Poetry Submission: No One Left to Blame by Kathy Napper

No One Left to Blame
by Kathy Napper, 2009

This poem wrote itself late last night after one too many Holocaust documentaries plus a particularly nasty Goldstone Report, and refused to let me rest until it was out and on the page. This should be read with large doses of "Chas Ve'Chalila" and "Be'Ezrat Hashem" and an earnest plea to Almighty G-d that such a situation should never, ever, ever arise!

"Master, have you seen the papers?
Jews are dying by the score!"
"Have you nothing new to tell me?
Didn’t bother me before!"

"Master, have you heard the latest?
Hundreds of the Jews are dead!"
"Wouldn’t care if it were thousands!
Tell me something new instead!"

"Master, hear the news they’re telling!
Thousands of them slaughtered now!"
"So they’ve killed a couple 'a thousand!
Ain’t no cause to make a row!"

"Master, now they’re killing millions!
This is bad, you must confess!"
"Kill them all for all that I care!
What’s a million more or less?"

"Master, all the Jews are dead now!
Things will never be the same!"
"No indeed! What a disaster!
Now we’ve no one left to blame!"

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To submit your poem of Jewish and/or Israeli content email bbresky@israelnationalradio.com with the subject line: Poetry Submission.

Sephardic Hazzanut Project

Craving some old school traditional taamim or Pizmonim? Don't even know what they are?  That's OK, because now you can download them as mp3s from the brand new Sephardic Hazzanut Project web site. Built by Faraj Samra, a young Jewish-Syrian singer, this site has numerous traditional prayers and melodies in Sephardic style, the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa who previously lived in Spain before the Spanish Inquisition. Faraj is committed to saving these songs and passing them on to the next generation. Check it out here: http://www.sephardichazzanut.com/

Poetry Submission: Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem

Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem
by Stella Barbut
 
"Do not say 'peace' when I have not sent you.
Yet everybody is praying for the peace of Jerusalem!
Which Jerusalem?
International? Christian? Muslim?
Judenrein?
Which version of peace?
International? Christian? Muslim?
Jews tolerated?

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
Whose peace?
International? Christian? Muslim?
But boycott Israel!
Blood libel Israel?
Accuse her of war crimes!
Try her in international courts
For the terrible 'sin' of defending herself!
But pray! pray! pray! For the peace of Jerusalem!

"When they shall say peace, suddenly..."
"Jerusalem, a burdensome stone..." poised...
"To break in pieces.."
"Jerusalem, a cup of trembling "
A trembling cup held in trembling Jewish hands
While myriad other greedy, grasping hands
Try to snatch the "cup of trembling"
Out of the trembling Jewish hands!
When "Jerusalem, the burdensome stone"
Has broken in pieces and swept away
These other greedy, grasping hands,
The word will go out
Say Peace! Pray Peace for Jerusalem!
               
Feel the benediction of Peace
My Beloved! My Jerusalem!
Forever Beloved!

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To submit your poem of Jewish and/or Israeli content email bbresky@israelnationalradio.com with the subject line: Poetry Submission.