<i>How good it is and how sweet
for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity.</i>
הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב וּמַה נָעִים שֶבֶת אַחִים גַם יָחַד
[[I remember that song so well.->Unity?]]
[[We both do.->Hineh Ma Tov]]
The refrain of it; the comfort.
[Unity?]<yeah|
(click-append: ?yeah)[ Yeah.
(seq-link: "In leftist spaces?" , "[[Good one.->sadtrombone-dot-wav]]")]Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
//G-d//, there are so many examples I could [give]<extra|. But in a way, they're all the same example, aren't they.
(click-append: ?extra)[: anti-Israel protests on Yom Hashoah; Holocaust-denying BDS speakers on college campuses; young Israeli activists swarmed and prevented from speaking at an international LGBT+ conference ("pinkwashing," you know?—the quest for gay rights in Israel can be nothing but a Zionist conspiracy); the phrase "Zionist conspiracy." I don't have to attend an anti-Israel protest to hear my fellow activists chant, "from the river to sea, Palestine will be free." Maybe they don't know that it's a call for Jewish genocide. Maybe they don't care.]
This is just about [[one of them->what dyke march once meant to me]].{
(track: 'unity', 'loop', true)
(track: 'unity', 'playwhenpossible')
}
For me, it's a specific memory—a kind of distillation of a time and place and feeling I encountered every Friday evening.
The synagogue was so small, then; we all easily fit into a single rented room in a community center. Bare white walls, that featureless gray carpet—you know the kind. But with the strum of the guitar and the cantor's alto voice (not a cantor officially or by training, but it was what she was to us, and I think she has earned that word), the space in my memory is... cozy, even. Warm, and safe among [our people]<extra|.
(click-append: ?extra)[ (our people, who are called Israel)]
It doesn't matter that I eventually put my faith in atheism—because Jewishness goes deeper than that.
[[There's a precious, ancient feeling.->sh'ma yisrael]]
And so, [[I remember the song.->Unity?]]unity: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/745099077389254707/890485834342600704/yt1s.com_-_.mp3It is 2015.
I haven't been out as a lesbian that long, but now that I am, it feels... giddy, with how right it is.
—I mean, I'd been identifying as bi (or pan, if you like) for years, but compulsory heterosexuality is a hell of a drug, and it felt so good to fully embody who I was, you know?
It is my second dyke march, technically, but it's as great as I remember it: not trying to squeeze my sweaty body between crowds of tourists for the sake of a rainbow drink cuff with a brand on it and some beads; getting to know that I was surrounded not by tourists, but by others like me.
And of course, this time I'm with my best friend-turned-[[girlfriend->MY WIFE]].
Dyke march is a march with ''my people'', and I love it for that.
...[[It is 2017.->welcome hell part 1]]<span style="font-family: 'Courier'">''Subject:'' Re: Addressing Concerns over Support for NUCNC</span>
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; display: block; line-height: 1.4">Hi all,
I have hesitated in joining this conversation, as I'm currently on leave and thus disconnected from these events—limited to learning about them second-hand. However, the issue I want to speak to in all of this is a comparatively specific one, and one I do feel qualified to comment on. It is my hope that these words be understood as coming from a place that is deeply personal, rather than strictly scholarly.
What follows is my personal analysis of NUCNC's response to issues of antisemitism, but because I'm aware that this is a lot of text, I'll begin by highlighting my conclusion: ''NUCNC's apology to the Jewish community, far from being sufficient, caused further harm.''
-----------------------
As a Jewish person, the fact is that I //do// remain uncomfortable with NUCNC's tone-deaf choice of protest chants. I'll gladly call a cop a pig any day of the week, but context matters. For the Jewish history of dehumanization and persecution to not have been considered in the process of organizing the protest shows, at best, a phenomenal lack of foresight. We are a race of people who have experienced literal pogroms and who are currently living through some kind of Nazi renaissance, so yes, chanting "kill the pigs" outside a Jewish family's home is, to put it bluntly, //fucked up//. There are so many other "cops are pigs" references that could have been used without going there! It is not that hard!
NUCNC put forth a milquetoast "we're sorry that you felt bad"-tier apology to the Jewish community, then doubled down on their choice of language. There is a painful audacity there: to claim to regret "harm" done to the Jewish community, and then in the next breath endorse the continuation of the exact same behavior.
To compare President Shapiro to a pig once, in the context of an anti-cop protest, is a misstep. To double-down on it in a university-wide statement crosses the line from understandable error to yes, antisemitism. When Jewish people tell you that something is antisemitic, listen to us, just as you would to any other marginalized community. President Shapiro's actions are deserving of condemnation—indeed, a condemnation backed by the full support of NLG. His experiences as a Jewish person are not.
(A side-note on "anti-Semitism" vs. "antisemitism": Please use "//antisemitism//" and ''not'' the hyphenated version. This is because "antisemitism" as a term was specifically invented to describe hatred of Jews, and using the hyphenated version falsely suggests that the "true" focus of antisemitism is Semitic peoples broadly. This is not only inaccurate but also a faulty bit of etymology that has been used to undermine Jewish voices speaking on our own oppression. I don't assume any malice from anyone making this error, but: the more you know.)
