Notes on Nationalism: A Comix Collection for Shavuot 5785

What do comix have to teach us about prophecy and dissent?

In a new collection of work compiled from the past year and a half, Rena Yehuda Newman has created a comix resource for all-night Shavuot study. This short reader combines Torah with the act of witness and rebuke: after over 600 days of the State of Israel's brutal bombardment and genocidal starvation of Gaza, these comics combine Jewish theology, personal reflection, and political protest.

Using comics from their personal journals, this reader covers themes of empire, fascism, genocide, zionism, white supremacy, antisemitism, exile, Torah, and redemption. By "co-mixing" text and image, Rena Yehuda uses comix elevates the voices of biblical prophets, ritual action, and historical memory as sites of study and meditation for this Shavuot, when we honor the anniversary of the revelation at Mount Sinai.

Rena Yehuda calls on readers to question who has the moral and spiritual authority in times of violent depravity, modeling for learners to see themselves as historical subjects by not only including semi-autobiographical work, but encouraging readers to learn comix as though they are rabbinic, traditional text.

This zine, fully titled, "Fragments from Notes on Nationalism" is a small selection of comix that Rena Yehuda Newman hopes to publish as a future a larger project.

This print-at-home zine-style reader contains 30 pages of comics, a letter from the author, and a short guide for how to "learn" a comic as a Jewish text, including an innovative tool specifically for comix-based exegesis based on the traditional method of the PaRDeS. Find a chevruta and learn with it this Shavuot.

When you download this resource, the folder will contain a readable PDF, duplex printer booklet file, and a short guide on how to print. As a booklet, it can be printed on 8 sheets of paper.

This resource is pay-what-you-want down to $0, by donation. All proceeds of this zine during the holiday will be donated to individual families facing starvation and collective efforts immediately combating hunger in Gaza.