(if Youre Jewish, The Following Four Photos Of The Vandalism Might Be Upsetting To See, Just As A Warning.)

Help a Jewish Community Buy Back Its Own Damn Synagogue!

Firsty, thank you for reading this, and I hope you’ll get through it and give us the honor of a donation, firstly, and a reblog, secondly. Maybe even a note to any friends you have outside of tumblr! 

If you don’t care about the history, skip to the bold at the end! 

This is Temple Emanu-El, in Helena, Montana. At the time it was built, it was the only synagogue between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon. It was built with the hard work of the Jewish community that had come west to seek their fortune and stability, having heard that people were more willing to do business with Jews in the West, a place where social strictures were slightly relaxed. This turned out to be true, and the community thrived. 

This picture resolves small on tumblr, but you can see the love and care they put into it. It’s modeled after the great synagogues of Europe, with heavy stonework, onion domes, and intricate stained glass. The president of the congregation cried at its opening and dedication. 

As the years went on, the West became more settled, and for a series of socio-political reasons of which my History of the American West major ass is well aware but are ultimately unimportant to the issue at hand, Jewish communities left much of the interior west for metropolitan areas. By the 1930s, the Jewish community was so small that they could not justify the large and lavish worship center. 

They sold it to the city for one dollar. 

The promise made to them was that it would be used for the public good. The state readied the former temple for its new function as offices for Social and Rehabilitation Services, sandblasting of the Hebrew inscription, “Gate to the Eternal,” above the entry and removing the star-studded, painted domes.. The copper was stripped from the building and likely reused to re-clad the State Capitol’s dome at about the same time. 

That lasted all of 40 years, when the State of Montana decided to let it sit idle and decay, so they could justify the sale of the building, sold for a pittance to the public good, to the Helena Catholic Diocese for $83,000  (this is an opinion of mine, though it is not an uneducated one, and I do firmly believe it. I do not, however, represent that they allowed it to fall into disrepair to justify the sale as objective fact.) 

This is the building now

In a twist of fate, the diocese can no longer afford to maintain the building. They are selling it, and the Jewish community of Helena is trying to buy it. 

The Montana Jewish Project is being far far far nicer and more politic about this than I would be, but in fairness, they actually how to get Nice Goyim to donate, and I don’t, so. The Diocese is spinning this as selling the building for much less than its worth, which may be true, but if you bought it for $83,000, that would be $280,000 now. 

They are selling it for $925,000. And we have to have 70% of the purchase price by February 28th. Easy terms, right? 

Here’s where you come in! If the idea of Montana’s Jews getting back the building that was sold to the Diocese in spite of the original agreement appeals to you, you can and should donate to their capital campaign. They even have an option for your donation where if we don’t get Emanu-El back, your money will be returned to you instead of being used for other MJP protects and repairs. 

This place won’t just be used for the Jewish community, though I think that would be enough. They want it to be used as a museum and center for the community as well, to teach about Jewish life in Montana, with Jewish cooking classes, and social programs, and teaching non-Jews about Jewish customs and culture. 

I just want to get the cross off the top.

Donate here

Someone just paid me fifteen dollars to tell y'all my opinions on white vegans so here you go.

It's bullshit. The entire premise is bullshit. Everything about veganism is bullshit just in general, but white veganism in general is the fucking SSS-tier FGO Merlin levels of bullshit.

If you're a vegan out of dietary necessity--this post is not about you, move on with your life. That includes "just don't like meat/animal products" because we protect picky eaters indiscriminately in this household.

If you're a vegan because you think it's more ethical your head is so far up your ass you might as well be eating animal products cuz that's what shit sure is.

There is not a single thing ethical about white veganism. It's ridiculous to act that way. Veganism is literally turning your diet into imperialism. What, you think that your quinoa and acai smoothie made with coconut milk and nutella isn't a horrific injustice done to pretty much every indigenous piece of land in the name of feeding your consumerist fad bullshit?

If killing cows is so bad, what's y'all's take on the palm oil plantations they're burning down the Amazon for? Sure, orangutans are really charismatic and all, but what about the 1/3rd known species of birds worldwide and a full 30,000 species of endemic plants in it as well? Where does turning once-staple foods of indigenous people, like quinoa, into massive monocultures which the people who grew it can no longer afford it since it's all getting shipped out via cargo plane to your friendly neighborhood Target factor in?

The meat industry is hurting the environment due to greenhouse gases, you say? What about all the produce that's having to be shipped in from overseas and international waters because it's not like you can fucking grow your pineapples in North Dakota? Where does that carbon footprint factor into the situation? Are you actually being vegan out of concern for the environment, or is it a meaningless gesture to be popular on social media about while refusing to examine the inherent classism and racism baked into the very foundations of your "anyone can do it" diet?

Do you dislike factory farms? Join the club! Neither do most farmers, funnily enough! But where's the exploitation in your neighbor's backyard chicken coop eggs? Is the rabbit fur an angora naturally sheds on its own being spun into high-quality yarn cruelty to the animal? Can you explain to me where the honeybees are getting the bad deal?

If your issue on ethical veganism is animal cruelty, then you campaign for more stringent animal husbandry regulations. You support your local small-scale farmers which treat their animals right that are otherwise getting shoved out of the market due to corporate farm fields. Because if you've got enough grocery money to shop exclusively vegan, you're the kind of person who can go to a farmer's market and actually support your community that way with no real issue, because again, your entire diet culture is wrapped up in needing to be seen as better than others more than anything else. You turned a type of food into evangelical protestantism.

