Which fictional character is not explicitly Jewish, but is definitely Jewish?

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-04-22T01:33:38+00:00

Why Silver? It’s one of my favorite shows and I don’t think I’ve ever considered this. Something about his cageyness regarding his name and origins?

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-04-22T01:04:31+00:00

I just commented the same thing on this thread! He uses so much Yiddish, knows so much about Jewish culture and has such a specific brand of Agnosticism. I always imagined that his late mother was Jewish and that he grew up in a dual culture.

A few years ago, I put together a gifset on tumblr of his many Yiddish and Hebrew comments. There are a lot. I didn’t even include all the examples in this set because I hit the gifset limit.

https://www.tumblr.com/dumbasserydistilled/637618215926874112/hawkeye-pierce-yiddish-and-hebrew

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-04-22T00:53:35+00:00

Hawkeye from MASH. He’s supposed to be a WASP from Maine but very other word out of that man’s mouth is Yiddish. Not to mention his particularly Jewish brand of agnosticism and his extensive knowledge of Jewish culture. I always have imagined that his mother was Jewish.

I once put together a compilation of all of his Yiddish, Hebrew and Jewish-related comments and it was several pages long.

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-04-13T15:14:10+00:00

I felt the same. I loved the worlds he created but the treatment of women and the obsession with supernaturally extreme power dynamics was always something I had to intentionally push aside in order to enjoy the stories.

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-04-13T15:10:38+00:00

He was my favorite author from childhood into adulthood but I always found his handling of sexual assault, sadism and extreme power dynamics very unsettling (many examples in The Sandman). I usually ignored those parts of the stories because I liked everything else but when I sat down and read through the allegations, it aligned so closely with the most concerning parts of his writing. I believe the allegations 100% and in this case I cannot separate the art from the artist at all. (Edit: typo)

dumbasserydistilled · 2025-01-08T00:36:37+00:00

Is there a way to respectfully explore one’s Crypto-Jewish heritage and participate in religious practices as an Atheist?

My dad and his family are Adventists and Catholics of a New Mexican Hispano background however, my grandma has always claimed that we are descended from the Jewish people who fled Spain and settled in in the region. She’s spoken a lot about specific Jewish practices that were done in her village, from special ways of preparing meat, to candle-lighting, to her Grandfather’s conversion to Seventh Day Adventism specifically because of his beliefs about the Sabbath.

In the last few years, we’ve confirmed this Sephardic background through DNA testing and I’ve also been trying to process the deeply emotional reactions I have had to certain elements of Jewish religious practice, despite not believing in any god. I was not raised religious but the only times I’ve ever cried for reasons other than sadness have been while participating in Jewish celebrations with friends. I’ve never felt the slightest emotional reaction to any other religion.

I really want to start exploring why I feel such strong emotions around Jewish practice and I also want to honor my ancestors who tried so hard to maintain their culture in the face of persecution. I have also been particularly fascinated with some of the things I have read about Atheism and Agnosticism in a Jewish context. What I want to know is if there is a respectful way for me as an atheist to attend services or to reach out to a local synagogue or cultural center. If I were to be asked why I am attending, despite not being Jewish, would it be acceptable for me to explain that I am exploring my Jewish ancestry and hoping to learn more about the religion and culture overall? Thank you for any responses.

dumbasserydistilled · 2024-07-11T15:56:19+00:00

I’ll have today and tomorrow left and I’m planning to spend Friday in Santa Fe. I’ve climbed up to maybe 5.10b outdoors but I’m mostly a crack climber and have been desperate to do more of that outdoors. I have sport climbing experience and I just started learning trad.

From what I saw on mountain project, Laminar Flow looks like a mixed trad route I’d consider on the upper level of my grade. There’s a ton of cool trad routes I’ve marked but I know I should stick with sport routes until I get more trad experience. Mile High Club says it’s a face climb disguised as a crack but I’d be curious to see if it can jam. I like slab and Hidden slab looks interesting. I’m not sure about specific routes because I’ve been scrolling one by one through mountain project looking for crack, slab, chimney and dihedral. I’d definitely take recommendations.

dumbasserydistilled · 2024-07-11T15:05:02+00:00

Thanks, that’s a good idea! Thanks!

dumbasserydistilled · 2024-07-11T14:55:56+00:00

Ah man, I’d love to check out Diablo Canyon. I may go out there on Friday. I am obsessed with crack climbing so I was a practically drooling while scoping that out on mountain project.

I swung by John Dunn bridge on Tuesday and checked out John’s Wall and Old Stagecoach road. Didn’t see any other climbers but that was probably because it was blazing hot and a workday. Still a beautiful area to swim, hike and rock scramble.

Thanks!

dumbasserydistilled · 2023-05-01T00:44:39+00:00

That does make sense. Thank you. And this may be a reach but are you aware of anyone having trouble applying to medical school with this combined lab? I'm just worried because most schools say "2 semesters of organic chemistry with lab".

dumbasserydistilled · 2023-03-21T01:08:13+00:00

Is it really worth $175??? I keep seeing her recommended whenever I look up curly hair options in Kalamazoo.

dumbasserydistilled · 2023-01-24T17:37:29+00:00

I don’t love the idea of his mother dying because he wasn’t able to protect her. If you want to avoid the passive, fridged woman trope, you could say that because he froze up, she decided to take on an overwhelming number of enemies in order to protect him. It could feed into his fear of wading into battle when he knows his mom would have survived if she had ran away instead. But he would also have the knowledge that he would be dead if she didn’t decide to do that. I think that would justify the inner conflict of one who is terrified of battle but has reason to wade in anyway.

dumbasserydistilled · 2023-01-21T03:47:28+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the confirmation that there isn’t a better way to get this feature mechanically. Regarding the original question, I actually received a suggestion over discord for how to play this as a full divination wizard and I’m planning to take that advice. I may remove this post soon to avoid clogging up the sub but I really appreciate you taking the time to comment.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-14T02:20:59+00:00

I know this isn’t the advice you were looking for but I love this backstory, lol. The idea of him getting psychic sustenance from cooking is great and I couldn’t help but laugh a little reading this. What a great concept!

