Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Though I feel very, very fortunate that none of my known relatives perished during that time, it will still remain a terrible human tragedy for years to come. Having said this, I’d like to share an anti-semitism account with you dear readers, that for the large part only a select few know about & up until today my parents knew nothing about.
When I was seven years old, I had an afternoon newspaper route, delivering exclusively the Chicago Daily News & a few Chicago Sun-Times. The route was close to home and the money was good. When you’re seven years old, the money is always good.
On my route I encountered many friendly people & dogs, had a lot of loyal customers who were always happy to see their paper-boy delivering their newspaper, come rain or shine. But then there were some very mean & hateful people too, mostly older kids who used to tease me about my weight & take my newspapers away from me & in effect hold me hostage. In particular, there was an older man; I am guessing he was in his 20s, that every time he saw me, he cursed me out.
He cursed me out and spat at me, calling me a “dirty Jew” and “kike,” among other choice words. It bothered me, but then I usually let it go. But then one day the worst case scenario occurred. This man casually walked up to me, Snickers candy bar in his hands & said not a word. I continued to deliver my papers, until he blocked my path, ripped open the wrapper holding the Snickers candy bar, chewed it up quickly & then without warning, spat it in my face, laughed to himself and walked away.
I just stood there with bits of Snickers sticking to my face, mixed with this man’s spit & I suddenly burst into tears, crying most of the way home. I didn’t understand it at all. Why would this man who hated me for my faith commit such a horrible act? I never understood it at that age. I never told my parents or the rest of my family because I was ashamed. Why was I ashamed? I don’t know. I just was.
I held that account inside me for the next 25 years until age 32, when a friendly & trustworthy person gently coaxed the account out of me. Since that time, I kind of choose who I tell this account to, because in this day and age of political correctness and right-wing fascism, you kind of have to watch your back. On the other hand, I don’t talk about it all that much either, because still, to this day it gives me tension headaches.
Sometimes I wonder how parents can teach their children such intolerance of other races, other genders and other lifestyles. Perhaps because they don’t know any better or are afraid that they might get to understand the plight of others based on acts committed by ignorant people. By today’s standards what happened to me would be considered a hate crime.
There are other issues I wonder about too, such as how can Jews who have been tortured or belittled for their race & faith, sit back and say they hate ALL Arabs, Muslims & Germans, without making a concerted effort to understand that it is not all of the members of a particular group that hate Jews so much, it’s just a few bad apples.
Again, this is one of those bad habits that seem to be passed down from generation to generation. Nobody’s perfect. But don’t you think it’s time we start somewhere? If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from all of this, is to turn hate into love. Learn to appreciate the beauty around you even if it hate. Hate is love in reality & vice-versa.
There seems to be some confusion among some people about what anti-semitism and anti-zionism is. Simply, an anti-semite is one disdains Jews, while an anti-zionist is one that believes Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. I am thinking about this one particular incident several years ago, where a Chicago anarchist poet by the name of Joffre Stewart was kicked out and banned for life at Chicago’s Green Mill, the original home of the poetry slam, by host Marc Smith who at the time said that Stewart was an anti-semite. But Smith was misguided in that thinking.
Stewart doesn’t hate Jews; he just doesn’t believe that Israel has a right to exist. Stewart & I are good friends. He knows I’m Jewish & he doesn’t hold that against me. I don’t hold his beliefs against him, whether I agree or disagree because that’s his right to believe in what he wants to believe in. I respect him for that. And that’s a start.
We as human beings have to start understanding and respecting each other even if we don’t agree with someone else’s opinions at some point. Why not today? Isn’t it about time we love our racist/prejudice neighbor instead of hating them? We can learn a lot from their fears. I hope that if you’ve had something horrific happen to you in your past, like me you will have enough bravery to come out and tell someone about it. It does wonders for the soul and the mind.
Keeping that in mind and seeing that this is Holocaust Remembrance Day, I thought it would be quite appropriate to publish these two poems that I have written, the first one deals with the Holocaust, while the second one focuses on and makes fun of all of the Jewish stereotypes I have dealt with over the course of my life as a Jew. Enjoy.
Stinkpatch 321456
His blue eyes saved him
From wilting in the ovens
The brown eyes
Black eyes
Green eyes
Oh how they fried, fried in ovens like bird
Carved on the plate for dinner
And he cries for the tattoo on his ass
Cries for those who have fucked him, laughed
Cries for the rabbis
Who asked him to pull down his pants
Cries in his vodka, cries on his desk
Cries in my hands
In my hands like a baby with a tattoo on its ass
Smells the smell of burning feathers
It’s no wonder why he has asthma
Jew Me Down
Jew me down
My tolerance level low
Do you like me for who I am?
I just gotta know
Do you hate me 'cause I’m a Jew?
Do you tolerate me in the workplace?
Because you kind-of-sort-of have to?
I’m a Jew, I’m a Jew
Yes, that's true
Hate is not a word in my vocabulary
Love is a word seldom heard
In the mouth of hypocrisy
We own all the banks
Horde money like miserable old cranks
We’re Jews; it's what we're meant to do
Steal your money and spend it too
Our car of choice is a Jew-canoe, that's Cadillac for short
We’re doctors, lawyers and pacificists
Hey! Did you know that Jack Benny, the Marx Brothers & Henny Youngman
Were Jewish communists?
Ford and GM served Hitler’s well-oiled war machine
Behind the enemy fire
Lined their pockets with golden teeth
Rang up the dough on Jewish typewriters
We still tolerate
The anti-Semite and those who hate
Pity for the one who spits out the stereotype of Jewish American prince
And princess
Although Jesus was Jewish
The Jews are still to blame for killing Christ
They call us the great-horned devils
Which explains why we hang our hats on our heads every night
Cleanliness is the name of the game
I must prepare myself for the Jewboy hour
Scrub thyself down
And take a Shabbos shower
So you say
You want to Jew me down
And Jew me around
Jew me this and Jew me that?
Oh and by the way, I live in Jewtown
I ride transit with my special little Jew pass
That takes from me everything that I own
It’s such a deal, motoring first class
Where I sing the Jew-me, Jew-you blues all night and all day
And if you stick around
I’ll probably say,
I’m a Jew, I’m a Jew
Yes, that's true
Hate is not a word in my vocabulary
Love is a word seldom heard
In the mouth of hypocrisy
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1 comment:
hate is a learned reaction. it's like when you have a dog and you abuse it . eventully it will bite you back , and then if you hit it back in return it will either stop, bite you back , or run away from you. young children are like dogs in that way . they want to be loved and accepted, but if a parent has no patience for the child, has a lot of unresolved emotional problems, was abused by thier parents , or any number of problems, they will take it out on thier children. Add racism to the mix , and you got a lot of hate around. hating someone is "easier" than loving them. by easier , I'm suggesting that people are short sighted in thier very being. they want something to effect them with the most minimal amount of emotional conflict. in the long run, hate is probably harder on our psychies. racism and intolorance are just mental laziness turned into a mass negative movement. when people hate themselves, they will hate others , and will think of the smallest thing to hate others about. It's usually about something a person does that reminds them of themselves. Thus,they feel better about thier own imperfections when they pick on someone elses. It's a sick , self pervading affliction that only stops when people look at themselves and examine whats wrong. thats the hard part. some people don't ever look into thier own selves to do that . they think it's a sign of weakness to do that. no , i'm not going to poke fun at your story.
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