Nothing about white veganism makes any fucking sense the second you look at it for .2 seconds. It is a performative diet made for wannabe Instagram influencers who get off on telling other people that they're evil for eating honey, graciously ignoring that their agave nectar is causing an ecological crisis of overharvesting and throwing desert ecosystems out of whack, among everything else.

It's foolish. It's ridiculous. It's literally not how any of this fucking works. I'm exhausted of people not treating veganism for what it is: Just another fad diet made to take money out of "empaths"' wallets, only this time it's actually managing to fuck over the entire global environment and multiple levels of working class citizens, rather than just being a waste of everyone's fucking time! Congrats, vegans. You have done literally nothing right. You made every single wrong choice and have to double down on it now, because just like in a cult, the second you admit to yourself that maybe this whole schtick isnt environmentally friendly in the slightest, you now have to deal with the repercussions of Literally Everything You Did!

Much easier to just talk about how much healthier you are now that you take a shot of apple cider vinegar every morning on the internet. Takes less effort that way. Get well soon.

EDIT: For clarification just in case any vegans would prefer not to get needlessly mad at me for shit I did not say or mean on a post that I did not tag yet got notes anyway:

"When we say white veganism, we are not saying vegans who are white (as so many of them seem to think). White veganism is a specific type of militant veganism perpetrated by white people in which their diet is a status symbol masquerading as social media activism, where it's more important to stay updated with the current instagram superfood trend than any meaningful activism. The focus has become even less on animal care and has reduced into reactionary anti-animal, and anti-human.

White veganism is a direct cause of purity and social media-based performative culrure and its inherent anxieties, and can act significantly closer to a cult than merely a style of eating. They are often evangelist and militant in their natures, shaming nonvegans out of the concept that "anyone can choose to be vegan" and therefore not living vegan is a moral crime, as well as perpetuating racism, classism, and ableism in their ideals.

I have genuinely no opinion on veganism or vegans. At best I find them often empathetic but misguided and not understanding the full picture (or, if they are vegan out of dietary restrictions or needs, that is not relevant to any of this and i would not presume to speak about nor for them).

But I do have a deep and passionate disdain for veganism as an Instagram trend, especially when those who view it as such act as though it is a moral superiority and prerogative, rather than a fad choice which has become commercialized and sought to make large profits on, often at great social and cultural harm to countless indigenous cultures."

ADHD culture is overusing ( ) and — and ; and … in everything you write because you have so many side thoughts that just GO there and wouldn’t make sense anywhere else

New tag game: are you a Too Many (Parenthesis) ADHD, a Too Many — Hyphens — ADHD, a Too; Many; Semicolons; ADHD, or a Too…. Many…. Ellipses… ADHD…? 

“How arw you paying for photoshop” im not LMAO

also it helps me walk or whatever

[ID: a digitally drawn two-panel comic. / Image 1: Text reads: “How I expected using a cane would feel:” Panel depicts a miserable person in tattered clothes, hunched over a cane and shaking as she walks. / Image 2: Text reads: “How it actually feels:” Panel depicts the same person, now standing tall and wearing flowing wizard robes and a long white beard. Her cane is at her side, glowing with magic, and she looks confident and powerful. /End ID]

I think this is the purple trumpet anon. you asked if it was stained metal or plastic. Hence; It’s metal my dude

It's metal my dude and I've had it for 4 years

What

oh god, absolutely constantly. it's always have you tried yoga, and i have to say "well, justvlike the first sixty times you asked, yes i have, and no, it didn't cure me. that's not how it works." im a lazy ingrate for having to take bed days, and im giving in to my weakness for using a cane. it's the most insulting, invalidating, hurtful bullshit ever. and when it comes from family it's so much more painful because they should be able to see how much you struggle to do the things they constantly recommend

is anyone else with chronic and mental illness constantly lectured by everyone in their life about what they need to be doing to "improve" their life?

I'm just so tired of it. Every doctor, every family member, even my in laws now I'm just constantly told what I need to do better and reminded how I'm not good enough/not doing enough

“If anyone needs to go camping in my state…” “If anyone needs to visit their aunt/cousin/friend…”

STOP. STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP.

FOR YOUR SAFETY, S T O P.

DO NOT VOLUNTEER TO HOST RANDOM STRANGERS. DO NOT AGREE TO BE HOSTED BY A RANDOM STRANGER.

DO NOT PUBLICLY POST THAT YOUR HOUSE WILL BE AN ABORTION SAVE HAVEN. OFFICIAL NETWORKS TO DO THIS ALREADY EXIST, NETWORKS THAT HAVE THE ABILITY TO BACKGROUND CHECK, AND SHIELD THEIR VOLUNTEERS FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT

I know how obnoxious this is to say, but please: reblog this. I see these posts a lot, and I know most of you have good intentions. But these unoffical auntie networks are dangerous, both for those trying to help, and those seeking help. Law enforcement sees you. Violent anti-abortion extremists see you.

[Twitter thread]

-taps mic- the whole MC going "no pain medication, I don't want to cloud my mind" trope is both ableist and shockingly popular for how plainly ableist it is

(protip: if you're at the point where you're being advised to take pain medication by people who don't want to give you pain medication then your mind is most certainly already clouded by pain)

Self Harm Saltines

Catastrophize Benedictine