Matthew Nouriel

Now go and show your favorite Mizrahi / Sephardic Jew some love. This year really try and learn our history, our stories, and help us by sharing our voices and stories.

Today is Cyrus the Great Day, a day honoring one of the most extraordinary figures in Persian history. As someone who is both Iranian and Jewish, I feel equally connected to both parts of my heritage. I’ve always taken great pride in helping build bridges between these two ancient communities, whose histories have been intertwined for more than 2,500 years. At a time of so much conflict, division, and pain, seeing the growing solidarity between Iranians and Jews brings me tremendous joy and hope. There’s something profoundly moving about witnessing these two ancient peoples rediscover and embrace a bond that long predates the Islamic Republic, and even Islam itself. May this renewed friendship continue to grow, and may future generations of Iranians and Jews inherit a relationship defined not by hostility, but by the shared history that has connected us for millennia. Happy Cyrus the Great Day! ──────── امروز روز کوروش بزرگ است؛ روز بزرگداشت یکی از برجسته‌ترین چهره‌های تاریخ ایران. من به‌عنوان فردی که هم ایرانی هستم و هم یهودی، به هر دو بخش از هویت و میراث خود به یک اندازه احساس تعلق می‌کنم. همیشه به نقشی که در ایجاد پیوند و نزدیکی میان این دو جامعهٔ کهن داشته‌ام افتخار کرده‌ام؛ دو ملتی که تاریخشان بیش از ۲۵۰۰ سال است به یکدیگر گره خورده است. در روزگاری که شاهد این‌همه تنش، اختلاف و رنج هستیم، دیدن همبستگی روزافزون میان ایرانیان و یهودیان برای من سرشار از شادی و امید است. برایم بسیار تأثیرگذار است که می‌بینم این دو ملت باستانی بار دیگر پیوندی را کشف می‌کنند و گرامی می‌دارند که نه‌تنها پیش از جمهوری اسلامی، بلکه حتی پیش از ظهور اسلام شکل گرفته است. امیدوارم این دوستی دوباره شکوفا شود و نسل‌های آیندهٔ ایرانیان و یهودیان وارث رابطه‌ای باشند که نه با دشمنی، بلکه با تاریخ مشترکی تعریف شود که هزاران سال ما را به یکدیگر پیوند داده است. روز کوروش بزرگ گرامی باد! 💚🤍❤️ 🕊️ 🤍💙🤍

He’s gay, Iranian, and Jewish. But he’s no longer queer. When Matthew Nouriel began speaking out for Iranians and Jews, he found himself rejected by the very communities he once identified with. So he decided to leave two labels behind: queer and Democrat. But that didn’t mean his beliefs changed. If anything, it made them even stronger. Because you shouldn’t have to change your values or agree with everything a community believes just to be accepted. Let us know what you think in the comments. Follow @buildersofmideast for more stories.

Everything in the original video was a long list of Madonna being very consistent in her wish for peace. Leave it to the antisemitic mobs to turn that into something sinister. Their demand to comply or face the consequences has less to do with freedom and more to do with actual fascism. Madonna has never been one to succumb to pressure and I don’t believe she’s about to start now. We should all take our cues from Madonna.

A few numbers for context: • In 2013, Pew Research Center found that 93% of respondents in the Palestinian territories said homosexuality should NOT be accepted by society. Just 4% said it should. • In the 2018–2019 BBC Arabic / Arab Barometer survey, just 5% of West Bank Palestinian respondents said homosexuality was acceptable. • In Gallup’s 2024 survey, only 11% of Palestinian respondents said the city or area where they lived was a good place for gay or lesbian people. according to the U.S. State Department’s 2023 human-rights report, the Palestinian Authority did not prohibit discrimination against or provide specific protections for LGBT people. The report documented violence and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the West Bank, harassment and detention of LGBT people by Hamas security forces in Gaza, and reported that LGBT Palestinians concealed their sexuality out of fear of being killed by family members. Hamas authorities were described as openly hostile toward the LGBT community in Gaza. Sources: Pew Research Center; Arab Barometer/BBC Arabic; Gallup; U.S. Department of State.

Apparently inclusion means something different to Adidas. The German sportswear company issued an apology for featuring an Israeli in their shoe campaign following backlash calls for a boycotts. What exactly are they apologizing for? For featuring an Israeli? How could that possibly be considered “inclusion?”

“When will Iranians rise and fight?” They ARE rising. They have been fighting for 47 years. Just weeks ago, thousands rose in Esfahan trying to save three Iranian heroes from public execution by the regime. The regime opened fire. Hundreds were wounded. Dozens more were killed. The diaspora screamed, “They are massacring our people in Esfahan!!!!” Where were you? Your negotiators were meeting with the jihadists — not with our heroes or the representatives of the transitional government of the free Iran we are building. Your @VP was talking about giving hundreds of billions of dollars to the jihadists — not backing our heroes. Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, we know you did not mobilize the mighty American Armed Forces just to make another deal with demons. You told the Iranian people: “Your hour of freedom is at hand.” Then came the jihadi lobby. The Qatari money. The assassination threats. And then came the U-turn — the “memorandum of misunderstanding.” Months of betrayal. Months of bloodshed. So now WE ask YOU, Mr. President: When will America be ready to rise and fight the jihadists? 10 of our heroes are at risk of being hanged in Esfahan again. When the people rise to save them what will you do? Are you prepared to do what it takes to end the Ayatollahs’ occupation of Iran? We will do it with or without you. But before Iranians rise again, they deserve to know: Will American power be used to protect them — or once again to save their killers from destruction? Will you allow our Israeli allies to fight beside us — or paralyze them while the regime massacres us? In other words: When we rise, do you know which side you will be standing on? Make your choice. The resistance is watching closely.

When you say you only hate Israel but not Jews, all you’re saying is that you only find Jews who denounce their own national liberation acceptable. The Jew who places themself at your mercy, the pitiful Jew with no self respect or respect for their own history or ancestry or ancestral persecution— that’s who you want us all to be. The cowering dhimmi who’ll lay down and take it. Sorry, those days are over.

Membership Revoked

New York Magazine's "Habibi City" celebrates my region, my culture, and my people... All I have to do to be included is renounce who I am.

SWANA is supposed to describe a geography, not prescribe an ideology. That’s why New York Magazine’s “Habibi City” is so troubling and manipulative. It selectively elevates people from across Southwest Asia and North Africa who fit a particular political narrative, while defining the community through “shared beliefs” and positioning Zionism alongside xenophobia and Islamophobia. It creates the illusion of diversity while erasing Indigenous people and perspectives that don’t conform to its politics. That’s ideological erasure. *map of indigenous Middle Eastern ethnic groups created by @debbielechtman

Let’s show some love to @boygeorgeofficial — head to his link in bio and download we will dance again, his stunning song in support of the Jewish nation ✡️❤️

Nima Yamini has been attacking me online for 9 months. I don’t care. I think it’s pathetic tbh and my skin is thick. But he is now attacking more and more people and is attacking Prince Reza Pahlavi too. I wish more people paid attention when he got called out last year. And I wish more people took it seriously when he started attacking me incessantly with vile homophobia. If he was capable of doing what he did to the Jewish community he is obviously capable of doing it to the Iranian community too. It’s fairly obvious now what this man is about, so let’s now move on. We have real work to do, and the best thing we can do is not to allow this kind of distraction deter us.

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