Shalom Friends. I hope that you all have been as well as you can be. The world has been really heavy lately. There's been so much violence, war, death, destruction, and fear. It's a lot to handle if everything is going really well for you. It's even more to handle if some of your basic needs aren't being met. Please know that I'm thinking of each of you, as I'm typing out this newsletter.
This week I wanted to share something a little more like a "traditional" newsletter. This year I've been spending some more time engaging with media that is not just reading a book. While reading will always be my ~favorite~ way to consume content, I've really enjoyed attending some lectures, listening to some podcasts, and reading some articles. In my attempts to do a very mediocre version of Roxane Gay's The Audacious Round Up - here are some things I've enjoyed so far in 2022.
Jewish Stuff
As a Jew, I obviously like a lot of Jewish stuff. Here are some things I think are cool for Jews & non-Jews alike.
Earlier this year I watched a lecture on Sephardic Jews in America called "A Diaspora within a Diaspora: Sephardic Jews in America." I learned a lot. I thought the presenter also did a really good job of talking about the development of Sephardic culture in New York. It was so cute to see the speaker's kid speaking Ladino. I really, really want to learn Ladino too. Amazingly, there's a page that recently started on instagram (ladinouprising) that's also connected here:
https://ladinouprising.wordpress.com/
if other folks are interested.
I found this talk very interesting about a rabbi living in Israel who spent the past 8 years meeting with Palestinians. I enjoyed listening to him speak about his experience because it was one of transformation. I didn't love everything he had to say - and generally speaking if you're listening to someone and don't have a single thing to critique, then you're probably not listening very closely - but I think it's definitely worth the hour listen. If you don't want to watch, if you go to the website, you can listen to the audio.
House of Neshama which is an account/podcast started by Ariel Rachel Peckler & Isa Kaufman-Geballe. House of Neshama looks to explore the beauty of being Jewish and the beauty of the Diaspora. I'm not a podcast fan myself, but I finally got around to listening to this podcast (episode 2 just dropped). I really enjoyed the first episode and getting to hear about their experience growing up and embracing or choosing their Jewishness. If you're into podcasts, there's ZERO reason why you shouldn't check this one out! And if you're a little hesitant like I am, it's very approachable. This podcast can be found on Apple, YouTube, and that bad Swedish company with the green logo. :)
I can't remember who put me onto this article, but unfortunately we all can't read enough about antisemitism - Here's an article talking about what a lot of folks still get wrong about antisemitism. (and in the title, I'd include the spelling of antisemitism.) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/texas-synagogue-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theory/621286/
Disability Stuff
I could say a million things about COVID. There are a million things I want to say about COVID and a million articles I could link. I'll leave it at this. If you're able to get the vaccine and get a booster shot; you should be doing that. And regardless of your vaccination status, you should have a mask with you at all times. You should also be wearing a mask unless you have explicit consent from others around you to not mask. That's just what I think.
Anyway, some really cool disability activists and advocates got together to create a disability justice audit tool. It was mainly composed by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha the badass author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. You should be access the tool here. If not, I've also attached the tool on patreon! It's a really accessible guide that breaks down ways to think about disability justice. If you're someone who thinks about liberation (whether it is your own or anyone else's) this is important!
As many of you probably know, I'm currently learning American Sign Language (ASL). Now that I've learned many basic signs, I'm learning more about deaf culture and community. My current ASL teacher is hearing, but is a doctoral student. She mentioned that some folks in the deaf community were trying to move away from using d/D as a signifier of inclusion/exclusion regarding deaf cultural markers. If you all were around when I did an Ableism Friday on deaf culture, I started that capital D often signified when someone was a part of "deaf culture" where deaf typically just referred to whether or not someone was hearing. This was newer information for me, and if it's new information or interesting to you, I've attached the article to Patreon. It's called "The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia."
More Podcasts: My friend, Mary Fashik, creator of UpgradeAccessibility recently started a podcast called The Politics of Disability. Unfortunately, so much about disability is politically. If you follow Mary on Instagram, you know that Mary doesn't shy away from saying hard truths. A fierce advocate for the disabled community, Mary tries to represent many different voices on her platform and provide a space for disabled and chronically ill folks to feel represented. Mary is doing the same thing through the podcast. I'm super impressed that Mary has basically already recorded two seasons of the podcast, so it will be around for some time! If you continue to listen you just might catch me talking about Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month which is every February. :)
Also some positive joy for two seconds - It's exciting to see CODA get some awards: https://deadline.com/2022/03/producers-guild-awards-2022-winners-list-1234982487/ - This does zero to chance #oscarsSoWhite and other such things, but you know...the smallest of steps.
If I don't stop making categories the newsletter will go on forever category
My friends are so cool, and I honestly never want to stop talking about them. Kayla is pure joy in my world. She has a newsletter that is always super fascinating to me. I'm linking her February one, because I found that one SO INTERESTING, but you can find her other ones through that link. You can also follow her on instagram - she's oyveyitskay.
When I'm not overwhelming myself with a 10,000 I love to jump on Patreon chat sessions with yasmine.dreamz. If you do not subscribe to her patreon, again you should. I hopped on a session there and met Daniel. Daniel shared with me this video, which I thought was really cool. It was made shortly after Charlottesville. (Does this count as more Jewish stuff?) It was a reflection on folks being scared of hate, excited about the eclipse, and the somewhat absurdity of social media. I thought all of that came through pretty well in the video.
Min Jin Lee's article about living in fear with the onslaught of race and gender based violent attacks.
Kristen Arnett's article about being a gay teen in Florida. I just read her novel With Teeth, which was set in Florida about a gay mom. (Technically gay moms, but really just about the one.)
I think with all of that, I'll probably end my newsletter portion. I've probably included more links and videos that anyone will probably read or click on. But hopefully at least one thing I've included might spark your interest. It's been fun for me to remember when I first engaged with some of this stuff. To leave you on a funny dark note, I recently read through the illustrated version of Pirkei Avot. And God loves to just be direct sometimes.