John Lawson: Flowers
A special tragedy, to survive
Almost till spring, when the nearing sun
Might quell dark fear, still
Convulsive shivering.
Judith Sanders: Bubbe and Zayde Take Me to the Ice Capades
I danced past the hospital playroom
where bald children rode tricycles,
because you, my son, would get well.
Eva-Maria Simms: An Ordinary Christmas
My family has lived in Siegen, an old town in Germany, for generations. My grandfather, a small business owner, bought a townhouse with three apartments in 1936. My father was … Continue reading
Christine Gelineau: Artificial Intelligence
It was Kristallnacht that motivated
my mother-in-law’s parents
to put her and her younger sister
on the Kindertransport train
to England
Adam Patric Miller: The Sound of a Teacher’s Silence
As a person of Jewish heritage I can’t be silent about a genocide. Jews aren’t the only people who’ve been threatened with annihilation.
Baruch November: Victor “Young” Perez
The Jewish flyweight from Tunisia—
who modeled himself after the Battling Siki,
a boxer from Senegal—
should have died early in the ring,
Abby Zimet: Ceasefire Delegates Insist Palestinian Children Can’t Eat Words
‘Never again’ means ‘never again, for anyone, anywhere, ever.’
Kathryn Levy: Remembrance
Life that’s embalmed,
life of the dolls
shoved in a corner—who
seem to be staring.
Holocaust Memorial Museum: How Many People Did the Nazis Murder?
Nazi Germany committed mass murder on an unprecedented scale. Before and especially during World War II, the Nazi German regime perpetrated the Holocaust and other mass atrocities. In the aftermath of these crimes, calculating the number of victims became important for legal, historical, ethical, and educational reasons.
John Guzlowski: Four Poems
My mother never thought she’d survive
that first winter in the slave labor camps.
Abe Louise Young: New Seeds for Old Stories
When I was a child, everything I heard & read about Israel was aspirational. We saved our quarters in cardboard boxes emblazoned, “Plant Trees In Israel!” People said, “Next year in Jerusalem!” to mean goodbye, to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Patricia A. Nugent: Dog Poop
His veiled threat obviously didn’t shut me up; I can’t let it. As Audre Lourde reminds us, “Your silence will not protect you.”
Penny Rosenwasser: A Jewish American Says “Not in My Name!”
On my desktop is a photo of seven Palestinian babies at Al-Shifa Hospital, lying next to each other on a bed. Lacking fuel, nurses had moved 36 babies from their … Continue reading
Judith R. Robinson: I Apologize
My own people, once stalwart as the stars,
must now weep as we, their stunning progeny,
disappear like shadows
into the cracked cement of sweet America