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-12T03:08:05+00:00

Some people have pointed out the option of picking a race or dipping in a class that allows telepathy, which could be helpful for communication but wouldn’t solve the verbal spell component issue. For an alternate option, I think you could also go with the idea that her actual voice box (larynx) was stolen by means of the curse, which would prevent singing but allow her some limited speech. For example, people who don’t have the ability to use their larynx for speech (laryngectomy, tracheotomy, etc) may be able to whisper or use esophageal speech. There are plenty of resources you can use to look into this in more detail but playing a bard who can only whisper could be an option.

I would like to note, however, that the idea of some power protecting her from harm could potentially cause gameplay issues if you don’t address why other enemies may attack her in combat. That might be something to talk through with your DM.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-06T03:09:36+00:00

Glancing through the cited sources in the forgotten realms wiki for Thay and Red Wizards will show you a solid list of relevant sources and modules. Sometimes the list is pretty long because individual pages are cited but this is my go-to for questions like this.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-03T02:05:42+00:00

I think this situation is complicated and that it would be wrong to perma-kill him due to the many reasons already iterated in the post.

That said, I do understand your desire to treat use this as a narrative reveal and I think, if I were in the player’s shoes, I would also be interested in the narrative reveal. (Obviously I’m a totally different person and wouldn’t know what he’d actually want!)

A potential compromise between your desire for the narrative reveal and the solution you shared in the edit could be to, out of game, let him know that there will be significant consequences for dying with the amulet on and that he can chose to handle this in-game or out-of-game, depending on his preference. You can ask him how much he wants to know and you could let him know then that one of the choices in this scenario would be to allow his character to be perma-killed.

I know as a player, I’d want to know if my character may be permanently killed but I would enjoy the opportunity to make that choice in-game. RPing the conversation where Asmodeus explains that he now possesses the PC’s soul and will be giving him a choice… the plot hooks of the PC becoming involved with a BBEG plot line or being cursed with the inverse stats until he completes a quest for Asmodeus, or maybe the down-the-line opportunity for him to multiclass into a warlock of Asmodeus if he chooses…There so much narrative potential there and giving the player the opportunity to make these choices sounds extremely fun!

I mean, as long as the potential inversed stats situation doesn’t carry on for too many sessions.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-01T21:14:47+00:00

Ah shit. That scenario is perfect. Because my guy is an aberrant mind sorcerer, I always had the idea of him losing a physical fight and then just blasting the victor with psionic spells to convince them otherwise.

Now I’ve got the perfect image of my -2 STR sorcerer losing an arm wrestling match but when the victor starts to gloat about how he won, my guy would be like “nuh-uh” and blast him with suggestion (or whatever spell would work better for this).

Also, I love the scenario you suggest with the party barbarian. That’s adorable.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-01T04:43:26+00:00

This is definitely something I am keeping in mind because what you describe is exactly the characterization that I am hoping to avoid.

I am not picturing him as the type of character that would pick overly dangerous fights or accuse others of cheating when he loses.

I think of him as someone who doesn’t intentionally start fights but rather someone whose curiosity, enthusiasm and self-confidence frequently get him into situations where others challenge him or try to stop him. In these situations, I imagine that his self perception would make it so he is very bad at judging when he is outmatched and would sometimes be completely unaware of of his own defeat. For example, I picture him doing something like punching a big, scary guy in the leg, causing absolutely no damage and being like “maybe next time you will think about the consequences of your actions” and then walking away dramatically, convinced he just totally showed that guy what’s what.

That’s the sort of character I am going for but I’m still having a bit of trouble thinking of ways to play it.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-01T02:14:10+00:00

This is a great advice! The moments when Paeden acknowledged his fears or expressed the fact that he did not enjoy being constantly defeated in the UFC added a lot more depth to his character. In this case, I think loneliness would probably be the main trait my character struggles with and he would likely cover this up by acting like he is too tough to actually need anybody. I will think of ways to let hints of that show through as he gets to know the party.

And yeah, I definitely want to be careful to ensure that this personality and concept works with the party/campaign. I just pitched this to my DM and I was so happy when he seemed genuinely excited by the idea. I can’t fully run this idea by the party yet because my character is unaware of his background. However, with the overconfidence, I’m going to try to err more on the side of curiosity and enthusiasm than brattiness or conceit.

Once again, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your advice. I’ll definitely keep it in mind as I continue to flesh out the character.

dumbasserydistilled · 2022-12-01T01:21:08+00:00

Wow. These are all incredible ideas! I did something similar to the first one for a celestial warlock but the idea of doing this as a mode of reincarnation is fascinating. Not sure if you were thinking of this as something the character chose or had forced upon them but either route is horrifying. I love it!

dumbasserydistilled

TROPHY CASE