Not Anonymous

Image heavy post ahead!

I'm going to be away this weekend, due to going on vacation with a few friends.

My brother took pictures of the Seder that took place at my Aunt and Uncle (we were about 30 people) and it went much better than expected. Despite the songs my sister and I felt were completely unnecessary considering all the children in the house understand Hebrew and it just made things longer.

As mentioned in a previous post, our Passover is quite traditional, however this year my cousin decided to make it an interactive (hence the unnecessary songs, some of which were okay, I admit) and very nearly skipped over parts of the Haggadah that were specifically asked to be read (which annoyed me).

The real reason I'm making this post was to show you pictures!

First, ( The Seder Plate )

As you can see, the extra additions of Orange and Olive were added, I was actually a bit moved to see the additions, but the story of the Orange wasn't told to completion and only the story of women taking active part in Jewish religious life, rather than inclusion of Queers in Jewish culture (seeing as we're huge). And the Olive was spoken about in general terms of peace among the people, rather than, you know, an end to the Occupation.

Hopefully, by the time I can MC a Seder, the Olive will be symbolic of peace, rather than freedom from oppression.

Here's a pic of almost ( The Entire Table )

30 people, no joke!

And now, the moment some of you have been waiting for! Pictures of ( ME )
That's what I looked like Seder evening. That's the dress I bought a few weeks ago if you peeps recall (DW post) and it was its first time out in public.
Hells yes!

This is ( Me Reading Emma Goldman )
My cousin asked us to provide thoughts and other things to add to the Seder and I decided I would read (a heavily edited, alas) an essay by Emma Goldman about Suffrage. You can read the original from 1917 here.

And one more of ( Me looking Pretty )

That's all folks!

I love Passover/Pesach.

I was practising reading a portion of the Haggadah with my father this afternoon and I commented, as I've done for years now, how skewed it is when it comes to gender (as in women are not mentioned even once in it) and the new finagled traditions that my American siblings of the feminist and queer variety have tried to instil (the Orange and Miriam's Cup) just do not fit in the Israeli culture, not even alternative culture (Fruit isn't a pun in Hebrew and water isn't an alcoholic beverage and thus has no significance).

I'm going to try and read something extra during the evening, to show that we aren't all free as of yet and just as we remember our bondage of past, we have to remember the bondage of present.

This is especially pertinent, because there are two things we say during the Seder that really cut through me.
"Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not" and Next year in Jerusalem, both recited at the end of the Hagadah.

I was chatting to a friend and mentioned that as an Israeli I'm conditioned to *SMASH* things I don't like. As an individual I mainly shout and judge things without apology.

It is, however, a symptom my locale.

An interpretation of "Next year in Jerusalem" for me, is protection from persecution and antisemitism. Knowing that my family are immigrants to a country designed and designated as a the Jewish Homeland. The historical and political issues and realities aside for the moment, one the things this has always meant in my understanding, that Jews in Israel are safe from persecution on account of our Judaism.

Well, if you're not the right kind of Jewish (i.e. Orthodox of a certain kind) your persecution is guaranteed.
It's one thing not to be completely understood (why I as an atheist goes to shul once a year and light Shabbat candles with my mom every Friday night), it's quite another to have your synagogue vandalised.
There is no doubt, that the Reform shul was vandalised by other Jews, seeing as it was spray painted with Hebrew words saying: "It's Begun" and was signed with a Star of David.
This is the third time this specific shul was targeted. Earlier this year, the shul my family attends, which is Conservative, was also vandalised and spray painted with "Live the People" which is fucking creepy.

But hey, we're the Jewish homeland.

The land of freedom.

If you're Jewish enough. God forbid, you're not a Jew, second class citizens doesn't even begin to cut it.

Making the whole "Wrath Unto the Nations" even more disturbing.

I love Passover. Sometimes (most of the time) I feel the majority of Israeli Jews are just too blinkered to get what it's all about.

As I said, I'm going to try and read something outside the Haggadah, because change only comes if you drag the tradition kicking and screaming.

I had no Internet access from Wednesday until today.

The few minutes I had were from piggy backing off unassuming neighbours.

It was horrendous!

I couldn't read the News, I couldn't watch any of my shows which I stream, I couldn't reply to emails I didn't receive!

My inbox exploded!

Also, I couldn't share any real time reporting of the holiday happenings in which my family (and other animals) clashed like the Titans and Gods of ancient Greece.

On that and the music meme coming soon! And a bunch of other posts I promised and didn't deliver!

