

Need some book recs about colonialism and decolonisation, especially relating to the pacific

#if it’s an audio book that would be extra great #I’ve read ‘American Holocaust’ ‘Colonizer and the Colonized’ and ‘Orientalism’ #but what are the other books in this ‘genre’ #also colonial/? history as it related to Irish and Jewish peoples is on my need to read list too #bookblr #book recs pls #book recs #book recommendations #Aotearoa #Polynesia #history books

[thatweirdtranny]

learning about all the shit jewish people survived in the middle ages is wild… the very definition of not being able to catch a break

#i’m reading a book about jewish history and i’m at the medieval times portion and DAMN #so many pogroms. so many expulsions. so much forced conversion on pain of death #but besides the awful shit that happened there’s at least as much awesome history to read #the philosophers and teachers and kingdoms and everything are cool af #i just read an entry on maimonides now i have at least 2 more books to read on my list

[anotherfagontheinternet]

Here's my Jewish reading list so far

Finished:

-Here All Along - Sarah Hurwitz (highly recommend this, it was very enlightening) -Choosing a Jewish Life - Anita Diamant

In Progress:

-Wrestling with God and Men - Steven Greenberg

To Read:

-Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism - Jay Michaelson -This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepard - Alan Lew -Judaism's Ten Best Ideas - Arthur Green -Living Judaism - Wayne Dosick -Your Guide to the Jewish Holidays - Cantor Matt Axelrod -Gates of Shabbat: Shaarei Shabbat: A Guide for Observing Shabbat -Mark Dov Shapiro -Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs & Rituals - George Robinson -Entering Jewish Prayer: A Guide to Personal Devotion and the Worship Service - Reuven Hammer -Living a Jewish Life - Anita Diamant, Howard Cooper -Judaism: Everything You Need to Know About: Jewish Religion; Jewish Culture; and the Process of Converting to Judaism - Rachel Zahl -Your People, My People - Lena Romanoff -Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice - Mark Washofsky -Jewish Literacy - Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

I have quite a bit of reading to do 😅 Most of these are on my Kindle though so I can read at work without lugging a big book around. I also have more on my wishlist that I haven't bought yet.

#jewish convert #reading list #to read #judaism

[batboyblog]

A little late, it started on the 18th but it's never too late to pick up a Jewish book!

I'm currently reading The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum, which should cross off YA and Frum representation. I'd recommend The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros if you want to cross off "set before 1900"

reblog with your Jewish reads this month, or any time really.

#Jewish #Jews #jumblr #judaism #Jewish books #reading #reading challenge #reading list #Jewish book month

[glitchdollmemoria]

☆ ♪ about (mobile version) ♪ ☆

comfort character tag format is "#cc: [NAME]"

potentially triggering content will be tagged as "#[THING] cw". example: "#bugs cw". please dont hesitate to ask for something to be tagged!

under 18 please block "#minors dni"

PRO ANA BLOGS STOP FOLLOWING ME I WILL REPORT YOU <3

#pinned #tags list: #about #memoicons #memorecipes #cc: gakupo #cc: n #homesickness #🕰️ #🫖 #abt #fave #jewish reading #read later #education #ocd resources #spoonie tag #survival #schizospec survival #study tips #parenting #memory vault #queer history #joy #bot tag

[nesyanast]

End of the year 5783 Jewish reading list I completed this year:

City of Rogues and Schnorrers - Russia's Jews and the Myth of Old Odessa by Jarrod Tanny

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Herschel

The Jews of Silence - A Personal Report on Soviet Jewry by Elie Wiesel

The Story of the Jews 1000BC-1492AD by Simon Schama

Living a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant

Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant

The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi by Jacqueline Park

Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld

Conservative Judaism - The New Century by Neil Gillman

A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

#jumblr #jewish #jews #judaism #jewish culture #jewish history #jewish holidays #Jewish reading #books #rosh hashanah #nesyapost #reading list #elie wiesel #including Lemony Snicket in this since the series is an allegory for the Jewish experience lol

[pegglefan69]

My copy of When the Angels Left the Old Country arrived!! I'd read most of a draft way back when the author was posting it on tumblr/patreon & fell totally in love, & have been looking forward to this ever since! Can't wait to read it today, but had to stop & admire what a beautiful object the book itself is. That cover! 🧡💙

#When the Angels Left the Old Country #i am recommending this to EVERYBODY this story is very dear to my heart even tho i haven't read the final version yet #there is a lovely glossary of yiddish & hebrew words in the back so don't be intimidated about Vocabulary just get a copy & dive in #Jewish #reading list

[culmaer]

holy shit sina ken toki e so many fucking languages

i applaud you

ah, well, so about that. most of the languages in that list are supposed to be crossed out ! back when I made my blog you could do a few html things in the blog description, but it doesn't show up anymore, especially not on the app/mobile. so now it just looks like a long list of languages which is a bit misleading

I am definitely interested in all those languages, and have taken a few classes or self-studied most of them over the years, but I definitely don't speak all of them

should probably be edited/updated, but I'm not even sure I'd still remember how to do that...

#langblr #I'd say I speak afrikaans english and french #am conversant enough in german and dutch (they're basically freebies with afrikaans as an L1 (although that does cause interference !!)) #yiddish I studied while taking a course on the literature of the shoah at uni #and while i do still read forverts regularly #most of my jewish friends moved abroad after uni so I don't actually *use* the language anymore or have an active connection to it #so I don't think it counts anymore #xhosa and persian i've studied a lot as well #i can remember how the grammar works and a handful of words #but i can't speak or read or do anything to a useful/practical level #gothic and toki pona are special #and then nul points to sesotho and japanese. they're on my list. I will learn them one day #i also want to learn bambara and my friend has suggested we learn italian #but I haven't started either of those yet either

[eggbagelz]

Cant believe i have to say this but yall know that magneto's allowed to be a terrible person right

#hes allowed to be both jewish and a villain. marginalized characters are allowed to do horrible terrible things #he literally advocates for genocide. hes literally a eugenicist. the cruel irony of the way hes become is #very much a purposeful thing #and this was written by a jewish author. #hes a villain for a reason and i can list So Many Ways hes a terrible person like #his cause is important ofc!! but the way he wants to get there is how u say fucking awful like #i cant believe i have to tell yall genocide is bad no matter whos committing it #also like his trauma is directly tied to the reason hes a terrible person and thats bc he refuses to heal #and is stuck in this horrible black and white mindset completely unaware that hes directly mirroring the men who #traumatized him to begin with. read magneto zero read children of the atom 1999 #fucksake just pick up any issue of classic uncanny xmen snd it'll tell u the same thing #anyway. #chattering