@raf@babka.social avatar

raf

@raf@babka.social

Humanist Jew living in Berlin by way of NYC. Intelligence officer for the Kosher Nostra. Contains unreasonably strong opinions on bagels. A shlemiel at heart. Socialist. Unapologetically Diaspora

Deep commitments to pluralism, diversity, and egalitarianism

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

Average Yiddishist :cat_play:

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@terryb

More sentences with plants would be nice. The pronunciation they use is so different than the one I'm used to. It's gotten better, but initially it was so jarring

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@terryb not so much that. More like I pronounce gutn with an "oo" sound where the Duolingo course insists on a "i" sound

At the end of the day, Duolingo is something I use in a supplemental fashion and to build up my vocab. Not as a core component for language learning

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@dukepaaron @terryb

If I could, I'd do the course on mute. But, you know, learning that not everyone pronounces Yiddish the same way is part of the learning process as well

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

A Beginner’s Guide to Modern Yiddish Music

Today, that’s changing. You can still find traditional renderings of Yiddish classics. But with a resurging interest in the language and music festivals, from KlezKanada in Montreal to Yiddish Summer Weimar in Germany, artists are expanding beyond the traditional confines of what we imagine Yiddish music to be. These artists have built on what the likes of Chava Alberstein, The Klezmatics, and Brave Old World have started.

https://www.heyalma.com/a-beginners-guide-to-modern-yiddish-music/

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

I love that there are Yiddish sea shanties

https://yiddishsongs.org/fisherlid/

If you know others, share them here! Being in Yiddish is optional!

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

This post is indicative of what I mean that whether a Jew is or considers themselves to be a Zionist doesn't matter. A Jew is always at risk of being labelled a Zionist and subsequently villified.

https://mastodon.social/@JoBlakely/112497377603062217

Please don't harass the person I am linking to.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

When the Soviet Union was falling apart Gorbachev had one thing on his mind, Who killed Laura Palmer?!

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@RickiTarr

The part that gets me is President Bush hears this request from Gorbachev and instead of brushing it off thinks “I got you bro!”

18+ dukepaaron, to random
@dukepaaron@babka.social avatar

9 times out of 10 if I say something derogatory about the haskalah someone will inevitably complain that I'm insulting secular Jews.

Which is a whole big bag of some kind of hangup that would be interesting for some Jewish Studies department to field research on.

Maybe we could fund that instead of the new holocaust museum in Beavertown, Somestate, USA.

By the way, the haskalah was slow poison and it's still rotting away our insides.

Rimshot gif. Tear falling from koala characters eye.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@pixelartdragon @dukepaaron

I hesitate to speak for others, but I think the conceit is that Jewish modernity didn't have to be assimilation by another name. There were paths not taken, and it's not too late to do some of that

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

Berlin has a Deja Vu Musuem, which contrary to expectations, I'm pretty sure I've never visited.

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

I want to start exploring Musar literature more. Do you lovely people have any recommendations?

:boost_requested:

dukepaaron, (edited ) to Jewish
@dukepaaron@babka.social avatar

Edit: Since this article the staff have walked out in protest of the Jewish portion of the exhibit and the Wing Luke Museum remains closed while the parties meet and discuss the situation.

"A new exhibit opening May 22 at the of the Asian Pacific American Experience explores how three Seattle communities – Black, Asian-American, and Jewish – have faced prejudice, both in the past and in the face of rising hate crimes today.

Called “Confronting Hate Together,” the exhibit was created as a partnership between the museum, the Washington State Historical Society, and the Black Heritage Society of Washington State."

https://www.kuow.org/stories/wing-luke-showcases-how-black-asian-and-jewish-seattleites-confront-hate-together

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@dukepaaron

Which the employees staged a walkout over :facepalm:

https://mynorthwest.com/3961079/wing-luke-museum-closes-after-employees-walk-out-in-protest-of-hate-exhibit/

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

Hey, it seems like it lapsed a bit, but would people be into a monthly book club?

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

I'm thinking something easy to read to keep things low committent. Obviously something Jewish

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

The problem I have with posts like https://kolektiva.social/@mbrewer/112463705590614409 is they give no agency to Arab people. All violence is directly or indirectly the Zionist's fault. So even the Arab world ethnically cleansing itself of Jewish people, that's just because "Zionists were assholes"

If we are only committed to a sanitised form of history where one side never does wrong and another side never does right we aren't educating each other or having a dialogue. We are just spreading propaganda to well-meaning but gullible bystanders.

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

Many of the people on Mastodon do not have the OPSEC to be posting death threats against politicians. When law enforcement shows up at your job, don't say you weren't warned

raf, to random
@raf@babka.social avatar

Learn English they said. Where you will learn some accents pronounce both Ts in bottle. And some pronounce neither of them. So much fun

fraying, to random
@fraying@xoxo.zone avatar

Really fucking annoying that the far right explains what’s happening in Israel as Jews controlling Biden and the far left explains it as Biden being controlled by Jews. It’s all just antisemitism.

And neither side will acknowledge reality: Bibi is an insane war criminal. Israel is not an American colony, it’s a nation that Biden has no control of. It’s completely arrogant and wrong to think either man can control what the other does, or that the Jewish people have any say over any of it.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@garbados @fraying

If the idea of racist or sexist leftists doesn't feel like an oxymoron, why should antisemitic leftists?

I'd recommend reading https://files.libcom.org/files/thats_funny.pdf if you want to understand more. It is written by a British Marxist

idan, to random
@idan@sfba.social avatar

The radical left has decided that they have the momentum to shove their racist agenda into the mainstream. And they're not wrong about that assessment, clearly. But it doesn't make it less racist.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@terryb @idan

The racism, sexism, and ableism of the left isn't and has never been particularly subtle.

https://strikemag.org/manarchist/

TonyStark, to random
@TonyStark@progressivecafe.social avatar

Hey, beige.party.

WTF?

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@littlemiao @TonyStark @dukepaaron @Bam @theropologist

This is something I do think about. Who else can really advocate on our behalf besides us? There is no third party to do this. It's just us.

atomicpoet, to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

I’d rather not deal with anti-Semitism.

I’d rather talk about video games and the Fediverse—which is stuff that gives me actual joy.

But I’m seeing so many lies and mistruths about Jews that it’s tearing my hair out. And the thing is, people who I don’t think are anti-Semitic believe them.

But I’m starting my to wonder if it’s worth giving the benefit of the doubt. It’s not worth debating anti-Semites because the “debate” is my existence.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@atomicpoet

5 years ago, I would given people the benefit of the doubt. These days I see my obligation as more to warn others so they make more informed decisions about who they wish to associate with.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@atomicpoet

Correcting misconceptions about Jews is not why I use social media. It's not a good use of my time. I have worked with others to create resources, but this is only going to get fixed once everyone steps up to deal with it.

dukepaaron, to random
@dukepaaron@babka.social avatar

On May Day the workers day I'd like to remind all my Jewish revisionist political history friends that the Bundists were cultural, community, and linguistic seperatists.

For good reason. Solidarity isn't assimilation.

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@dukepaaron

Solidarity not Assimilation is such a great slogan

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@AlliFlowers @dukepaaron

I wish people understood the Borg were the baddies in TNG :facepalm:

kjr, to llm
@kjr@babka.social avatar

I am trying to build a RAG with LLAMA 3 and... getting really crazy with the strange formats I get in the response....
Not only the response, but additional text, XML tags...

raf,
@raf@babka.social avatar

@kjr

Do you have a desired output format?

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