Happy May Day y'all, for you Pagan minded peeps a happy Beltane/Samhain to you, hope you're getting your sex/ancestors on :P

To us more labour minded people, guess what I did? Well, because the big marches were yesterday I had to work!
Yes! I worked! For money! On International Worker's Rights Day! (Well, it's today, but yesterday it was observed here).

But today I'm resting (it being the Sabbath) and proudly wearing red and listening to politicaly explicit music.

This is also the year anniversary to the creation of my Dreamwidth account.

Here, have a video to celebrate Solidarity:

First week of the Semester is over.
Wow.

I have some pretty interesting courses. A lot of queer content.
And a course about de Sad and Masoch... how awesome is that?!

There were a bunch of News stories I wanted to link, but damn, I'm tired.

I think, beyond taking boring ass courses in my previous semester, I was - per usual - very badly organised and pretty much unmotivated. I can blame a lot of things, my own lazy ass mainly, other things as well.

Yes, I know, vagueness.

Once again I feel far older than some of my classmates and this time I'm not in any intro classes in which I'm more theoretically advanced. One of my classes is called "Stars in the Closet", which is about Sexual Minority representation in visual media - fun! - and the first class was on Monday - so I heard the same historical introduction to queer theory for the millionth time and the Prof mentioned the sodomy law that was repealed in Israel back in 1988.

Someone asked: "There was a law like that?"

Dear god people. I mean, perhaps I'm biased that I expect straight people to know about laws that are oppressive towards minorities - like we know about the Law of Return (possibly the worst non-policy regarding immigration ever!) regardless, on the one hand, yay, people are surprised we had a law like this and found it ridiculous. On the other hand, there was an act of murder and terror back in August that made me feel a whole lot less safe as a queer person in Israel - supposedly we're stronger... I bet the march in Jerusalem is going to be just as fucked up this year.

I'm digressing.

Also, Purim. I have bad associations with Purim - it either rains or explodes. I've eaten endless Hamentashen, got wet today because it decided to pour, pour, pour buckets on me, on the day I decide not to take an umbrella and wear my new non-water tight shoes.

Not a fan of Purim.

But tomorrow I'm going to a Purim party! Not sure about a costume, but I have a Guy Fawkes mask, so I can do something with that.

So, friends, how was your week?

It was amazing.

We were about 5000 people all in all.

I don't have time to report on it all, I may do so tomorrow.

All I can say is that it was awesome, I cried and I got a T-Shirt.

Happy Hannukah!

This pic was taken at some point in 2007 and is from a random pic search.

I saw it yesterday over at Mark Allen via my brother.



My whole family are fans of Turing.
And of sarcasm.

I love sarcasm and parody.

Something to laugh at on this here Yom Kippur!

First of all Shana Tova! to whom in applies and have a good weekend to whom it doesn't!

( The Shana Tova Video )

And now for the actual post.
Which is about the reckoning of our souls.
We have entered the Ten Days of Repentance, which honestly, mean didly squat to me⁽¹⁾.

It's not about my personal soul (which is an extension of the mind in any case).
It's about the fact that during these days, if I'm going to wax poetry, I can see the way that my country is going to go in the next year.

It is perhaps gauche to talk about politics in the midst of the High "Holy" Days, but this is my connection to being Jewish, which is kind of crummy when you think about it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have about ten tabs open as I write this about the Goldstone Report concerning Operation "Cast Lead", last year's winter assault on Gaza by the IDF.

I'm finding it difficult to come up with words when talking about the report itself. It's nothing we didn't know before, because a few months after the assault we heard the accounts of IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza during "Cast Lead".

Not to mention just the knowledge that before the assault the siege had been going strong for over a year, that along with weapons flour, canned goods and other necessities (like WATER) had been smuggled through the tunnels under the Gaza/Egypt border.
Just to remind, Hamas and other militant groups like Islamic Jihad had been firing at Sderot and the other towns and Kibbutizim surrounding Gaza for nearly eight years (and of course into the Gush Katif Settlements in Gaza itself prior to the Disengagement plan).

All this for a bit of history. And just to make sure everyone knows that Human Rights Violations and War Crimes came from both sides.

A big "however" coming this way; Israel was basically, and please forgive the metaphor, shooting fish in a barrel. Gaza is the most densely populated stretch of geography in the world (as far as I'm aware), using fly over bombs and white phosphorous over that kind of area with the intention of flushing out Terrorists who are hiding among the population, yeah, that's a great way of making sure you're preserving innocent lives.
No, no it is not, though I suppose that goes without saying.

Excuse me, I digressed and began reiterating the points I wrote during the actual assault.

