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dibabka.bsky.social
Babka
@dibabka.bsky.social
820 followers 280 following 2.6K posts
או֜מצװײיִק, דאָלוי פּאָליציי, they/them/zey

Very Serious Political Economist
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dibabka.bsky.social
this is a portion of a drash i gave at shul for matot-massei over the summer. all the feedback i got from other synagogue members about it was positive
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the Executive Director of T’ruah, wrote in the Forward this week “It is time for American Jewry to take an accounting of how many of our communal institutions and leaders are continuing to defend and support a war that has left an unbearable path of death and destruction in its wake.” Truthfully, not only is it long past time, but many of us have been doing that accounting for decades. Curiously, Rabbi Jacobs does not name any specific organizations in this piece. In the context of communal politics, I can understand her strategic intention in not naming names. But for me, speaking generically and not specifically is a dereliction of our ethical obligations to our people. So let’s be clear. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations cares more about Israel than it does about American Jews. They care more about defending a genocide than they do about protecting Jewish communities in the US from fascists. The ADL cares more about Israel, about proximity to authoritarian power, and about defending literal, actual nazis than it does about American Jews. And the Jewish Federations, including here in Portland, cares more about Israel than it does about American Jews. The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland still, to this day, hosts a petition on their website explicitly calling on Oregon lawmakers to reject a ceasefire. And the Jewish Federation has been this way for years. In 2014, when the City of Portland erased disciplinary actions against Portland Police Captain Mark Kruger for building a shrine to Nazi soldiers in Rocky Butte while employed by PPB, what did the Jewish Federation have to say? Nothing. Nothing, because they were too busy justifying Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza in July and August of 2014. Compare how the Jewish Federation addresses actual Nazi ideology among police to how they treat the Oregon Food Bank, or teachers, or nurses, or anyone else who says that it is wrong to murder children. This is the group that claims to speak in the name of our community. Today, we have a failed group of self-proclaimed leaders of the American Jewish community. They have given in to anger and sinat chinam to justify, support, and command atrocities, just like Moshe Rabbeinu in our parashah this week. They attempt to rule by spreading fear and telling us we cannot trust anyone except them and the same security forces, like cops and DHS, that harbor white nationalists and are disappearing our neighbors. And like the Israelites in our parashah this week, we have the choice to refuse. But the choice to reject those who claim to be our community’s leaders comes with the responsibility to speak for ourselves.
October 26, 2025 at 4:40 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
and here i was thinking le guin was writing fiction!
cover of ursula k le guin’s book Catwings. four cats with wings sit on a tree branch
October 26, 2025 at 4:48 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
this is the only ‘mandelbrot set’ im interested in (curiously, my family’s recipe contains no almonds)
Mandel bread recipe
September 24, 2025 at 9:28 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
like 80% of this book is laughing about bad shit, it’s the majority of my people’s humor culture
the big book of Jewish humor
August 13, 2025 at 4:34 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
just as an example - www.oregonbeachvacations.com/listings/217

i do wish it were more affordable!! sucks that there is only moderately expensive and super expensive
6 nights at a house in neskowin for around 1k
August 10, 2025 at 3:45 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
this is deranged, antisocial behavior
pic of fig trees in a sidewalk median with a little sign at the bottom sign that says “Figs: best if bent over and soft like a jelly bag. 4 for $1. Donation in mailbox”
July 29, 2025 at 1:07 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
real ones know
neopets giant omelette
July 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
was reminded today about Yale’s weirdo philosemitic coat of arms. there actually is a fascinating story behind it tho
Yales coat of arms, a blue shield with a gold and white book in the center that says urim and thurim in hebrew. at the bottom it says lux et veritas
June 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
like the value of his investments more than doubled last year!!

