Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg: It's hard to talk about something if we can't see how insidious ideas got there in the first place. A history of antisemitism to illuminate where harmful anti-Jewish tropes remain alive in our discourse today-- and how to pull them out of legitimate political conversation. My latest:

It's hard to talk about something if we can't see how insidious ideas got there in the first place. A history of antisemitism to illuminate where harmful anti-Jewish tropes remain alive in our discourse today-- and how to pull them out of legitimate political conversation. My latest:

The Antisemitism Post (tm)www.lifeisasacredtext.com Gotta get the history to know where the tropes live in the discourse today.

Reminder that if you find this valuable, please SUBSCRIBE to get more on the regular (and support the labor if you’re able!!) www.lifeisasacredtext.com/higher-up-th...

Higher Up The Mountainwww.lifeisasacredtext.com Mysticism Isn't The Point

(That’s just a link to the subscribe button, it’s not another essay about mysticism, but you can find that one too. Not sure why that’s the linked thingy? Whatever.)

Your expertise with inclusivity without engaging in rage-baiting is deeply commendable and admirable, and it really illuminates the machinery we're all currently being churned up inside. Thank you for helping everyone see this nightmare more clearly.

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Not me and my wife, watching Frosty the Snowman for the first time in 20 years and realizing Professor Hinkel is an unsubtle Jewish cariacture.

Heat Miser is so much worse, in the Rankin Bass catalog.

The content here is so important, but you also have a skill for connecting the dots that is a critical part of why these pieces are as effective as they are. Thank you.

Thank you!! ♥️🙏

Great read, but it depressed me.

Thanks/sorry

Omigosh...this is perfect for my h.s. "Cultural Foundations" class (essentially Western Civ and Lit). Thank you so much for sharing this.

oh, thrilled!

1.) I can't overstate how nearly all conspiracy theories are like one coat of paint away from antisemitism. 2.) I wish there were more distinctions between Israeli/Jewish and Hamas/Palestinian.

Damn right.

Seeing all the things from my childhood that went over my head and looking here like ***whew***, hard to digest. Great article!

Thanks!

Oh jeez it hurts when a beloved classic from your childhood (The Smurfs) turns out to have antisemitic parts ☹️

The irony was that Gargamel's voice actor, Paul Winchell, was of Polish Jewish descent. I'm trying to find out what he thought of the irony, but so far it's insufficient data. There are other examples... www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/f...

‘Is it antisemitic? Yes’: how Jewish actors and directors tackle The Merchant of Venicewww.theguardian.com Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Shylock, who has been relocated to 1930s Britain, is inspired by her tough great grandma – while Henry Goodman felt shame after losing himself in Shakespeare’s most notorious chara...

As a child, I always thought he was a non-Jewish monk! 🙃

Thank you. I really, really appreciate your work. (As a “my beloved friends and family are Jewish” liberal, pacifist, WASP, I am grateful to you for helping me examine and challenge my understanding of history and culture. I have so much privilege and these conversations are hard.

I demand that Ferengi are included in your collage! Why are we always forgotten?!

FERENGI ERASURE ON THE ANTISEMITISM BOARD IT IS AN OUTRAGE

OUTRAGEOUS! I agree.

I have a degree in History and I focused on early European/post-Roman and I didn't realize the connection between Constantine converting to Christianity and the blaming of Jews for Jesus's death. Even though it's completely, blindingly obvious once you hear it. Amazing work, great read.

No! Not Snidely Whiplash! He came from the "mellerdrammer" western spoof plays, which positioned the farmers and ranchers of the land against the eastern money-lenders... Oh shit.

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I just looked up the anti-semitic origin of vampires 2 days ago and did some reading while on break at work. I will gladly read this as well.

Thank you! Hope you dig.

Of course

Good to see prominent placement for She Who Will Not Be Named’s contribution

So first, that was informative and disturbing. I think I knew about 1/2 to 2/3s of that. Thank you for demonstrating so closely how deeply antisemitism is woven into European cultures, and thus ours as well.

Second, two more things. I don't know if this pieces made the rounds in the States. Jesse Brown describes how he "speaks antisemitism" in a way us gentiles don't, and how pro-Palestine demos use those tropes accidentally, but it still scare the shit out of Jews. www.canadaland.com/podcast/is-j...

Is Jesse a Zionist? (editorial)www.canadaland.com Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown has been asked to stop talking about antisemitism.

The other thing, a story. A medieval lit prof once told us Richard II(?) drained the treasury and went into debt to make war with France. I asked: in debt to who? She stared at me for half a second, did not blink, and said "The Jews." I knew that couldn't be right, but I don't know the real answer.

Point being, this shit is still embedded deeply in perceptions of European history and needs to be challenged every time.

PS: This same prof later had. Very Serious Moment of pointing out obvious antisemitism in Chaucer. She didn't see the contradiction. PPS: I later learned that Richard II borrowed the money to fund war with France from the *Medicis*, who were, like, extremely Catholic.

The Medicis and all the other Italian city-state banking houses all used Jews as agents to be their fall guys. But the Jews they hired were never in charge of any of it.

Excellent stuff depressing and eye opening

GOOD LORDS! I never realised how much antisemitism, I had been unknowingly exposed to in pop culture!!!

Aw not Snidely Whiplash. That guy was my Blofeld. I always liked him in spite of his evils because he was stylish and absolutely terrible at it.

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I support all research into antisemitic sons of bitches and wish them to all be sued and protested and so on when discovered. But I must say never in my life when I saw the wicked witch of the west or snidely whiplash or Captain Hook, did I think "that's a Jewish person".

Thank you for writing this. It's both hard to read (especially some of those modern examples) and very eye-opening.

This is fantastic. Thank you, rabbi.

Great read!

Great article. Thank you.

Amazingly well done. THX

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