Lee Diamond – Jewish Pride & Jewish Uncle Toms
Jewish Pride
Once we declared:
I’m proud to be a Jew
Once we declared:
I’m not very religious
Yet Im proud to be a Jew
Once we declared:
That I’m not very observant
But I’m proud to be a Jew
Jewish pride was a value that
We all shared
Not in fashion
But powerful
Honest expression
To be a member of the tribe
(MOT) was not tribal
But exclusive to us.
Jewish pride defined our being.
But Its gone now with the wind
Jewish pride is considered tribal
Narrow. Unexposed , illiberal !
We are greater than our limited
Identity.
We are for the world
And not for ourselves
We believe in Tikun Olam
And not Tikun Atzmi!
We forgot the words
“If I am not for myself
Who will be for me?”
And surrender to the
demand to
Be only for the greater
Good.
We’ve abandoned our own
In an attempt to be loved
By the other!
And we’ve accepted the other
More than ourselves
We justify criticism
As reasonable
And fail to stand with pride
In the face of unwarranted
Hate!
Without re-discovered self pride
Without building our own core
We will wither
We must remember Jerusalem
And place it above our highest joy
More than Jews having loved Jerusalem
Jerusalem has loved and held us to her breast !
Jewish Uncle Toms
Serve the master
Do his will
We will be treated better
Don’t rock the boat
We are less!
They rule!
Bow your head in shame
And humility to them
And nod “yes sir”
To the freedom they
Grant you
No matter the disgrace
To you
Even slavery
Is better than rejection
From their midst
So mimic the expected
“Yes Sir”
And don’t push their
Buttons
Slavery is built into
Our psyche
We don’t only remember
Egypt
We are still there
We don’t only remember
Auchwitz and Birkenou
We are still trying to escape them
Only a slave could criticize
The recognition of Jerusalem
As our capitol
Fear of reprisal
Fuels their Jewish cowardice
Uncle Toms
All of them
