As a textile artisan, maker and creative person, who likes to be in creative spaces both in real life and online, the last two years have been, in these circles, a darkness of antisemitism disguised as "criticism of Israel". I have left virtually all of these places, both physical and digital, and now spend my time almost exclusively in Jewish contexts.
We Jews are a tiny minority. In Sweden, where I live, and in the world, and consequently, the Jewish textile craft world is quite small in the amount of people. But that is where the warmth, support, consideration and deep understanding beyond clichés are found. In addition, I and my Jewish friends have been embraced by a few but strong non-Jews who have been there and dare to show us their support. I am very grateful to them.
One of the most important and emotionally life saving spaces has been Beautifully Jewish, created by Tanya Singer . Most of the members are based in the US so meetings IRL has not been possible for me but the online support and jewish creative joy has been amazing. I have also connected with several amazing makers in Israel that I now feel are friends for life, for example Tula Weissberg and Anna from By Amalie whith whom I have made heartwarming and exciting collaborations.
Challah cover made with Tula Weissberg's fabrics, eco printed with Eucalyptus leaves, in Israel, repurposed vintage fabrics and hand embroidered by me
But it is difficult to ignore the cowardice of those who were once our friends and colleagues. Those who have been affected by and enthusiastically embraced the ”cult” now known as Palestinianism. Those who uncritically swallow all the lies and accusations thrown out into the world by terror groups and which are happily repeated by the western media and the their useful idiots. Those who choose to believe everything that Hamas, the Iranian regime and their enormous propaganda machines pump out into the world, where a false narrative and an unprecedented falsification of history take hold and becomes the truth.
We have seen it before: during the revolution in Iran in 1979, the left/Marxists and Islamists joined forces. The Islamists promised the left everything they wanted if they would only cooperate with them to overthrow the Shah. Once he had fled Iran, the Islamists did what they always do: they slaughtered their left-wing allies and anyone who disagreed with them and instituted the cruel, bloody Islamist regime that has ruled ever since and has been the head of the snake when it comes to all the hatred of Jews, Israel and western values in the world.
Now we are seeing this repeat itself throughout the Western world. How people are actively working to overthrow Western democracies. They find faults and shortcomings in democratic countries, which of course will always exist, and use these to join forces with Islamists to overthrow our societies. This obviously includes an unabashed and boundless hatred of Jews, which of course never looks exactly the same as the hatred of Jews in previous generations, because that wouldn't work. The hatred of Jews that can pass and be accepted in this day and age is antizionism which is a pure hate movement that has nothing to do with Zionism. It uses concepts and expressions that are appropriate for our time to mask the age old hatred of Jews.
Lets return to the world of textile crafts and how antizionism has taken hold there. It manifests itself in the same way as in most other areas. Jews have been excluded, felt unwelcome, threatened, ignored, ridiculed and gaslit.
A few days ago, a post was made on Instagram in Swedish about how textile crafts always have been political throughout history. Examples given included the French Revolution and World War II.
Pussy hats (which later excluded Jewish women from their organisation and came out as Jew haters) and hats related to ICE and what is happening in the United States right now were also mentioned. The comments section was full of cheers and applause. And the person who wrote the post is neither hateful, political, nor someone who promotes antisemitism. Not in any way. But this post became a symbol, for me, of the general hypocrisy that has existed and continues to exist in these circles. And the comment section is a perfect example of that.
That's when I wrote a comment about the hypocrisy. The deep hypocrisy, where only certain things are acceptable and safe to talk about. Where certain things can be mentioned as signs of rebellion and strength. And other things pass in silence. What is mentioned and called bravery is often just performative expressions that are more about showing one's own goodness, where people can feel brave and good in a harmless way, even though there is no risk whatsoever. The truly brave people who risk everything are ignored at best or mocked and hated at worst. Because, of course, privileged people who signal their goodness cannot bear to hear that their hypocrisy and double standard is obvious to some of us.
Jews and the collective trauma we experienced on October 7th 2023 and every day since then has been completely ignored and rejected in the spaces we used to frequent. And not only ignored, many people have taken an open and proud stance for the ones who want to murder us and erase the only Jewish state in the world (that would be a real genocide). For the ones who massacred our people in unimaginable brutal ways. They have defended them, minimized or denied their atrocities and happily entered the cult of Palestinianism.
The fact that Swedish knitters would care more about the internal affairs in the US (pussy hats and ICE hats) and express their outrage, go all in for the Palestinianism cult, but totally ignore the mass slaughter happening right now in Iran, the massacres of minorities in Syria and many more cases of incredible suffering, is a total moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy. That these people see themselves as the good ones, the ones standing up for human rights, is completely absurd and mocks real suffering.
Every Jew I interact with has exactly the same or similar experience. Of being left out, betrayed, silenced and ignored. We, the jewish people have a long story of surviving and coping with trauma. We acknowledge our trauma, our collective, centuries long traumas, survival and stories of resilience. And then we keep building, creating, supporting, choosing Jewish pride and joy. We never stay in victimhood and that is our survival strength and the unique qualities of the Jewish people. But we will not accept to be gaslit. And when we are we will point that out. As I did and have done since October 7th. I have paid a heavy price both socially, financially and mentally, but I would do it all over again if I needed. I will always call out the cowards and the hypocrites.
Being gaslit for over two years and for some of us, for generations, creates a lot of anger. And anger is a resonable response to that experience.
For some reason, we are the only victims that are expected to always answer and receive disaster with grace. We are supposed to always be kind, generous, explain ourselves to the moon and back. We are always supposed to behave better, nicer and accept to be constantly gaslit with a smile and an open heart.
Well, I’m not doing that. Never have and never will. I am not a Jew with trembling knees nor am I accepting blows with a smile. I fight back, I express my anger and I refuse to play by their rules. I’m not angry all the time (if someone thought so) as that would be unbearable and I work on always moving through the anger and the frustration towards pride and joy in my heritage and my making. I still have a long way to go to do that in a healthy way without letting it take a too big toll on my mental health, so it’s a constant work in progress.
My primary way of coping with and channeling the anger towards something healthy and good is my creative process.
During these two years I have created lots of embroideries, bags, Judaica (jewish religious items) and more that have given me and other people our strength and pride back when we have felt exhausted.
In one of my latest posts on Instagram and Facebook I shared some of the knitting patterns and making initiatives created by Jews (exclusively Jews, because no one else does it) in memory of those who were massacred on 7 October 2023 and for jewish pride and resilience.
In the coming Newsletter I will share more about what I'm working on right now. It has to do with The Lion of Judah and The Lion and the Sun on the real Iranian flag. Stay tuned to see more about that.
Take care and thank you for reading and supporting my work
Lots of love,
Yael
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