What I really wanted to talk about is Israel's reaction to the report, which is to say, blatantly, "He's lying".
That's it.
Oh, okay, let's add in a few internal Antisemitic remarks like calling Goldstone a "salf-hating" Jew (only Jews call other Jews "self-hating", which I find so insanely irritating and angering. That in itself is Antisemitic of course, that Jews are so deficient in their morality and identification, that they "hate themselves").

I was told that Israel should have been proactive and put together a report of their own countering the UN Fact Finding Mission.
Which, yeah, on a purely rational level that is the thing to do, but honestly, I find it quite repugnant that anyone would suggest any country put together a Propaganda based report aimed at disputing the fact that a sovereign nation committed war crimes on a population that has been deliberately weakened and incarcerated in their own homes.

Hearing the cynical dehumanising discussion of how much better the IDF did in Gaza than in Lebanon two years prior. Saying that more of "Them" died.

Is that the way an ethical people speak and act? Are those the values upon which a democracy is based? Better it be "Them", than "Us".

The soul searching that we should be doing is coming to the realisation that we, as a nation, must end this debilitating Occupation, because beyond it being immoral to deny basic human rights to a population and keep them under martial law, it is bad for us, for me, as an Israeli, to have the undercurrent of violence and hatred course through the streets.

It will end in tears.

Also, how immature is it to call out to the nations to reject the findings, as though closing our eyes, ears and mouth will some how cause it to disappear.
There is also the implication, by denying the report, that all that happened in Gaza was normal and appropriate for anti-Terror and urban Warfare.

However, despite the growing weariness of Europe against Israel (which is of course completely Antisemitically motivated, duh!) the U.S will not be confused by the facts and will back Israel up.

This is far from over. This is not going to be bring the end of the Occupation. That's, unfortunately, a long way off, because economically speaking there is too much vested interest in continuing the Occupation and letting the Settlements expand, thus furthering the possibility of a two state solution from ever happening.

So, on these days preceding the Day of Atonement (in which I will not be fasting) I'll keep in touch on stuff relating to the report and perhaps tell you what other fun stuff is being said about the report.

Maybe some of it will be marginally entertaining and not cause me to grind my teeth.

Chag Sameach Friends, may this year be the best so far!

Notes:
(1)I'm not a religious person, I never was, I tried to be (both Jewishly and not) and really, in the end, it's all about the fact that I do not want, need or even think much of the authority of either an entity we imagined in order to comfort ourselves or those people who claim to know what the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Deity actually expects from us teeny, tiny humans whose lives are only significant to us and maybe to a few dozen more people.
I'd also like to add that I have nothing against people who believe in a deity, I really honestly do not care. Belief isn't the problem, imo. It's religion.
Back to text

Off to Pride with [Southern!Girl] in Tel-Aviv!

It's going to be hot like hell and I'll probably be lobster-esque when I get back.

However, it'll be awesome!

Talk to y'all later!

Oh, and here's a meme:
The problem with Livejournal is that we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. Hence, I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ (if you want to) and find out what people don’t know about you.

Matzah and Humous... best. Combo. Ever.

Every year I forget how much fun it is to eat gooey things on the crunchiness of Matzah. Luckily, it's only for a week.

Tuesday night [Southern!Girl] arrived to spend the "Holy" days with me (and my entire family); thinking about it now, I'm not sure how she didn't explode/implode of the stress - well, she was tense, but we very happily worked on that...

The actual day of the Seder - Erev Pesach (Passover Eve, I guess) - Mummy sent [Southern!Girl] and I to buy some last minute things before all the stores closed early for the holiday and wouldn't actually open again until Friday. It was really fun just going for a walk, talking and spending quality time with her, as usual.

My sister and her family (the Jerusalem contingent) came down for the majority of the week and it was seriously fun to hang out with everyone despite the pre-Seder craziness.
( Cut for Length )

Tradition is a funny thing in my family, we're very irreligious on the whole, and I think it is beginning to slip away from us as I've never heard any of the kids mention "God" except in the mythological sense, so I think the older members of my family (i.e. everyone but me and my nevvies) have a great stake at keeping tradition as close to their own childhood memories.

For myself, I wouldn't mind to see some acknowledgement that things aren't the same and that they are dynamic and changing and that we really don't need to keep the Hagadah and whole Seder patriarchal parochial dated traditional.

[Southern!Girl] stayed until Friday morning and it was Good.

We will meet up again over the week.
So far, it's been a very good one.

A question for discussion if you please, what do you think of tradition?