I'm sharing my annual Humanistic blowing of the shofar video for anyone who hasn't had the chance to hear #shofar during his month of Elul (the Jewish month of preparation for the High Holidays)
Im dedicating this to all who are about the work of Tikun Olam (world repair), but especially to my dear friends at The Spinoza Havurah and all of my friends from Judaism Unbound and the Unyeshiva.
#Elul #HighHolidays #Judaism #RoshHashanah #Mazeldon #HumanisticJudaism
L’Shana Tova, mofos! (Sketches of the Week for Week 37 of 2025) https://www.davideriknelson.com/sbsb/index.php/2025/09/sketch-of-the-week-young-lshana-tova/ #art #drawing #Jews #mazeldon #newsD #newsF #RoshHashanah #sketch #sketching
TIL that the Sorcerer's Apprentice was actually based on the story of the Golem.
uy yuyuyyy, oy gavult....
With the murder of Charlie Kirk (rest in peace) it’s becoming clear that violent rhetoric is spilling into real life.
A recent survey by FIRE shows 34% of Gen Z supports political violence.
At the moment, Jews on Fedi experience antisemitism almost everywhere except for #Babka. However, Babka owner and a top moderator agree, such violence can be “morally justified” in some cases: https://mastodon.social/@8124/115185932515796047
Are there any servers which protect Jews AND which call out political violence?
Today #JudaismUnbound released their 500th weekly episode!
If the podcast is as important to you as it is to me, please consider giving.
#Judaism #Mazeldon #UnboundJudaism
Tagging: @lexaphus
Just received advance copies of "When Einstein Met Kafka: Jewish Contributions to the Modern World," a wonderful book by the Spanish writer Diego Moldes, which I translated and adapted into English.
It comes out on September 15 from Mandel Vilar Press. "When Einstein Met Kafka" is like those "great Jews in history" books that lots of us had when we were kids, except it's written for grown-ups and is about 600 pages long, covering science and inventions, the arts, human rights, politics, sports, business, entertainment, and countless other fields.
Here's a sort of unboxing video (though I'd already opened the box by then). 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDbqAFLUo5Y&lc=Ugy2SUTs2-oxCEXcxlR4AaABAg
Question for #Jews on the Fediverse (others, please don't respond): I just heard the term Post Zionist for the first time, and I wonder what you think of it?
Here are three possible meanings or explanations, but others are possible:
Australian police arrest alleged mastermind of string of antisemitic attacks
27-year-old Tarek Zahabe is charged with directing at least four incidents in January, including vandalism and arson on Jewish schools and a home of a Jewish leader
I refuse to be the model minority and I won't give up to demands that other Babkans be either.
We enforce the rules we have (I wrote them) but won't give in to keyboard bullies who insist that we be all be polite, that we align with a certain political movement, that we don't express our pain, that we aren't religious enough, that we talk about Judaism too much, that we talk in certain ways, or that we respond to demands of loyalty pledges, that we are too sexual, that we're not sexual enough, that we're too Queer, that we're too heternormative, etc.
As long as you follow the rules, you're allowed to be authentically Jewish in whatever way speaks to you on Babka Social.
I’m just gonna say it. #Babka has a political violence problem.
Here are some examples which I am personally aware of:
- moderators remove a post saying “fuck you” to someone celebrating an assassination attempt on the President of the United States
- moderators fail to act on a post clearly inciting violence against POTUS
- one moderator @peribotsarah insinuated that UHC CEO Brian Thompson had it coming to him
- @serge claims he can’t do anything
Politics over Jewish inclusion?
I read A ceiling made of eggshells by Gail Carson Levine, a novel set on the eve of the Expulsion from Spain. It was well written and I recommend it. Given that it is a middle grade book, it does justice to its subject matter. #Mazeldon #Book #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #MiaoReads
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f0ee4856-308c-47fb-bba7-6380b869058f
Lea writes:
“Reading the headline: ‘Israeli Air Force hits Houthi targets in Yemen.’
Discombobulated: ain't we their targets?”
What's the PH of the ink sofers use on scrolls and so forth?
For a Torah scroll to be kosher, it has to be hand written on parchment or papyrus.
1. Does it have to be written in that one ink or would India ink be ok?
2. Does it have to be written with a quill or a reed or would a metal pen be ok?
3. Does it need to be written in a particular style or would block capital letters be ok?
4. (Could it be written in ball point pen?)
5. Is it ok to trace over pencil lines?
6. Can children write in it?
7. What if there were a series of workshops where every participant wrote one single letter in a growing scroll, so eventually hundreds of people directly participated in the mitzvah of writing a scroll? What are allowable modern affordances that lower the barrier to entry?
Register here to attend Network Briefing on September 9th
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/K4eSTaiFRMaBHkKgZACzBA#/registration
If the science is ignored or corrupted so that EPA rules these gases are "safe," EPA loses its ability to regulate air pollution.
See our Action Alert: Tell EPA Administrator Zeldin that Air Pollution is Still Dangerous
Article: https://www.jewishearthalliance.org/post/tell-epa-administrator-zeldin-that-air-pollution-is-still-dangerou
‘Britain, wake up now’: 70,000 said to join March Against Antisemitism in London
Rally addressed by UK chief rabbi and members of right-wing opposition; representatives from Labour government absent despite receiving invitation, organizing group says
GENNADY KANEVSKY
[border control]
— where do you live?
— in that country
which we can no longer speak of.
— have you always lived there?
— no — i came there
from another one, which is also now the one
we can no longer speak.
— where are you headed?
— i'm afraid that if i name it,
soon it too would
become unmentionable.
(translated from Russian by Ilya Ash)
#israel #russia #poetry #translation #mazeldon
@poetry @poets @bookstodon @mazeldon
Breka has challah, so it must be Friday.
Shabbat Shalom all.
TIL that B'nai Jeshurun, the only (?) synagogue[1] in NYC at some point had a internal lawsuit over the board voting to allow an organ, choir, and allowing mixed seating.
[1] Not congregation
