We're NOT Doomed: April 14, 2026
It might be worth paying attention to strike wins...
The one day Jewish holiday of Yom HaShoah began at sundown last night. This is the Jewish day to honor and remember the victims of the Shoah, the Holocaust.
For me, even though I’m Jewish, the Holocaust has always been something I’ve looked at from the outside. My family began leaving Eastern Europe at the very end of the 1800s. They were one of the first families to immigrate to the US with HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society).
My family’s story in Eastern Europe looks a lot like Fiddler on the Roof. Fleeing for their lives from pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, the only part of Eastern Europe Jews were allowed to live in, work in, or exist in at all.
Every Yom HaShoah, or International Holocaust Remembrance Day (UN’s designated commemoration) I’m yet again reminded that for most people this is it. This is the big bad moment of destruction in Jewish history. Nothing else, everything else has been all sunshine and rainbows for Jews.
And I know where it came from. Jews have been the scapegoats of, well, everything, since Judaism has existed. We are blamed for every single thing that goes wrong in the world, economic, political, cultural, you name it, we’re somehow responsible.
And part of that almost makes sense.
Why do people say “Jews control the money”?
Being money lenders was a sin in medieval Christianity, so Jews got this “dirty” job. Why did Jews handle the money? Because they were the only ones who would.
“Jews control Hollywood.”
Well, we did start it. Why? Because Jews were excluded from most professions, so we created our own and gave each other jobs so everyone was working.
Jews have been given nothing and made it work time and time again, and then we became successful and that success became a problem. We were ran out of town, killed, or forced to convert to Christianity, rinse and repeat.
The Holocaust is just the most well known of these examples.
The other thing with the Holocaust is it makes people to associate Jews with Germany and whiteness.
Some Jews are white, in terms of literal skin color. But it’s conditional in terms of racial identity because, well, the Shoah literally happened because H*tler saw Jews as an evil “race.”
White Jews are white….until we’re not. And when we’re in a room with other white people, you can best believe we are hyper aware of that distinction.
But many Jews around the world are not white at all. Some of them are from Eastern Europe, and have the Ashkenazi traditions that get the most attention (another thing we need to work on).
But there are also Sephardic Jews who are descendants of those who were killed, or expelled (probably not those who converted to Christianity) after the Alhambra Decree in the 1400s.
Mizrahi Jews are from MENA. I mean there is non biblical evidence that all Jews are from MENA thousands of years ago, but that’s a whole different discussion.
There are also Beta Yisrael from Ethiopia, Italkim from Italy and many many more. There are only 14 million of us still around but we are a vibrant and culturally diverse Ethnoreligion (that means we are a religion AND an ethnicity, by the way.)
Sometimes I think about how just without the Shoah, by now there would be double or triple the amount of Jews alive today. You go back to the pogroms, and there are even more. Spain and we’d certainly be one of the largest religions in the world.
But anytime we show any prospect of actually being successful of thriving, we’re the evil race that must be stopped.
So this Yom HaShoah, I implore you, please consider how you talk about Jews, how you refer to our generational trauma and how you associate the Shoah with our story. It is a part of our story, one of the most recent parts, certainly the most violent recent part, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just another in a long list of stories about our destruction and survival.
That’s what Am Yisrael Chai means, by the way.
The PEOPLE of Israel live.
Not the country, the people of the tribe of Israel, the Jews.
Michigan
Wed, Feb 24 - I know this story is almost 2 months old now, but it’s one of those that deserves way more attention than it’s gotten.
The Carter Center and the Ford Center are teaming up to help protect the General Midterm election in Michigan.
Michael Ford said:
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation is proud of its partnership with The Carter Center and our mutual efforts to restore public trust in our electoral processes.
He continues:
A democratic system of government reflects citizen interest and engagement and also reinforces confidence in our electoral systems. Along with our good friends at The Carter Center, a relationship that reflects the deep friendship of the two former presidents, we embrace this nonpartisan effort to ensure that our elections accurately reflect the public will.
The initiative is nonpartisan and will train Michiganders to be election observers and make sure all election laws are followed and the elections are as safe and secure as possible across the state.
Anything supporting safe and secure elections (not based on MAGA’s definition) makes me feel less Doomed every time.
Durant, Oklahoma
Wed, March 24 - When The Choctaw Nation heard that DHS was trying to purchase a vacant Big Lots distribution center they decided to buy it instead.
It started five months ago, when they voted in favor of a resolution to oppose DHS purchasing the property. And last month they upped that form a mere opposition to just buying the property so DHS couldn’t.
Chief Gary Batton said in a statement:
The Choctaw Nation’s continued growth is creating new opportunities to strengthen our economic impact and expand our long-term business strategy. We are evaluating how to use this adjoining property as part of our efforts to support operational growth and exploring a variety of potential uses that align with our strategic vision. This is an opportunity to enhance our presence and continue driving economic prosperity for our tribal members and the surrounding community.
I love when organizations and groups do something to help protect their members and the rest of the community and make it sound so innocent and just a mere coincidence.
It really is one of the best ways to fight back, in my opinion. I mean DHS can’t argue that it was politically motivated if it’s merely about *blinks innocently* economic prosperity.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly feel less Doomed hearing a story like this.
New York City, New York
Tue, April 7 - NYU Faculty went on strike on March 23 and by March 26 they were voting to ratify their new contract. By April 7 the contract was official.
This is the power of a union and of striking.
The union says this is a huge win:
Our agreement with the NYU administration includes historic economic improvements and establishes important new workplace rights for all contract faculty. It not only improves our lives as faculty, but also makes NYU a more equitable, stronger, and freer university.
That’s not something you hear much right now. So it’s really wonderful to hear it here.
It’s an important time to remember a power of striking since we are attempting the first Indivisible endorsed general strike in two weeks on May 1.
And watching those that are successful make me feel less Doomed every single time.
I hope you learned something and feel less Doomed!
Remember, our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!