slatestarscratchpad:

Asking a non-religious Reconstructionist Jew about appropriating Hanukkah is kind of like asking Elizabeth Warren whether it’s okay to wear an Indian headdress.

There’s probably an official halakhic opinion about this, but if celebrating Hanukkah is appropriating Judaism, then having scrupulosity attacks about whether your celebration is wrong and searching for an official halakhic opinion about it is definitely appropriating Judaism, so maybe you shouldn’t check.

My own feeling is that if there’s ever some resurgence of anti-Semitism, I would rather Christians think of Jews as the friendly people with the beautiful rituals who drew them into their circle and invited them to share in their celebrations, than as the scary people who screamed “CULTURAL APPROPRIATION! ONLY WE ARE ALLOWED TO DO THAT!” every time they tried to light a candle.

Also, there are a bunch of prophets who say things like “There shall come a day when all the nations of the world shall bend the knee together in glorious worship of the God of Israel”, and I imagine that upon the fulfillment of the prophecy, one of the Jews turns to all the nations of the world and gives them a lecture about cultural appropriation, and then God facepalms.

Tags:

#pretty much #@Jews glorifying bloodlines and martyrdom: you’re not just endangering yourselves #you’re endangering *me* #fuck off and stop trying to drag me down with you #(the defanged version of Hanukkah is all well and good) #(I approve of candles and singing and gifts and I do these things myself) #(I do *not* celebrate a man who murdered someone for doing exactly what I would have done in their place) #(I will worship Zeus if I deem it necessary and you have no fucking right to stop me) #rants #tangents? #Judaism #antisemitism #raw nerves