i was born and raised jewish. and while i don’t practice the religion, i have no doubt that if a certain group of bigots came to power, i’d be carted off and killed placed with the other jews. in reality, it has nothing to do with how i identify, or how i see myself, or how i currently live my life. i was born and raised jewish, and that makes me jewish, regardless of how i “identify”.
i was born and raised male. and while i don’t live as a male, i have no doubt that if a certain group of bigots came to power, i’d be carted off and killed placed with the other homosexuals. in reality, it has nothing to do with how i identify, or how i see myself, or how i currently live my life. i was born and raised male, and that makes me a homosexual, regardless of how i “identify”.
as such, i am invested in maintaining a relationship with the “jewish community”, just as i am invested in maintaining a relationship with the “homosexual community”. both of these communities offer support, sacred space, and resources.
i can’t care to any significant degree, what certain individuals of either community says with regard to my status in either community. i am, regardless of how those individuals may see me, a part of both communities. i have no choice. the world at large forces me into these communities, regardless of how i may feel about it.
so be it.
just hand me my pink desert eagle.
Wow. Just… Wow.
You ROCK, Nexy.
Comment by Jon — January 31, 2008 @ 3:38 am
My husband is 1/4 Jewish. And so my children are 1/8 Jewish.
I will tell you, when they were born, one of my first thoughts was, “This precious little baby of mine is Just Jewish Enough to be stuffed into a cattle car. What would I do? How could I protect them?” When our 3rd son was born blond and blue eyed, I admit, I thought, “I could give him to the Kellys–he could pass for a Kelly and that would save his life.”
My kids know a little about Judaism–most of my husband’s family do not practice, but a few do. And they are proud to be 1/8 Jewish, even though we are not living a Jewish life.
What amazes me, is when the subject comes up and my mother Instantly and Always and Loudly says, “YOU ARE NOT JEWISH!”
“Maybe not enough for a bar mitzvah,” I say, “but they’re Jewish enough to be up against the wall when the revolution comes.”
Comment by Christine — January 31, 2008 @ 5:02 am
thanks for your comments
i seem to remember reading somewhere, that u.s. law (or it might have been state or local laws) classified someone as black if they had at least 1/8th black heritage. of course now, we see those kinds of laws as barbaric. expect when it comes to gays. and to be honest, in my travels thru the u.s., which have been pretty extensive, i ran across some pretty strong undercurrents of bigotry, against pretty much anyone who was not like the bigot.
Comment by nexy — January 31, 2008 @ 8:07 am
Nexy, I identify you as simply awesome! ^_^
Comment by Colleen — January 31, 2008 @ 12:59 pm
yes. Yes. YES!!! I keep on trying to say the same thing without effect.
I, too, was born and raised Jewish, and that came with an education of what happened to people who tried to deny their Jewishness, or assimilate, or convert. The bigots could not give two shits. They got you, anyway.
On an ironic side note, I was given the choice of whether or not to be Bat Mitzvahed since I was a “girl”; whereas my brother *had* to be Bar Mitzvahed because he was a boy. I chose not to be, so I’m a ‘poor excuse’ of a Jewish man, who never had a Bris or a Bar Mitzvah!
Comment by Rory — February 1, 2008 @ 3:06 am
interestingly enough, i had a bar mitzvah, but no bris. while i was circumcised, it was performed in the hospital by a doctor. apparently, there was some disagreement between the two sides of my family as to who was supposed to pay for it, and the “discussion” went beyond the 8 day limit. my mother, in desperation, just brought me back to the hospital to have the procedure done. at some point later, she had a rabbi bless the event. or something.
when i rejected the practice of the religion on the night of my bar mitzvah (after all, i was then a “man” with all the associated rights and responsibilities), i cited the botched ritual as a cause.
i again sited the botched ritual when i transitioned. jewish guilt works wonders, especially when used against the very people who brought it into my life.
Comment by nexy — February 1, 2008 @ 10:13 am
Are you the nexy who was left “speechless” by the goings-on at Transadvocate?
Comment by Felix — February 2, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
probably.
Comment by nexy — February 2, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
>
When I was in college, I had a part-time job working for the Jewish student group on campus. I took a phone call from an hysterical mother. She had a baby, and before they went home from the hospital, she was asked if she wanted the baby circumsized. She said yes since they were Jewish. Later, she was contacted about having a Bris, and she said it wasn’t necessary since it had already been done. She was told that without the Bris, it didn’t count. She asked, “oh my God, what are they going to do to my baby?!”.
She was assured that no, they wouldn’t be performing a second circumsision.
Comment by Rory — February 2, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
from what i understand, the bris ritual includes the circumcision. the jews are pretty anal when it comes to ritual. there’s several passages in the torah that specifically exclude men who have *any* body anomaly from serving god in the temple. and i have to imagine that the lack of a proper bris is one of them. but then again, it’s been a while since i studied my torah, so i could be wrong.
Comment by nexy — February 3, 2008 @ 12:43 am
“from what i understand, the bris ritual includes the circumcision.”
Well, yeah; that’s why the mother was so freaked out!
“there’s several passages in the torah that specifically exclude men who have *any* body anomaly from serving god in the temple. and i have to imagine that the lack of a proper bris is one of them. but then again, it’s been a while since i studied my torah, so i could be wrong.”
I don’t know about that. I’ve never studied the Torah, so I couldn’t say. But I suspect that wouldn’t be true in all denominations. Anyway, if the man is circumcised, there wouldn’t be any physical anomaly. If you’re born Jewish, I believe they take all of that at face value. I’ve never heard of anyone being asked to provide documentary proof of a Bris and/or a Bar Mitzvah. And I certainly haven’t heard of anyone asked to drop trou! It might be worth the price of admission just to see their faces after getting a gander at an FTM’s ‘equipment’.
Comment by Rory — February 3, 2008 @ 3:50 am
proof is rarely asked for as most men stay in the same congregation from birth into manhood. those who do move would definitely provide references to the rabbi of the new congregation - i can remember providing my history when my ex and i moved to a new town, and joined the local temple. whether or not they actually checked my references, i don’t know.
Comment by nexy — February 3, 2008 @ 7:32 am
Really? That’s very surprising to me. I’m not sure how I’d feel if someone were to ask me for that. And there isn’t anything that I could show them. Hmm.
Comment by Rory — February 3, 2008 @ 7:46 am
I’m reading backwards, so, when I say “I could kiss you again” It’s because I’m coming from the future.
Comment by Lisa Harney — February 5, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
all of a sudden, i have that huey lewis song “back in time”, from the movie “back to the future”, running through my head
Comment by nexy — February 6, 2008 @ 8:02 am
I just watched that again the other day.
Anyway, I misremembered the order in which I was responding to your posts, so I was in fact coming from the past.
Comment by Lisa Harney — February 8, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Thank you for this, Nexy. This is just such a basic, fundamental truth of solidarity, and you’ve put it in such perfectly concrete terms–I can’t imagine anyone not reading this and finally understanding, unless they’re trying very hard not to.
Hits close to home, it does.
Comment by little light — February 10, 2008 @ 9:06 pm