Jewish prayer book from Kaifeng, China, written with Chinese and Hebrew characters
today my boss asked me if they had "published the dates" for rosh hashanah and yom kippour this year so he could coordinate my time off
i love you israeli jews
i love you diaspora jews
i love you queer jews
i love you poc jews
i love you converts
i love you non-practicing jews
i love you reconnecting jews
i love you jews
Here is a brief, non-comprehensive introduction to what "keeping kosher" means! A few things worth noting: the way people keep kosher can vary by minhag (custom), such as Sephardi Jews not eating fish with dairy, while Ashkenazi Jews will, but won't eat fish and meat on the same plate. I didn't get into kosher for Passover and the differences between minhag because it's an incredibly complicated topic, and the same applies for things like cholov yisrael, why chicken is fleishig but fish is pareve, and why some agencies are more trusted than others (Hebrew National, I'm looking at you). For a more detailed explanation, below the cut I have listed my sources. I hope you learned something new, thanks for reading!
apparently this.is.kosher is a fake and just cosplays as a chasid?? wtf 😒
For those who don't know, there is an Instagram account called this.is.kosher. The account is supposedly by an openly gay chassidic man who is trying to normalize and create a safe space for LGBT orthodox Jews. His bio is "I'm here to be the voice for those who can't make their voices heard." Overall, pretty positive message and goal.
Except recently someone who knows him came out and said it is all fake, "Yaakov Levy" (his fake name) is all a character to get followers. He isn't chassidic. People found his personal Instagram account and he doesn't dress chassidic and his peyos are fake and he doesn't even wear tzitzit or a kippah, and you can hear that he doesn't have a chassidic accent when he speaks. People are alleging that he was making fun of queer jews, that he isn't even gay himself, etc. I'm not here to speculate on his sexuality with no proof and I don't think that's appropriate, but we do have proof that he isn't chassidic. In his recent story he didn't refute the allegations and instead stated he just wanted to make a difference.
I don't really know how I feel about it. He did benefit off of an identity he doesn't have, but at the same time I wonder if the impact is a net good, to show people that queer orthodox Jews exist. But now to find he isn't even orthodox is.. hard to swallow.
Yeah I just learned the news a few hours ago, I've been meaning on making a post about it with reciepts because as a queer Jew who grew up Orthodox, this is a huge betrayal. I'm too busy to make a full post, but basically, in summary:
Yaakov Levy is not his real name. His real name is Erez Oved. Yaakov Levy is a character created in a music video he was in about a year ago. The music video is about homophobia in the Charedi community. As far as we know, and this is all developing information, he was never Charedi.
Based on the fact that Yaakov Levy, a gay Charedi man, is a character in a music video, I believe there are more people responsible for this deception. There are other people featured in his videos, particularly a woman he claims is his sister and a woman he claims is his mother. I don't know yet if they are actually his family members, but I doubt it at this point and suspect they are also actors. I have been trying to do some amateur sleuthing to figure out who they are, but again, my personal life is very busy so I haven't found much.
My issue with This.Is.Kosher is that his content, now that we know he's not actually Charedi (he is actually gay, though), is dangerous.
Why is it dangerous?
It misrepresents what Charedi life is like. While I'm sure there are plenty of Charedi parents and siblings who are supportive of their queer loved ones, the fact of the matter is that it is dangerous to be queer in certain Charedi communities, especially in Israel.
The political climate in Israel is becoming increasingly right-wing. No anti-LGBT legislation has been passed yet, but it's an ever present concern. Homophobia in Charedi communities is a huge issue, and content This.Is.Kosher presents a lie. It would be one thing if Yaakov Levy was real, because then he would be speaking about his experiences. But Yaakov Levy isn't real, Erez Oved is. And he is presenting a world where an openly queer Charedi man is 100% safe and comfortable in his community, when the reality is that a situation like that is rare.
And the thing is, there are queer Orthodox and even Charedi people who have supportive families and live their truth within their communities, but that is not the norm yet. How can we expect homophobia to be taken seriously when Orthodox Jews in denial can just point to This.Is.Kosher and say "homophobia isn't a problem in our community! Look at him!".
Erez Oved is also claiming to be a voice for queer Orthodox Jews, when he is not Orthodox. He is speaking over the voices of actual queer Orthodox Jews, to talk about their experiences, good or bad.
And there's also been evidence that he's been using his This.Is.Kosher account to solicit donations for Yaakov Levy, a gay Charedi man, who isn't even real.
I don't know what Erez Oved's intentions were. Maybe he had good intentions, maybe he didn't, but at the moment he is denying everything on This.Is.Kosher's instagram, and not taking accountibility.
Screenshots:
And here is a link to his Music Video
(goyim I'm going to ask you to refrain from adding your two cents on the matter)
[id in alt text]
He is an aspiring actor/influencer, as apparent on his personal Instagram account. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that he just wanted to turn this into an opportunity to promote his projects and make money. Instead of taking that effort and putting it towards highlighting actual queer orthodox Jews and their experience he just wanted to benefit himself.
"Jews Praying at Wailing Wall in Jerusalem" by Johann Martin Bernatz, 1868
Husband = בעל/Ba'al, with a ע
Onion = בצל/Batzal, with a צ
the unofficial Jewish tradition of making French toast out of leftover challah Sunday morning.
This blog is great but it gets only 50 posts or so. Can we boost a little bit🚑🚑🚑
Source: instagram.com
Fata Morgana
a superior mirage caused by warm air resting on patches of colder air in an atmospheric duct that acts like a refracting lens. Objects on the horizon could appear to be mirrored, distorted, or float. This form of mirage could be the reason for the Flying Dutchman Legend.
floatie boaties