Yes, it's an entry about recent happenings in fandom re: antisemitism and cultural privilege.

[kali921]

Some of you doubtless know about all the antisemitism arguments and discussions floating about the fandom corners of LJ in the last four days. Well, it's not so much "floating" as more "exploded all over LiveJournal and JournalFen

Comments

[newredshoes]

Holy shit. I've been staying out of this one, but... fuck. Fuck.

Sometimes when I'm in a really masochistic mood, I read the user comments on articles about Israel on the Washington Post. It's enough to make you start shaking, the things people say about us.

Because Judaism, unlike, for example, Christianity, occupies a sometimes hazy and amorphous nexus between religion, ethnicity, and culture.

This is why I find antisemitic statements particularly personally affecting, because there's an inescapable subtext of racism.

Yes. I've always been leery of the proposition that there's a "Jewish race," given how many freaking kinds of Jews there are (you wouldn't say Ethiopians and Lithuanians and Portugese were the same, would you?), but when you get treated as a unified mass of pushy, neurotic, paranoid, backward, xenophobic trouble-mongers... well, nothing quite like that to get your back up against a wall, yeah?

[kali921]

Yes, EXACTLY. The problem of conceptualizing Jews now as a race, meaning a specific gene pool, is that Jews have been outmarrying for centuries upon centuries. Granted, there's the ongoing discussion of Who is a Jew and what constitutes Jewish identity, but the fact that the very debate has existed and intensified in the 20th and 21st centuries sort of precludes the conception of Jews as a single, unified group exhibiting homogenous characteristics.

Let's not forget that the elite of the Khazars converted to Judaism back in the day. (By the way, have you read Dictionary of the Khazars? FANTASTIC novel

[cheshyre]

Replying with an old Usenet post of my husband, because he put it so much better than I can:I feel that the answer to "Is Judaism an ethnicity or a religion or a culture" is "Mu." It's trying to put Judaism into a context that it's not designed for, by trying to apply overly-modern ideas of culture, religion, and ethnicity to a very primitive tribal . . .thing.
And from one of his other posts:That's the problem of living in a mainly Christian country: everyone is forced to use Christian definitions of what constitues a "religion". Even Pagans in the United States are using Christian ideas of what a religion is, and that doesn't quite work for Judaism.

See, Judaism isn't about belief, or faith. It's about family membership.

You might do better to consider Judaism a tribal identity. Someone doesn't chose to be Jewish, any more than someone choses to be black, or male, or born into a particular family.

Oh, we do have, in effect, an "adoption" ritual, but it's very difficult and not recomended.

We're a tribe. We have tribal rituals,

[kali921]

Well said, and thank you for your comment, although I disagree with the notion that one can't choose to be Jewish, because conversion offers a way in, even if you do have to run the chicken soup gauntlet to get your membership card!

[benchilada]

I'd say something witty, or clever, or intelligent, or insightful, but I think that all that really needs to be said is that you are God Empress of All You Survey.

[kali921]

I'm not sure why I deserve that lovely compliment, but thank you, honey.

Much love to you.

[dharmapunk]

OMG I JUST WANT TO SLUR PEOPLE ON TEH INTERNETS STOP WHINING AND IGNORE THE FACT THAT I AM A HUGE RACIST PLZKTHXBYE

[kali921]

OKAY, I WILL!

[illmantrim]

Thank you.

[kali921]

No, thank you.

[liviapenn]

Nice post.

I don't know if it helps, but "Give the Jew girl toys" is a Sarah Silverman song, where she berates Santa for only giving presents to his "personal clique." I'm not sure if the comment in reference to Mamadeb is supposed to be supportive or what, but that's where it comes from. ^_^

[kali921]

I'm aware that it references the Sarah Silverman song. My "...what?" was more one of disbelief.