Happy Sunday. And Shana Tova!
Somehow Infidel Awareness Month started as a joke, and I appear to be taking my teaching responsibilities increasingly seriously. We’re only a few lessons in, and we’ve already covered kafir, dhimmi, jizya, and some of the history behind all of it. At this rate, there may be a final exam.
But first, Rosh Hashanah.
I love this time of year. There’s something about a new year that makes you look backward and forward at the same time, which is probably pretty appropriate for someone who spends most of her waking hours buried in history.
This past week certainly gave us plenty to look backward at. We went from Jewish labor organizers in New York to the West Bank, Soviet antisemitism, American Jews secretly helping build Israel, Galveston, 9/11, and the sound of the shofar calling us home. Somewhere in there, I apparently became an instructor in Infidel Studies.
Happy New Year, my friends. May 5787 be a sweet one.
Now let’s get into it.
I know I keep telling you our subscriber-only Lives are starting “next week,” and apparently I keep forgetting that the Jewish calendar has other plans for me.
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think we’re going to call September what it is and start these at the beginning of October instead. That gives me a little time to get them organized properly rather than trying to squeeze them in around the High Holy Days.
I’m sorry I keep moving the starting line on you! I promise they’re coming. I’m really looking forward to having a regular place where we can grab our coffee, talk history and current events, answer questions, and probably wander into subjects I hadn’t planned on talking about at all.
**October. I mean it this time. **
I call myself a history activist because that’s increasingly what this work has become.
There are pieces of Jewish history being forgotten, rewritten, or stripped of context every single day. Some of it happened thousands of years ago. Some of it happened within living memory. And some of it is being rewritten as we watch.
So I dig. I follow links. I read old newspapers, government documents, archives, memoirs and books. I chase down the stories that make me wonder why nobody ever taught us this.
And I write them down the best I can.
If you’re new to The Lioness Writes, this is probably the best place to begin.
Salt Air, Desert Light with Melissa Brodsky and Kile Jones
We went Live again this week, and Alan Rifkin joined us too. I’m really loving these conversations because I never quite know where they’re going to go. Apparently neither does anyone else.
I hope you’re following my good friend, , too!
What began as me joking about Infidel Awareness Month has apparently become an actual educational series.
I’m taking this far more seriously than originally intended.
We’ve got lessons. We’ve got vocabulary. We’ve got history. At this rate, I’m going to have to issue certificates.
is who I believe started this! Blame him!
Catch up on this week’s Infidel Awareness lessons:
I have a feeling we’re going to learn quite a bit before October 7.
Marc N.
“I enjoy your history lessons. So much I did not know. Thank you.”
Sara E.
“...you are doing a deep and nuanced dive no one else is doing. And with ‘history activist’ you are forging a new path.”
Marion
“You accurately share the history and therefore help prevent it from being re-written. Thank you.”
That last one gets right to the heart of why I’m doing this.
This week took us through American Jewish labor history, the legal and political history of the West Bank, Soviet antisemitism, 9/11, Rosh Hashanah, Galveston and the secret American network that helped Israel survive before there was even a State of Israel.
And apparently we’ve added Infidel Studies to the curriculum.
This is what your support pays for.
The Lioness Writes is my full-time work. Paid subscriptions give me the time to dig through archives, follow sources, buy the books, chase stories wherever they lead and keep this work independent.
For $75 a year — about 21¢ a day — you get full access to everything I publish, including our subscriber-only Lives beginning in October. And I get to keep doing what I believe I’m supposed to be doing: documenting Jewish history before someone else gets the chance to rewrite it.
Become a paid subscriber — $75/year.
Not ready for another subscription? I get it. Buy me a coffee instead. There’s no subscription commitment, and every cup keeps the Lioness caffeinated and digging.
However you support this work — by subscribing, sharing an article, restacking a Note, or simply showing up to read — thank you. More people are finding this little corner of the internet every week, and I’m very glad you’re here.
Shana Tova U’Metuka. May 5787 bring health, sweetness, peace, and much better things than 5786 gave us.
See you next week.
MelissaThe Lioness Writes