There are further troubling undertones in NUCNC's statement in the form of their choice to bring Zionism into the picture literally at all. Indeed, my own choice to so much as acknowledge this problem feels like a massive can of worms—one which, to be frank, I literally do not feel safe opening. Suffice to say that as a Jewish person I am. so tired. of support for Jewish people—i.e. protection from antisemitism—being contingent on us having the "right" opinion on Israel. Even as I type this, there is a strong urge to share my own views on Israel out of fear that, without this act of proving myself, this entire email will be disregarded. This is the best glimpse I can give of how deeply alienating it is for NUCNC to invoke anti-Zionism as a core part of their platform, prompted by not by any mention of Israel but as an element of justification for denying a Jewish person's expression of pain.
-----------------------
Thank you to anyone who stuck with me through that whole essay of an email. As a Jewish student, I want to be part of this movement—but I also want to know that it is a movement that it is //safe// for me to be part of. And at this time NUCNC does not, to me, feel like a safe space for Jewish people.
With sincerity,
''K. Degen Gottlieb'' | she/her
JD Candidate | 2023
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law</span></blockquote>
I never sent this email.
Anger is an energy.
It burns hot and bright and then it is gone, and and you are left with bone-deep exhaustion like ashes in your hands.
[[I need to be stronger.->sh'ma yisrael]]
[[I have to believe it is worth it.->Lambda Legal]](set: $hell to "true")
What happened, as best I can tell, was this:
Chicago Dyke March's organizers were increasingly voicing pro-Palestinian, explicitly anti-Zionist stances—you know, the kind of thing where it starts to awkwardly tread the line of "are you aggressively promoting human rights or are you buying into some //Protocols of the Elders of Zion//-level conspiracies about rich 'white' Jews controlling the Western world?"
A woman from the organization A Wider Bridge, which is dedicated to collaboration between the Israeli and American LGBT+ communities, may or may not have called ahead to ask about whether Jewish and Jewish imagery lesbians would still be welcome.
Maybe they were feeling defensive? (I still don't forgive it.)
[[Maybe that's why.->welcome hell part 2]]
It is 2017, and I am a legal resesarch intern with Lambda Legal's Chicago office.
//Anger is an energy.//
I am so angry, and it hurts so much.
(This happened [to my people]<people| (click-append: ?people)[ , at the hands of my people].)
[[I spoke up, though.->resolution]]<blockquote>''שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד''
//Sh'ma Yisra'eil, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad.//
Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
<span style="font-family: Cursive"></blockquote>And then, quietly, like the words are for you alone:
<blockquote>''בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד''
//Barukh sheim k'vod malchuto l'olam va-ed.//
Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.</blockquote>
I remember the prayer, and [[I remember the song.->Unity?]]
(if: $hell is "true")[[[Be brave.->Lambda Legal]]]We're married now, by the way, and I love her to the sky and back.
That isn't what this story is about; I just wanted to make sure everyone knows this vital info.
[[Where were we?->what dyke march once meant to me]]So the march comes, and some Jewish lesbians (one of them cis and white—or as white as you get when you're Jewish, one of them a Persian trans woman) have Jewish pride flags. It's standard stuff: the Magen David centered on a rainbow flag.
But, you see, Israel also has a Magen David on their flag.
The organizers begin to grill the women. They tell them the flags are Zionist imagery. They ask them their views on Israel.
You know—the "are you a good Jew or a bad Jew" test.
The women say they support Palestinian rights, but don't 100% disavow Israel.
They are removed from the march.
It would make others feel //unsafe// for the Magen David to be around, you see. It would be like having a swastika around!
When it comes out publicly, the organizers defend their position.
They delete facebook comments from any Jewish people who don't immediately identify as staunchly anti-Zionist.
This comment stays up, though.
<img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/c97c2b807ee9c5f21f973e2a57c4e3cd/tumblr_os6jt8Lxoa1vivde4o1_500.jpg" width="400">
It's so hard to speak up.
These are people I thought I respected, after all. If they disagree with me... doesn't that mean I'm the one who's wrong?
(The dyke march organizers successfully campaigned to have the journalist who reported the story fired from her position.)
[[Be brave.->Lambda Legal]]
[[Be brave.->Re: Addressing Concerns]]
[[Be brave.->sh'ma yisrael]]One of the most meaningful things anyone has ever told me is that my words //were meaningful//.
I was just an intern, but I had an impact.
In part because of me, Lambda Legal chose to dissociate themselves from Chicago Dyke March.
(Later, Chicago Slut Walk and D.C. Dyke March would repeat the policy.)
[[Maybe it really did matter.->hope]]{
(track: 'unity', 'loop', true)
(track: 'unity', 'playwhenpossible')
}
I simply have to hope.