Folk upset I'm not going to shul this week: it's a testament to the ignorance of mainstream Judaism on the work/labor/stress shul entails for JoCs and it shows, in a world where 26% of American Jews experience a.s. but 80% of JoCs experience discrimination in *Jewish spaces*. 1/x Clearly youve never shown up as the "other" in shul on a literal weekly basis. 2/x

Alright. So Jamie Foxx. By this point you've prolly seen his post and apology, and here we are in yet another "black antisemitism crisis" moment. 1/x

In one corner we have #BlackTwitter:
"This is just an *obvious* lack of experience with black culture. The black community know what he's saying, but here's these YT ppl thinking it’s about them or talking about the Jews...🙄"
Which, yeah. And no. 2/x

Yo, Hebrew-Israelites, I’m really happy for you, and imma let you finish, but Milli Vanilla had one of the best co-opt acts of all time! Of all time!
But seriously, let’s get ahead of this right tf now:
1/x The Black Jewish community and the Hebrew-Israelite community are not the same thing.
We do not share a community.
We do not share the same struggle.
We do not fight the same battle for legitimacy. 2/x

No, I didn't watch SNL. More accurately I only watched the cold open & Weekend Update. But having seen the monologue clips shared on Twitter (refusing to give YouTube the views) 2 things are apparent: 1-Dave Chappelle is still a genius 2-He definitely emboldened antisemitism 1/x His monologue is a masterclass in rib-nudging eyewinking plausible deniability that mixes in just enough real commentary that you almost dont realize that he never denounces kanye/kyrie for their views but for their big mouths 2/x

[Looks up from reading “The Souls of Black Folk” while sitting on the trunk of your cousin’s car you went to “take a walk with” at the cookout]
Oh, hi. Didn't notice you come in. Antisemitism is really not the look, and imma need some of you to grow the fuck up fam. A thread:1/x Firstly, let’s get all the “you’re being victim blame-y” nonsense out of the way that plagued my last thread: Multiple things can be true at the same time, and multiple things can be wrong at the same time, and explaining a mechanism does not mean absolving accountability. 2/x

[Looks up from reading "The Price of Whiteness" while a nearby fireplace competes with a Sam Cooke record crackling in the distance]
Oh, hi. Didn't notice you come in. The American Jewish response to POC antisemitism fucking sucks & will continue to until things change. A thread: First, let's start off with a quote from James Baldwin's "Negros Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White" essay, particularly this line:

for those who will eventually wade into abortion arguments in a jewish context, some uncomfortable facts to be aware of and argue effectively: 1-judaism is primarily a religion of responsibilities, not rights. in fact most cases of "rights" are discussed in the context of the responsibility to make sure theyre abided by.

Yknow...I cant help but wonder about the timing of the arrival of cops to just "check things out" not 20 minutes after my arrival at a Chabad just now... Oh and of course they walked *past* me to ask the white guy if everything was ok here...

"We NeEd MoRe PoLiCe FoR pRoTeCtIoN".
Tell me you don't know that police have no duty to protect individuals without telling me you don't know that police have no duty to protect individuals. Hm, what's that? Oh yeah,  In most states the government and police owe no legal duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack.

now for something different: the OU position on Impossible Pork is ridiculous.The point of a hechsher is to declare whether something is kosher or not, not how someone *feels* about something being kosher or not. Also, this could very well become a stumbling block leading folk to eat trief, because if they decide to buy Impossible Pork anyway because, at this moment, all its ingredients are kosher, there's no failsafe to inform if the recipe is changed.

Actually, let's get back to this whole "Jewface" thing. Like many other terms concerning Jews, what this is really talking about are *white* non-Jews portraying *white* Jewish characters. Dr. Christina Yang of Grey's Anatomy is Jewish. Sandra Oh isn't. Ato Essandoh isn't Jewish, yet he's played both Dr. Isidore Latham on Chicago Med AND Kwesi Weisberg-Annan on Away. Luke Youngblood isn't Jewish, but Sid from Galavant is.

Unpopular take: "Jewface" is a weird flex from someone who did actual blackface. "Jewface" is a weird flex when every Purim, Jews of color have to repeatedly ask their white coreligionists to not dress up in blackface or yellowface

Hey everybody. So, full disclosure, a lot of my commentary is actually 1st draft done. But I'm wary to share it bc 1-im wary of sharing w/o the context of the rest of my commentary

hey gang. so im gonna hop a little bit out of my wheelhouse for a bit. lgbtq+ issues, esp as a frum person, are more competently handled by folk like @mike_rabbi, but i feel like i should take a swing on this one. (1/x) many of us have probably heard about the pride emails sent out by two kosher restaurants recently. a 3rd party pr firm sent out both emails w/o telling either restaurant first. clearly there were communication issues. (2/x)

THREAD: A year and two days ago I was a speaker at the No Hate, No Fear rally against antisemitism. And then you have yesterday. With visible Jews pouring seltzer in people's eyes, Chabad flags flying amongst the chaos, posts and selfies of proudly visible Jews who attended, plus what I'm sure is a decent amount of non-visible Jews partaking as well.

To lean in, imagine its 1998. You've spent 23 yrs being a star wars fan. Then the prequels come out, & a new bunch of fans crop up and start calling you "original trilogy" fans. You're like "wtf is this 'original trilogy' deal? It's *just* "star wars". I'm *just* a star wars fan" "Ok whatever, I guess am an OT star wars fan now then." Then 20 yrs later, the new crop gets mad at Luke's force projection fighting kylo ren. "Its inauthentic and not star wars", they say.

For everyone in their feelings about the jewish view on the afterlife, plz quote one non Anglo reform responsa that states such. Then we can talk. Thx. For reference, *Judaism* believes in a Gd. But there are *jews* who dont. And there is no atheist source or tradition in jewish text.

Alright. Jews and the afterlife. A thread.
Judaism has always talked about the afterlife and always had one. Its in fact codified into the first blessing of the Amidah with the concept of "tchiyat hametim/the resurrection of the dead." Where are the dead being resurrected from? From the afterlife that they hang out in after passing and judgement, and where the wait until the coming of Mashiach. There is much discussion on the topic in the Talmud.

So we're all friends here right? Great. I have some LGBTQ/cis questions. Calm not, I'm not gonna make a hard left [right?] into being "that guy"? Question 1: back in the day "my partner" was LGBTQ language. When and why did heteros start adopting it?

This is why history is important. And it's a testimony as to how Black history gets erased. This street is named after my great-grandfather. It was renamed after him, on the corner where his mansion stood and was firebombed when he was at least 88. (1/x) ("At least" because he never really stopped lying about his age after he ran away from his plantation at age 5). I've heard about this street my entire life.

for the millionth time [perhaps maybe the 1st on twitter], im not a leftist. im not a liberal. im a jew and that identity/mission transcends the subjective and amorphous political identities that do exist, have existed, or will ever exist. b/c there are times when torah/halacha is liberal. or conservative. or socialist. or democratic. or communist. or monarchist.