A Jewish Tunisian bride in her traditional wedding dress | © Magnes Museum
(Source: , via kibitzing)
Black Jews in Harlem way back when in 1940. :)
(New York Historical Society blog post here.)
(via ushistoryminuswhiteguys)
Bay Area Mizrahi/Arab-Jewish Study Group
To paraphrase the words of several people involved in this group, the blog is place to collect knowledge and create a curriculum for the study of Mizrahi history, culture, politics, identity.
As much as it is a resource to us as a group, the blog will also be be a resource for anyone who wants to learn about our individual and collective stories. It is a tool in the effort to decolonize the study of radical Jewish history.
Signal-boosting their tumblr! (via Jewish Voice for Peace)
Does Everyone Need a Reminder That Jews Come in All Colours?
sharingpurellwithhowardhughes:
This is a piece written by a black, lesbian, Jewish woman.
I completely understand where she’s coming from. I always feel really awkward in Jewish spaces because usually I’m the only person of colour in the room. It also isn’t uncommon for me to be asked things like “Are you Ethiopian?” (because apparently I can’t be black and Jewish without being Ethiopian or adopted). It feels shitty when the community that you embrace still looks at you funny even though you try your best to prove yourself again and again.
Actually, one time in the Hillel at my college, we had an impromptu discussion at lunch about how many people’s parents/grandparents regularly use phrases like “kushim” (a derogatory phrase for black people)…Some people said that their parents made sure to tell them that words like that were unacceptable, some people said their families used words like that.
And let’s not even get started about the current situation in Israel when it comes to the Sudanese refugees…Or the the history of the divide between Askenazi and Mizrahi Jews.
But yeah, we need to sit down and have a lot of talks.
Being a Jew to me means being a part of something greater. I’m tired of people questioning my jewishness, or the way I fit into judaism. I am a Jew. I think if people have a problem with my jewishness its between them and G*d.
submitted by poeticness
Professional Torah restorer Mehrdad Sassany works on the restoration of a 100 to 120-year-old Torah, first hand written in Baghdad on cow leather, at Iran’s Jewish Association in Tehran, March 1, 2012. Iran’s 25,000 strong Jewish community is represented by one member of parliament as guaranteed by the constitution. The country’s parliamentary elections will take place on Friday. (Reuters)
(via machistado)
Cette “fille du soleil” comme la décrit la journaliste de Marie-Claire, n’a que 20 ans et pourtant, elle semble avoir toujours illuminé de sa beauté. Pour mieux la connaître, il faut remonter du côté de l’Egypte d’où vient sa mère, Piera, “une vraie mamma juive”, dit Nora. Son père, lui, est un Autrichien catholique mesuré, mais ausi “anti-macho baba cool”. Les amoureux se rencontrent à Bali, alors que la mère de Nora est venue se remarier avec son premier mari ! Ce couple plein de sagesse ensoleillée donne naissance à Nora puis à Léa, “la soeur aimée, si aimée que les deux filles se sont fait tatouer leur prénom respectif sur l’avant-bras.”
La jeune femme s’est ainsi exprimée sur de nombreux sujets. Concernant la fameuse « affaire Galliano », elle explique : « C’est honteux, je ne trouve pas d’autre mot. Je ne sais si c’est le succès qui rend fou ou s’il avait trop bu ou s’il est profondément raciste. Je suis juive et cela me concerne particulièrement »
(I can’t find any English articles discussing her Jewishness, sorry! But what the text above amounts to is stating that her mother is an Egyptian Jew, and that as a Jew she was very concerned about John Galliano’s anti-Semitic comments.)
