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Magdalena O!'s avatar

I have a running journal of examples on how Zionism endangers Judaism, and I will be adding your logic on the appropriation of the Mezuzah and general Jewish customs to it. Thank you - The way you made connections between the Christian (Evangelical?) support of Jewish aesthetics as a way to water down their intended meanings and obscure their histories makes so much sense. I hadn't considered it like that. But of course US Americans would do that because they need to absorb everything to flatten it to continue their imperialism.

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Vlad Khanin's avatar

I should add that I am more attuned to the "assimilation" of Jewishness in the Soviet Union. There seems to be a few parallels between US and USSR in this regard I think.

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Vlad Khanin's avatar

Thank you for the kind words. I only recently started to discover my roots and Jewish identity, along other aspects of it, so please take everything I write/say with a grain of salt as I am not only not an expert I am barely a novice :)

Similar to you, I've been collecting different examples of Zionism being counter to Jewishness as I am very slowly trying to write a book...

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Magdalena O!'s avatar

I take everything and try to figure out against what I know or don't know :) It's my job as a scholar, but also please don't short sell yourself! I really appreciate what you wrote. Partially because it also took me a while to accept that I am not a well-read person on Judaism nor did I grow up 'Jewish' but so what? We are also needed. Rabbi Benay Lappe has some great things to say about our wave of Jews. :)

I am one of those Polish people that only found out I have Jewish roots in my 20s, but didn't really do anything with it until I had children, and didn't engage with the responsibility of Judaism as an action-based faith until after Oct 7 for better or worse. For me, it was more like, hey wait a minute, why is this violence happening on such a mass scale to protect me? I need to show up for Judaism, like many weren't able to during the Shoah. I also grew up in Poland so my relationship in living among the literal/physical trauma is v different than the crocodile tears of the rich Jews living cozy here.

I have some hypotheses on Soviet Judaism, and am here for any of your musings on it!

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