ECHOES

If I Was at Harvard Now

by Bracha Goetz

“From the river to the sea,

Palestine will be free!”

If I was there now, I would be

 Out with the rest, chanting proudly.

Oppressed people, we care for,

Mercy is part of our core.

Let’s help them not to suffer more.

There’s never a reason for war.

At protests, on the front lines,

Screaming ‘til hoarse with homemade signs,

Oppressed or oppressors – there are two kinds.

Wake up, world – we’ll change your minds!

I didn’t want to be a Jew.

Seemed there were better things to do.

And I didn’t get what we’ve been through.

Plans for our extermination are nothing new.

Where else do we have to go?

Back to Poland? Don’t think so.

This tiny land, did you know,

So small, on world maps, its name can’t show?

After Harvard, I learned a lot.

A brilliant education eventually got.

Now I live in this holy dot.

And I’d like to tell you what…

I would say to my old self then.

We’ve been slaughtered again and again.

We want to live in peace. But when?

May our neighbors let us, please.  Amen.

Bracha Goetz is the Harvard-educated author of 42 Jewish children’s books and a candid memoir for adults about her joyful journey to Torah Judaism: Nourish the Soul.  You can meet all of her books here: www.goetzbookshop.com.