15/12/2023
(Issue 19): Culture & Politics: How to Hold the Truth by Tamar Ashdot
In this raw & vulnerable account, Tamar writes about untangling her personal and familial history from systems of oppression and asking the difficult questions that often lead to dismantling what we’re taught, in order to unveil the truth.
“Because I was raised in America, to an American mother, it has become clear to me that American vocabulary collapses Israelis and Jews into one. This perception complicated a lot of my childhood, as my father was raised by Haredi grandparents, and had a troubled relationship with Judaism. He chose to raise me with fragments of religion, whatever was brought with him post-1948 into the world of Israeli statehood.
I was raised in Brooklyn, New York. I gained my consciousness very early on, before the age of 7. Sometime around the Second Intifada, not flying into Jerusalem for my grandmother’s funeral because of security concerns, and 9/11, walking home from school amidst clouds of ashes. I grew up in a space where criticizing Israel was a common Shabbat dinner discussion for my father’s family, and it was expected that one were to come armed with opinions.
Growing up in American schools, I was often asked to articulate and educate others about Israel-Palestine, to be a primary source document for Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, who couldn’t envision the reality. There were flaws with placing this expectation upon me: I was still young, a product of Western media, uneducated on everything that was required to tell the truth. “
Read the rest of her piece at mixedmag.co 🌟
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