CTeenConnection

Written by: Rose Chaya Cohen, CTeen Harrisburg, PA

Yes I’m a Jew

Stop acting like it’s something new

I’m proud

I’ll say it out loud

We cried 

We sighed

We love

We have a day out of the year to be as pure as a white dove 

I may live in your country

However we as a nation in our country it is as sweet as honey

We came to live here not because we wanted too

Only because in other non jew countrys such as this one our religion was viewed as askew 

Is this bothering you

Join the other people it bothers too

Yes you fight to live 

Yet we mind our business & we are still the first souls you give

Because your mad

Which makes me sad

Can I not walk down a public school hallway

Without someone telling me the day 

We supposedly killed your god

So I just nod

I say nothing 

I’m not asking for you to be loving

All I ask is for you to respect me

Just let me be 

The Jew I am

You ask me why I don’t eat ham

My God told me not too

And you have the nerve to ask me what god & who 

As if I view my god as a person

Is this a bad show on the television 

Harrassed , bullied , fought against , left to die

Yet we still survive 

Can I walk to Shul in peace 

Without your face developing a crease

Because your questioning why I’m dressed nicely on your work day wondering if that’s what you really see

When I’m just attempting to get to where I need to be 

Why do you keep asking me about my religion

I don’t ask questions about your superstitions

I explain 100 times to 10 different people why I keep kosher 

I explain to too many people why I’m shomer 

While other teens sit in class talking about drugs

And give the oppitsite gender hugs

I have a yearning

To keep learning

Not your non jews books

But my own religions & you keep giving me weird looks

Is it because I put postivity in my soul 

& yours is filled with negativity & on you it is taking a toll

That is your problem

It’s not my issue to solve them

You bully my father & brothers & friends because they wear a kippah

Thinking they’ll stop if you kick them until they can barely crawl

Taunting them because they wear tzitzits

Encouraging your friends to join you while you get in your hits

You tell girls & woman we should stop wearing skirts

You look down on us with your lips very terse

Telling us to not cover our hair

Making fun of us for being modest simply because you were raised to not care 

Is that fair 

Everytime you mock me it rips a tear 

You fill me with fear 

Do you not hear 

Can I live freely

As you do so easily 

You have so many doubts 

Always asking our whereabouts

Just to shoot us down

& bury millions of us underground

Gas chambers 

Rapers

Stripped us down to bone

What you don’t know is we didn’t die feeling alone 

You tried to make us feel like freaks

& the blows you gave us made our blood leak

The men you worked until they died 

The woman you worked until they cried

The children you taunted

Our jewlery & burned down Shuls & valued possessions you flaunted 

So many wars faught against us

Us surviving to carry on our parents hopes & Hashem’s Torah was a must

You ask what keep me going

I tell you it’s my one thing I keep doing

That is my continuing to keep my faith

You came too late

Your words & physical actions tend to hurt

You keep dragging us through the dirt

I’m still going to keep a smile on my face 

It’s a little humorous at times your hate

Stop trying to seal my fate

Stop assuming we are so easy to cut through like cake

Did you not learn from your ancestors 

Your hate has alot of inverstors

So does my love for being Jewish

You attempting to take me out of the water so I can’t breathe as if I’m a fish 

Will never work

I wouldn’t susgest you lurk

The western wall is my home 

With my love for Hashem I am never alone 

As you read this I can hear your entitled negative sigh

All I have to say about that is : 

‎עם ישראל חי 🇮🇱