Lee Diamond – Our Hebrew school principal announced
It was
Kametz Alef Aw—Saf and Taf
And suddenly
Just Taf
No more Saf
No more ”
״ aw”
Our Hebrew school principal announced:
Israel was established today
May 14 1948 ה׳ באייר תש״ח
“We will learn Hebrew as new Jews
As the state learns Hebrew
as new Jews–
Speaking Modern Hebrew.
From today on
Forget the aw
And the Saf”
We learned the Hatikva and
We were told was the Jewish National Anthem
—-Not the Israeli national anthem—-
Our own Jewish National anthem
“WE never lost the Hope of
2000 years
To be a free people in our land
In the Land of Tzion and in Jerusalem”
What a transforming moment!
Only 8 years old
An American Jewish child
And transformed forever
Into a Jew
Not just Jewish
But a Jew
We were assigned an essay:
“What does the establishment
Of The State of Israel
Mean to me?”
I took it seriously
My Essay–“ISRAEL IS REAL”
I remember these words
Because they were REAL for me!
Israel’s heroes became my heroes
Ben Gurion –
David with a tiny sling
Protecting my tiny nation
Wild while hair
A high pitched voice
A philosopher
A statesman
A biblically versed, modern
Hebrew speaking Jew
With the vision of the prophets
My friends and I sat on the bus
But Separate on that day
And shouted to each other
Hebrew words
Across the bus
On that fateful day
“Baruch Ata”
“Melech HaOlam”
Silly kids
Inappropriate words
But proud kids
Proud to be Jews
Shouting it out loud
For all to see!
And hear
Jewish pride!
Now we had direction
Now we had security
Now we were the Davids with the sling shot
We were alive and had smooth stones
For the sling shot
And we no longer pronounced Hebrew
With a Saf or an aw!
And there were new heroes
There was Golda
And Dayan
And Abba Eban
And Rabin
And more
And our chests swelled with new pride
Menachem Begin too was a Jew
A proud and dedicated Jew
First Israeli PM to travel and demand Kashrut
And to make peace!
No more Safs
No more Aws
Don’t kid yourselves
Peace is still our vision
Pride defines us
Strength –our youth and defenders
Intelligence our very nature
Governments come and go
Politicians rise and fall
Corruption is our failure
And not our rule
Beautiful ,Handsome
Boys and girls
Building a great Jewish
Nation
Climbing Jacob’s ladder
Angels passing us by
As we climb
Slipping yet climbing
And reaching higher
We are proud to be Jews
For We’ve achieved
Israel
No longer
Jacob
We are Israel
No more Safs
And no more “Aws”
