Tomorrow will be the 400th day of Thanksgiving for some and day of Mourning for others. Both will have family meals, but for *very different* reasons! Where should the Jewish people fit into this “American” social narrative? Here are some of my thoughts to consider, along with the thoughts of others.
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“[W]e understand vanguarding our cultural survival. After countless imperial and colonial occupations, forced assimilations, and survival under structural violence, we have continuously rejected outside identities and practices, returning over and over to who we are as the Jewish people. But how can we use these cultural memories to assist our Native American sisters and brothers?” – Mahrinah Shije
It is chic, these days, among the Hellenized Jews of today – “Secular” Jews, “Atheist” Jews, “Humanist” Jews, and flag-waving U.S. Constitution carrying “American” Jews – to look upon the revolt of the Maccabees as a blood-thirsty Zealot rampage of religiously observant Jews murdering fellow Jews that had assimilated into Greek culture, laws, language, and religious ways. With a modern day Hellenized blindness, modern Hellenized Jews utterly fail to see the major *difference* between Jewish survival in the BCE period of human history and Jewish surival in this post-WWII Jewish emancipated world – especially, in the United States social world. So, they champion the Colonizers’ viewpoint, and *don’t even know it*!
Allow me to offer, now and here, a more appreciating view of this *moment* in Jewish history because, without it, the Jewish people may have gone the way of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians – into ethno-religious extinction as a people. To this very day in human history, the world around us is still trying to fully assimilate us, the Jewish people, as one of them! What the Maccabees did in Greece-occupied Judea-Samaria is what First Nations of the “American” continent have tried to do for ethno-religious indigenous survival after the arrival of Europeans – *now* – to their lands! The Maccabees sought to re-establish sovereignty and independence for the Jewish people, the indigenous people of Judea-Samaria, from religion/political motivated land colonizers.
Once indigeneity is lost, those who become Hellenized become the colonizers, *despite their family origins*. Like Mexicanos who lost their indigeneity here in the USA, so it is, like the Hellenized Jews who had lost their indigeneity in Judea-Samaria. Had the Hellenized Jews won in the BCE struggle over social/societal “change,” we would *not* be having this discussion now! Judaism would have become a destined-for-extinction mere *religion* among some Levantine “Greeks”!
Thankfully, indigeneity is very hard to root out of some Indigenous Peoples. For Jews, we have the Maccabean revolt against Greek occupation (and the later bar Kokhba revolt against Roman occupation) to thank for ending this Hellenization of “the Jewish people,” for this assimilation *not* happening to our Jewish people! So, instead of hating on moments of our Jewish history because it was more bloodier and divisive than our Hanukkah myth suggests, why not realize *why* Indigenous People fight back so aggressively against Colonizer assimilations? Sometimes, even against our Hellenized own, for IP survival?!
https://forward.com/opinion/478498/what-do-thanksgiving-and-hanukkah-have-in-common-start-with-resistance/
Beyond the myths, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah share stories of resistance
Secular Humanistic Judaism (SHJ) could be an ally in this Jewish educational cause here in the USA. Just saying! So, please, consider.
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I’m thankful that some of the First Peoples and First Nations of this continent, that foreigners named “America,” survived the European plagues.
I’m thankful that some of the First People of this continent, that was colonized for white Christianity, helped the pilgriming Europeans to survive (literally, not to starve to death) and taught them to take a bath.
I’m thankful that Indigenous Peoples instinctually *know* each other in this world, regardless which continent the Indigenous sprung up from, hence why the Acoma Pueblo Nation made a Jew, Solomon Bibo, their Chief and liaison to the white man in the year 1888 (yes, he married into the tribe!).
I’m also thankful for my wife and children, who are my redemption, and the puppy dogs they introduced to me! The puppy cat I’m still deciding on!
https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/teaching-thanksgiving-in-a-socially-responsible-way
Teaching Thanksgiving in a Socially Responsible Way – Learning for Justice
“Challenging the dominant and inaccurate narrative about Thanksgiving, providing students with a more balanced perspective of this oft-romanticized holiday, and refusing to dress students in feathered headbands are socially responsible actions. They’re actions that every teacher should undertake to benefit their students and the society their students will inherit.”
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“Thanksgiving is Americans’ oldest tradition, celebrated by almost every native-born citizen as well as by newcomers, for whom it is a rite of passage into the national family.” – Melanie Kirkpatrick
By definition, if you’re an “American,” then you are a Colonizer, not “native-born (WSJ)” – full stop! It was colonizing Europeans who named this continent “America” and conquested it for Christ, King, and Riches.
The founders of the United States were Deist-minded merchant and lawyer elites, who created this nation for the sole benefit of *white Christian males*, at the expense of non-white lives. Their act of nation-building was born from the American Revolution – an *insurrection* against European Colonial governance, engaged in over *taxes*.
This insurrection gave rise to the United States – a nation based fully in its immoral and racist “Chattel slavery” economy upon stolen First Nation lands. A nation for *”whites only”*, until black folk pulled a national coup with the 1960’s democratizing Civil Rights Acts. Hence, the present white nationalist attempt to return “America” to it’s founding ways!
Mourning the price of “Americans” enjoying a Thanksgiving on this continent is a moral and ethical act to properly educate the Colonizers of their own history! It’s not a Colonizer’s political Left or Right thang. It’s a Maccabean-style revolt against Indigenous erasure upon this stolen continent!
How about listening to their stories – the Indigenous Peoples – this colonial Thanksgiving, and understand *why* on this same day the First Nations share a meal of mourning with each other! Anyone? For they deeply regret befriending the Pilgrims.
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“This action by Massasoit was perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you [Pilgrims], the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end [for Indigenous People freedoms on this continent].” – Wamsutta James
While white, Latino, black, Asian, and even some “American” Jews celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States for the success of European colonization of the First Peoples/Nations lands:
“This year some Wampanoags will go to Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning. Others will gather at the old Indian Meeting House, built in 1684 and one of the oldest American Indian churches in the eastern United States, to pay their respects to their ancestors, many of whom are buried in the surrounding cemetery. Plenty of Wampanoags will gather with their families for a meal to give thanks — *not for the survival of the Pilgrims but for the survival of their tribe*.
This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later. Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621.” – Dana Hedgpeth
For accurate history, instead of the usual myth, about this encounter, read the linked article below.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-wampanoag-side-of-the-first-thanksgiving-story
The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story
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The biggest fear of most Jews in the West and, especially, in the United States is the fear of being treated as racially the “other” – for very good historical reasons. Many Jews in the USA can be both “white” and racially “other”/non-“white” at the very same time. Because Jews only represent 1 percent of the USA population, this is why so many USA Jews would rather be thought of as “white” citizens, rather than an “indigenous people,” for fear that acknowledging our place as an “ethno-religious people” will lead to more social othering (to more future ghettos and genocides!).
Better to be a model minority white group of humans in the eyes white citizens, than to risk historic racial antisemitic segregation all over again. The fear *is* very real and understandable! Consider, African Americans make up 12 percent of the USA population, and the Jewish people make up *only* 1 percent of the USA population – despite how much we daily remain in the media’s eye, in the socially appropriate and laughable stereotype casted forms.
Jews In The U.S. Racial Landscape
But, in all honesty, how long can we, the Jewish people, sustain hiding in the shadows of others? When are we going to unite with the other 370 million Indigenous Peoples and educate the world towards real peace?
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