Mini-challenge: Jewltide

[larissabernstein]

This mini-challenge is meant to bring together people who love to read or create for fandoms that feature Jewish themes or characters.

Jewish themes are understood in a broad and varied way: from the religious to the cultural sphere to historical events, and this includes also how these big topics influence the lives of the characters on a smaller, daily-life scale. If a character puts importance on their Jewish identity in some way, this is already reason enough to include them in this challenge, even if Jewishness is a subtle background flavour in a canon text. 

Jewltide is open to anyone, no matter whether you identify as Jewish or not, and I just ask all participants to act in good faith and tread respectfully.

If you would like to see more Jewish representation and want to point people towards your requests, please leave a comment under this post and mention your AO3 username, relevant fandoms/characters, your letter (if you have one), possible prompts or anything you want to highlight. Here's a handy template:

<strong>AO3 Name:</strong> <user name=YOURUSERNAME site=ao3> <strong>Letter Link:</strong> <a href="YOUR LETTER URL HERE">My Letter</a> <strong>Fandom(s):</strong> <strong>Character(s):</strong> <strong>Comment:</strong>

I have also started compiling a list of fandoms in this year's tagset that feature Jewish characters or Jewish themes: feel free to add more to the spreadsheet. (It's open to editing for anyone who has the link, so just be careful with it, please. Unfortunately, spreadsheets tend to get messed up easily.)

If you write a gift or treat in these fandoms and think it fits the Jewltide challenge, please tag them with "Jewltide" on the AO3, so interested readers can find them more easily.

Sometimes Jewish characters are, to put it mildly, less than flatteringly depicted in canon media, and sometimes the way Jewish themes are approached may irk us. I would still like to allow such media in this mini-challenge, with the caveat that if you want to see fic for it, you should address possibly problematic aspects in the comment (here on DW and on the spreadsheet). The beauty of fic is that it can fix where canon falls short. <3

I expect our list to grow, so I will update this post accordingly. For now, we have these fandoms listed on the spreadsheet (in alphabetical order):
 

• Addams Family (Sonnenfeld Films)
• Alpennia - Heather Rose Jones
• Babylon Berlin (TV)
• Beetlejuice (Perfect/Brown & King)
• Being Human (US/Canada)
• Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
• Bombshells (DC Comics)
• Call Me By Your Name (2017)
• Clueless (1995)
• Covert Affairs
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Dance of the Vampires (Broadway 2002/2003) - Steinman/Ives/Kunze 
• England Series - K. J. Charles
• Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
• Fantastic Four (2015)
• Fantastic Four (Comicverse)
• Fantastic Four (Movies 2005-2007) 
• Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules 
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Fudge Series (Judy Blume)
• God of Vengeance - Ash
• His Royal Secret - Lilah Pace
• Houdini & Doyle (TV)
• John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme Season 9 
• King Falls AM (Podcast)
• Little Shop of Horrors - Menken/Ashman
• Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
• Oliver Appropriate - Say Anything (Album)
• Rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism RPF
• Russian Doll (TV 2019)
• Seinfeld
• Shiva Baby (2020)
• Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik)
• Tanz der Vampire | Dance of the Vampires - Steinman/Kunze
• The Alienist
• The Magic School Bus
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• The Try Guys (Webseries)
• The Will Darling Adventures - K. J. Charles
• These Violent Delights - Micah Nemerever
• Water Rats
• Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass - Sonya Taaffe 
• Yudah Cohen Series - Rebecca Fraimow

Comments

[bronze_ribbons]

AO3 Names: ribbons (have also participated as "mechaieh")

Letter Link: I rarely sign up for Yuletide proper because of RL deadlines, but I manage to post pinch-hits/NYRs every few years (just posted one under the wire for the below, in fact), and the drabble invitational looks exceptionally distracting enticing (and I know that enough people are requesting the below fandom to plug it, plus I want to read the fics written for them . . . =) )

Fandom(s): England Series - K. J. Charles

Character(s): Daniel da Silva (who also has some significant cameos in the Will Darling Adventures)

Comment: Think of England is set in 1904, and period-typical anti-Semitism/thoughtlessness is present throughout (even in the HEA - there's one phrase by Daniel's lover that makes me cringe from head to toe every time I revisit it), as Daniel is not the POV character (except in an epilogue published outside of the book, available on the author's website). I've seen some readers troubled by aspects of his characterization that struck them as problematically stereotypical (e.g., his overly oily hair, albeit self-inflicted and in keeping with his persona as a dandy), but I also know of other Jewish readers who adore the series wholeheartedly, so mileage definitely varies. (Full disclosure: I am Jewish-adjacent but not Jewish; that's a long story in itself.)

I don't want to go into detail as to why Daniel is an absolute gift of a character (both from reading and fic-writing perches), as part of the fun of first encountering Think of England is facet after improbable yet believable facet coming to light to the astonishment/chagrin/enchantment of the POV character, but oh goodness, he is a gift. He's both stunningly, sexily competent and a snarky asshole, and man is that catnip to my circles. ;)