Jess

I write/memorize poetry. Not a professional. Tattooed Zionist/Conservative Jew/New England sports fan.🎗️

[Elisha Wiesel @ElishaWiesel]

My father and Zohran's father, on the record. Vote! Your choice in this election matters, so don't throw it away with a protest vote. Early voting now open.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you're illiberal.

If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you're a fundamentalist.

If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian.

If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you're a terrorist.

[Jess @PoetJess]

@GreekGodOfHops Every fan base has its idiots. Keep being awesome. 💙

[Emily Damari Amit @EmilyDamari1]

Dear Members of the @PulitzerPrizes board,

My name is Emily Damari. I was held hostage in Gaza for over 500 days.

On the morning of October 7, I was at home in my small studio apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas terrorists burst in, shot me and dragged me across the border into Gaza. I was one of 251 men, women, children, and elderly people kidnapped that day from their beds, their homes, and a music festival.

For almost 500 days I lived in terror. I was starved, abused, and treated like I was less than human. I watched friends suffer. I watched hope dim. And even now, after returning home, I carry that darkness with me - because my best friends, Gali and Ziv Berman are still being held in the Hamas terror tunnels.

So imagine my shock and pain when I saw that you awarded a Pulitzer Prize to Mosab Abu Toha.

This is a man who, in January, questioned the very fact of my captivity. He posted about me on Facebook and asked, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” He has denied the murder of the Bibas family. He has questioned whether Agam Berger was truly a hostage. These are not word games - they are outright denials of documented atrocities.

You claim to honor journalism that upholds truth, democracy, and human dignity. And yet you have chosen to elevate a voice that denies truth, erases victims, and desecrates the memory of the murdered.

Do you not see what this means? Mosab Abu Toha is not a courageous writer. He is the modern-day equivalent of a Holocaust denier. And by honoring him, you have joined him in the shadows of denial.

This is not a question of politics. This is a question of humanity. And today, you have failed it.

[Jess @PoetJess]

@dieworkwear I like the addition of the “cute dog though” comment. Credit where credit is due: very cute dog.

(I also prefer American-made, or at least <place not known for slave labor>-made, but I don’t always remember to look.)

[Jess @PoetJess]

The halo is not big in Jewish art (according to Grok, but it sounds right) because of the avoidance of anything that might stray into idolatrous territory.

https://t.co/gdoms5GScr

[Jess @PoetJess]

The origin of the halo came up in a class on this week’s Torah portion. (It was a tangent.)

I think the only surprise in Grok’s answer is how long it took for the early Christians to adopt it.

https://t.co/OYwUmpsGww

[Coach Dovid 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 @dip3206]

Join us as we honor the 20th anniversary of my mother's passing. Connect through meaningful conversation about our mothers' Jewish journeys. Embrace the Purim spirit as we explore the Jewish concept of love. Please note the new time: 4:30 PM EST.
https://t.co/IxvSchkQOk

[Jess @PoetJess]

I’m as big a fan of grey as any Millennial, but this is depressing. Could you other generations please embrace color again?

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

In fact, colors in all objects have been steadily neutralized since 1800, per a study of photos of 7000 objects in the UK Science Museum.

What is behind the relentless shift to neutrality?

[Jess @PoetJess]

@MrAndyNgo Husband: “Honey, everything you thought you knew about me is a lie. I’ve been living a lie this whole time.”

Wife: *is devastated*

People supporting husband: “What a b*t¢h!”

[Jess @PoetJess]

Apparently Ohio is the new Florida? I’d heard a bunch of these, but calling strange things “Ohio” was a new one.

(I don’t intend to use any of these. The only young gen slang I like is “bop”—which is adorable.)

https://t.co/XINW3LtYcB

[Jess @PoetJess]

@dsisme48 So sorry for your loss. My cat is 14; I dread that day. Your beautiful boy was lucky to spend his long life with you.

[Jess @PoetJess]

@SpencerKlavan We had to learn up to the 12s. (Millennial, USA)

Arithmetic has been useful. It’s sad that kids leave school without developing the skill.

[Chris Palmer, MD @ChrisPalmerMD]

Schizophrenia means someone has chronic psychotic symptoms.

Bipolar disorder means someone has mood episodes, including hypomanic or manic ones.

Neither diagnosis explains the underlying causes of these symptoms.

It’s 2025—we can do better than just labeling symptoms.

[Coach Dovid 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 @dip3206]

https://t.co/E0LsxgEMni

[Hebrew Hammer🇺🇸🇮🇱📟 @HebrewHammer_3]

"זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק"

🚨 A Chilling Message Left in Hebrew Inside the Coffins

Among all the horrors of this war, Hamas made sure to send us a clear message—written in Hebrew inside the coffins of our murdered hostages. Their declaration? They will never give up a single inch of "Palestine." Not Gaza. Not the West Bank. All of it.

This is the core of their fight. They will never stop. They even wrote it in Hebrew, so no one can ignore it. For those who still refuse to see reality, the message is loud and clear. We must acknowledge it, understand it, and act accordingly.

📲 Stay updated – Join Israel Online Family:
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[Jess @PoetJess]

A reason for hope on a dark day.

[Karol Markowicz @karol]

A lot of Jews are despondent today, with the return of the bodies of the Bibas children, and when people are hurting they can feel like they're all alone. I've seen a lot of "the world was quiet/we're on our own" and that sort of thing. And yes, much of the world will never be our friend, that's absolutely true. But if you live in America then you live in a country that has very much stood by the side of Israel and American Jews. President Trump seems more affected by the return of our dead babies than some Jews do and for the first time in a long time Israel has a true ally in the American president, one who will let them finish this war. My timeline is filled with American Christians praying for us. I've gotten so many DMs from non-Jews hurting alongside us. We're so blessed to be Americans and we can't let our pain blind us to that. Look around, we are surrounded by friends in a country that, and this is key, allows us to defend ourselves. There will always be people who hate us, and politicians who give the rote "hate has no home here" while allowing hate a home, but we are the luckiest Jews in history to live in a place where so many have our back. Don't sink into the sadness, marvel as how few Jews in history have it as good as we do and use that positive energy to stand up for Jews who aren't as lucky as we are. Alongside all that, a powerful Israel exists and will exist. It's a day of sadness but it is an era of Jewish strength.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I say ‘I love you’ a lot, to my husband, my kids and my close friends, but I find expressing ‘love’ for total strangers dubious. Life has taught me there’s a correlation between those who claim to love humanity in the round, which is easy to claim and signals the speaker’s virtue, and a lack of empathy and kindness when it comes to interacting with real, messy, imperfect individual humans, which we all are.

[Jess @PoetJess]

@elonmusk I got the J&J and spent a miserable night with the room spinning. I was done after that.

I took it hoping for the deadly clots—so it disappointed on multiple counts. (Lockdowns had already taken too much of a toll.)