To Be A Jew
1 year ago Shayna Solkowitz 0
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 🇮🇱