for comparison avg hedge fund return was like 10-15% depending on metrics and S&P was 25%. wilding out here
chart from unusual whales showing Wyden’s stock portfolio value went up by 123.8% in 2024
June 30, 2025 at 4:33 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
i was hanging out on state bureaucracy websites a few weeks ago, as one does, and noticed the OR dept of revenue had a big asterisk next to frivolous return penalties that led to this list and i laughed and laughed. lots of sovcits here lol
* "Frivolous" includes, but is not limited to: An argument, without any factual basis, that your constitutional rights were violated. Reliance on a "gold standard" or "war tax" deduction. An argument that wages or salary aren't taxable income. An argument that the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution wasn't properly adopted. An argument that "unenfranchised, sovereign, freemen, or natural persons" aren't subject to tax laws.
June 30, 2025 at 4:41 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
i don't think this is reflected in contemporary historical texts on the issue. generally the period of French influence shows a *worsening* of Muslim-Jewish relations in day-to-day life bc they were governed by diff laws. for example, from Wyrtzen's Making Morocco (2016)
by the time of the Roman Empire, Jewish communities were firmly established in the far west of North Africa. These so-called toshavim , or original “residents,” who arrived in antiquity, are distinguished from the megurashim , the “expelled” Sephardic exiles who were forced to leave the Iberian Peninsula in the fifteenth century. 5 Although this binary, as Schroeter (2008) demonstrates, oversimplifies the multiple and complex identifications of Jews in Morocco, in rough terms, the toshavim settled in both urban and rural areas, with sizable populations in Sefrou, Marrakesh, Mogador, and in the Souss region, the Atlas ranges, and the palm oases on the edge of the Sahara, while the selfidentifying Sephardic megurashim tended to be located in the northern urban areas Tetouan, Tangier, Fes, and Rabat-Salé, where they settled alongside their Muslim counterparts from Al-Andalus. In urban areas, Jewish communities spoke Arabic and Hakétiya (a Judeo-Spanish Ladino-like dialect) and wrote in Arabic, Hebrew, and Judeo-Arabic, which was written with the Hebrew alphabet (Gottreich 2007, 6). Jews in the countryside were integrated in both Tamazight (Middle Atlas and Central High Atlas) and Tashelhit (High Atlas and Souss) Berber-speaking communities. Although a few communities were monolingual Berber/Judeo-Berber speakers (in the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas), most also spoke Arabic (Schroeter 2008, 148–49; Chetrit and Schroeter 2003). When Muslim dynastic states rose in Morocco in the ninth century, Jews and Christians were classified as dhimmi , protected religious minorities. 6 Although dhimmi did not enjoy as many rights as Muslim subjects, they did have some rights. In exchange for paying the jizya tax, they came under the protection of the Muslim ruler, were not obligated to serve in the military, and were granted a degree of administrative autonomy. By the Middle Ages, Morocco’s indigenous Christian population had more or less disappeared and Jews constituted the sole dhimmi protections made Morocco and other areas of North Africa an attractive refuge for Jews fleeing persecution under Christian rule on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. The Andalusian influx in the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries initiated a cultural florescence, and Fes became a major center for Jewish and Muslim learning. Under subsequent Marinid, Saadian, and Alawid dynasties, Jews were incorporated into the makhzan as key advisors. The special relationship between the sultan and the Jewish dhimmi became a prominent feature of urban geography in Morocco’s royal cities, particularly after the creation of the first Jewish quarter, or mellah , in Fes in 1483. 8 Because of their linguistic skills, business contacts, and the extended networks across the Sephardic diaspora, prominent Moroccan Jews were sometimes sent on diplomatic missions to Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 9 In the nineteenth century, the dhimmi status of Morocco’s Jews began to be more ambiguous (Schroeter 2003). In the early 1800s, several major Jewish merchant families were designated as the tujjar al sultan , or royal business agents, in charge of makhzan monopolies over key Moroccan agricultural and manufacturing sectors (Abitbol 1998; Schroeter 1988). At the same time, Jewish traders served as key intermediaries for European economic interests in Morocco, which grew steadily throughout the century. Under the agreements that multiplied between European states and the sultan in the wake of the 1856 Anglo-Moroccan commercial treaty, these protégés (which also included numerous Muslims) were granted legal and fiscal immunity (including exemption from the jizya taxes non-Muslims were required to pay), transforming the dhimmi status quo that had been in place for centuries under Islamic law (Kenbib 1994, 1996). In the 1860s, there were several Western interventions to “protect” Morocco’s Jews, beginning with a visit to Marrakesh in 1863 by Sir
June 26, 2025 at 11:40 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
if u live in these lines then Kathleen Taylor - 1 of 3 senators trying to kill PFA - is your state senator. tell her this amendment is antidemocratic and would destroy a desperately needed lifeline for young families

