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Now at Bsky (same as my website 👇), FB, and Mastodon only (with minor exceptions, see pinned tweet; contact via DM or blog contact form).
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Mar 28 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
To the pack of jerks who lit up with glee when I stepped out of Scott Library at @YorkUniversity and followed me chanting in an undertone "free Palestine" hoping I'd take the bait...
Grow up
You didn't scare me, didn't get a rise out of me, not a reaction at all in real time (didn't even take out my phone until I walked at an even pace, unfazed, out of your line of sight), but *you* are pathetic at how happy you looked for the opportunity
Mar 12 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
So yesterday, in response to this thread, several people told me that I'm being naive; surely the originators of this symbolism (at least) intended to evoke the gruesome image of the Ramallah murders of 2000?
I said that's a stretch that requires evidence. None was provided.
It is now clear to me that I have evidence to the contrary AND WILL YOU ALL FOR GOD'S SAKE CALM DOWN and stop believing LIARS who wrote definitive 'fact-checks' stating 'that it means that'.
2/9
Jan 1 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I don't call for anything, I hardly denounce anything, I'm loathe to condemn anyone, especially my own people, but apparently just sympathizing for Palestinians *also*, and the most plainly blameless among them at that is ‘virtue signalling’.
You know what? I know my flaws...
... and I'm certainly not humble. Any semblance of humility I have is because my fear of being found lacking is greater.
So at least when I'm signalling virtue, I'm moderately confident that I have it.
But the phrase ‘virtue signalling’ implies performativeness, and that...
Dec 11, 2023 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Oddly this thought was prompted by a fight with a stupid troll yesterday, but an implicit assumption of theirs has been bugging me... do people not realize that it's possible for one's Jewish identity not to centre around Israel? Like, not to care about the state?
1/x
Some Jews centre their identities around moral principles or historical heritage; these can make Israel a core of their identity or a major obstacle to the ideal world, depending on their views.
Some Jews centre their identities on their religious beliefs...
2/x
Nov 21, 2023 • 26 tweets • 5 min read
All right, here goes.
I've been writing an essay on and off for days, but perfection will not come and I need this off my chest and out of my heart alone.
Let's talk about Nevuzaradan, Israel, and Palestine.
(light topics, I know)
0/23
Nevuzaradan was the general of Nebuchadnezzar.*
1/23
*(No comments about historicity welcome; do not overanalyze the analogues; deniers/minimizers of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel or of the ongoing destruction of thousands of innocent lives in Gaza need not apply)
Nov 8, 2023 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
So, as I've broken my Twitter semi-fast to rant about intellectuals playing with the fire of antisemitism, I may as well pour out my heart(?) and thoughts about what I think the broader issue is, and maybe it will help someone.
(0/19)
On sympathy and theory of mind, on family, friendship, and teams, on apathy and care, on crying and sighing, on 🇮🇱 & 🇵🇸.
The world is full of anger and grief now, and I think most would agree that more care for each other could not do us harm.
(1/19)
Mar 20, 2022 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
My R. Chaim Kanievksy story (not mine, but the 1st-hand participant probably won't grasp the significance of what he told me):
Back in the days when R. Chaim would answer questions himself, an acquaintance of mine was a frequent correspondent of his.
1/6
He essentially used him for free labour - he was working on publishing the writings of a certain rabbi, and whenever he struggled with understanding a reference, he'd ask R. Chaim about it - 10 queries at a time.
(R. Chaim's "service" was famous.)
2/6
Mar 18, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Me making conversations awkward:
Fellow guest at Purim meal: "You know, I babysat for your grandparents back when I was your grandfather's student on Yeshiva."
Me: "Oh! Which kid, I wonder - about what year was it and what was the kid's age?"
FG: "1956? A few months old?"
1/2
Me: "Well, congrats... You're one of the only people to remember my mother's sister Riva Malka, who died in infancy."
FG's wife to him: "My, what a great babysitter you must have been!"
2/2
Oct 22, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
@Benignuman@cholentface My grandfather had a talmid who got a position in the small Frum community of Edmonton.
One day, he calls my grandfather for help: a local Muslim couple have come to him for help in removing a dybbuk. The dybbuk is Jewish, you see.
...
@Benignuman@cholentface ...
My grandfather asks to speak to the dybbuk. (I don't remember if this was arranged later or if the couple was there.)
The woman gets on the phone, and begins to speak in a guttural voice in lousy Hebrew.
...
Oct 21, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Well, on the topic of rabbis and frocks, and Rav Shach's yahrtzeit...
There is a known controversy around the status of the traditional Litvish rabbinical garb, the frak, with regard to tzitzis, whether it counts as a four-cornered garment or not.
In modern times, it is usually considered pretentious to raise the question.
Anyways, a long-time Kolel student finally achieves the dream and is granted I minor rabbinical position. With the job comes the uniform: now he gets to wear a frak! But does it need tzitzis?
2/4
Oct 21, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
A propos today's #Jwitter discourse around the vagaries and disappointments of the rabbinate as a profession, here are two (hopefully somewhat encouraging) anecdotes:
...
... 1. (forgot the name, sorry)
The rabbi of a shtetl was deposed from his position, and his friends, knowing what the job meant to him, came to comfort him.
"Don't worry," said he, "they can take everything away from me ... except for the מלפנים*."
*'formerly'
...
Oct 20, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
TIL that the former congresswoman @NitaLowey (NY-17, all of Rockland county as I recall) is a descendant.
Sorry, misread the Geni tree: her husband, Stephen Lowey, is a descendant.
Oct 19, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Genealogists who deal with Eastern European Jewish records: what's the latest comment you've ever seen added to a pre-Holocaust vital record?
...
...
For the uninitiated: vital records in Eastern Europe (at least the Jewish ones, with which I have experience) often are cross-referenced with sources/updates: marriage records will refer to birth records, birth records to death records, and so on.
...
Apr 28, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
My great-grandmother spent her last few francs on a lottery ticket instead of buying food while passing as a non-Jew in occupied France.
She won, and collected her winnings by revealing her ID to the bank manager and offering to split the gains.
...
...
The money went for smugglers who brought over her, her husband, and their three children to safety in Switzerland.
She played the lottery again (shared ticket with a friend) in her old age, just for fun this time - and won again.
Apr 25, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Medical and medical-adjacent gentlepeople, please help me:
A friend just cited me their Covid-vax-hesitant doc's statistic that nearly 3K have died in the US after taking the vaccine. There are obvious problems with the relevance of this stat, but where does this come from?
@MarcusBlimi? @jfdwolff?
Any other followers, please @ anyone else knowledgeable.
I'm concerned about this bc the doctor cited is influential in a major nearby Jewish community.
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