Liberation (Randyjw; January 27, 2019)
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
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Working Definition of AntiSemitism by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance:
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism?usergroup=7
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I Am poem – Anne Frank
by Natasha Hashemi and Claire Hawer
(https://youtu.be/2p-a_mCO_JA)
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From Where I Come (Rachelgv/Randyjw; February 22, 2017)
From where I come
is by my ancestry.
By Adam and Eve
through Terach and Abraham
And, yet, again, in
further meanderings
Ur-Kasdim, and into Haran
in captivity in exile
by the rivers of Babylon
Asarah B’Tevet
By the well of Dotan
to the right of Pharoah’s rod
at Rameses and Pitom
in fields of Padan-Aram
and maybe by Paran
the cities of Shushan
released with help from King Ahashveros (of Iran)
who would assist us in rebuilding the Temple
We commemorate in memory
that the woman he wed to wife
Hadassah, known as Esther,
the Jewish Queen that saved our lives
And this is known as Purim
it’s also part of the Jewish story
and Chanukah you’ll know
by our defiance of Roman glory
From Egypt, in Goshen
having first lived in Knaan
through Avram’s sons and Yosef the one
and led out again by Moshe
And that’s the story of Passover
when we were freed from our bonds
When G-d redeemed us and saved us
with ten plagues to our oppressors rained down
When he brought us to the mount
and to the wilderness of Zin
and gave the commandments of Torah
the Sukkot and the Mishkan
And that’s the backgrounds of the holidays
of Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot,
of simple days under desert stars
happy in Simchat Torah
And back again
to the Holy Land
promised to us
and delivered by hand
Through Inquest, Expulsion,
and auto-da-fe,
through Kristallnacht, Holocaust,
forests and Babi Yar
In Zion, and Jaffa, Carmel and Ashdod,
Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem
In Ashkelon, Aza, and Yericho
in Hevron, and Shiloh, in the fields of Machpelah
By Isaac, by Jacob,
and all of his breed
and Rachel and Leah
and Ruth and David
Because where I come from
is where I have been
and by all of G-d’s miracles,
Here I Am