capitol line - 503-986-1721
email - [email protected]
map of state senate district boundaries, showing that kerns, laurelhurst, buckman, sunnyside, hosford abernathy, richmond, brooklyn, creston kenilworth, reed, woodstock, sellwood, and eastmoreland are all in Kathleen Taylor's district
June 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
me when i do an injection with absolutely no pain, blood, or medication leakage
screenshot of the stardew valley perfection tracker at 100%
May 19, 2025 at 6:02 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
about 18 seconds in :/

hate when the state goons do this
screenshot of one of the state security people grabbing their holstered gun, circled in red
May 9, 2025 at 8:31 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
is this portlands version of the creationist museum
a diorama attached to a power pole on the street with dinosaurs and painted Jesus/catholic saint looking characters on the sides
April 29, 2025 at 2:04 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
many are saying this
cover of Edward Casey’s “Getting Back into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World”. the cover image is a stylized map with the title superimposed over
April 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
ok cause these are French tacos (actually a north african import to europe)
a wrap of meat, sauce, and French fries that’s grilled like a panini. definitely not a taco
April 11, 2025 at 3:40 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
solving the trade deficit by making sure americans can’t buy goods and services. here in the political economy biz we call this thinking outside the box*

*pandora’s box after opening it
screenshot from QTed article “I saw some posts on social media recently making that crazy claim that Trump is crashing the stock market on purpose,” says Marc Short, who served as Trump’s White House legislative affairs director and as a top adviser to Mike Pence. “I suppose one way to induce the Fed to lower rates would be to crash the economy but that seems in line with the viewpoint among the mercantilists in this administration, that crashing our economy is a way to solve the trade deficit. If Americans can no longer afford to buy goods and services it does solve the trade deficit. I’m kind of at a loss for words.”
April 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
a proud Oregon tradition
paragraph about who Portland ‘anarchists’ supposedly ate potatoes dyed red white and blue and drank ipecac to barf those colors to protest George bush the first. In actuality the vomit was sort of a messy brown but this story is where Portland got the nickname of Little Beirut
March 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
lol
A problem of perspective Raymond Williams traces the narrative that rural life has changed dramatically over 7 centuries of people saying the same thing Continued argument about how rural life has changed, still with the same tropes Continued argument about how rural life has changed, still with the same tropes Continued argument about how rural life has changed, still with the same tropes
March 4, 2025 at 3:35 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
one season of gossip girl later
embroidery hoop that has l’shem mitzvat tamim tihyeh in shaded purple lettering with a green vine with pink and blue flowers weaving around the letters
February 22, 2025 at 5:48 PM
dibabka.bsky.social
playing with letter shading :)
an embroidery hoop with shaded purple letters that say לשם מצות תמים תהיה translates as something like “in the name of the mitzvah to become whole”
February 13, 2025 at 1:41 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
personally, i prefer "daddy's home"
photo of an off-white church-looking building that has "Father's House" written in big letters above the front doors
January 17, 2025 at 12:21 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
it’s a big progressive/radlib (nonderogatory) march so that is what it is. these are the orgs nominally involved and some of them have def been working on trans liberation stuff
List of orgs involved in the march being quoted by original poster. ABORTION ACCESS NOW • ALL IN ACTION FUND• FEMINIST • THE FEMINIST FRONT • THE FRONTLINE • HARRIET’S WILDEST DREAMS • NATIONAL WOMEN’S LAW CENTER • NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN • PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA • POPULAR DEMOCRACY • SISTERSONG • TIME TO ACT* • ULTRAVIOLET • WOMEN’S MARCH *note: Time to Act is a growing community of individuals and organizations, including: Advancement Project • Blackout • Center for Constitutional Rights • Center for Empowered Politics • Center for Third World Organizing • Convergence Magazine • Grassroots Global Justice • Movement for Black Lives • Movement Law Lab • Political Research Associates • Project South • Radical Elders • ReFrame • Right to the City • Rising Majority • Ruckus Society • Showing Up for Racial Justice • Solidaire Action • United We Dream • Women’s March
December 18, 2024 at 3:49 AM
dibabka.bsky.social
holiday efficiency is alive and well
giant skeleton in a yard with a skeleton dog next to it wearing a candy cane scarf? maybe a candy cane lei. There are also smaller reindeer behind them (they are not skeletons, lame)
December 16, 2024 at 5:04 AM