Topic Tags: antisemitism

“Any narrative / Severed at its centre / Cannot withstand / The violence / Of two opposing sides.”

“On Kol Nidre / I went to daven in / Stadttempel, / The sole survivor, / Of the pogroms of death.” 

“a gift from ancestors who belonged from the outside / who left destroyed shtetls in Russia, in Poland…”

“I want to tell you that I never knew they hated us this much, still! Today is the 250th anniversary of America / I want to know when you knew it was time to leave Russia…”

“My kippah went on my head almost by its own volition. / It only comes off when I sleep. / It goes back on when I dress.”

A powerful ritual for someone who has needed to end a relationship because of antisemitism

The author shares a forgotten moment in history with this powerful poem.

“In the synagogue / hung a ner tamid the eternal flame / it too went up in flames”

This kavanah was written in the wake of multiple acts of mass violence that have made our Hanukkah celebration feel dissonant and fragile.