Injustice, Survive -- and Thrive

Those who today loudly voice their complaints
   Might do well to study a people most quaint
The Jewish People for 3,332 years has survived
   Despite pogroms and holocausts, still quite alive

A former slave nation exiled to Persia almost 2,500 years ago
   Jerusalem then razed to the ground by Rome, as you know
Jews lived by the skin of their teeth for 1,900 years
   Until they retook Jerusalem in 1967, a miracle it appeared

Herded into ghettos in Western Europe 'til Napoleon
   And the 'Pale of Settlement' further east 'til the 20th century dawned
Jews kept a low profile, in the face of Injustice didn't complain
   Beatings, Blood-Libels, Round-ups -- all sorts of Pain

Jews couldn't own land; they were barred from all professions
   Countless peasants falsely accused Jews of murder at confession
The Jew became a middleman, a despised money-changer
   If he tried to pass for a gentile, his very life was in danger

As if all that weren't enough, last century 6 million precious Jewish souls
   died in Nazi gas chambers, crematoria, trenches, open holes
One-third of all the world's Jews wiped out in just six years
   Pregnant women and infants murdered in that Valley of Tears

Today Jews are in Jerusalem, Israel! a People standing strong
   They refused to give up hope just because they were wronged
What's their secret, you may ask. How did they do it
   No smoke. No mirrors. They just stubbornly stuck to it...

Rule #1: Education, universal literacy for all of their seed
   From the age of three, every Jewish child's taught to read
Next: Family purity, the holiness and sanctity of wedlock
   Women always had rights! but no infant aborted, no child 'bad luck'

And finally, what kept it all together, down through the ages
   An unshakeable belief in God and His Law, no matter the outrages
So, from the Jews you might want to take a softer-voiced cue
   For you too can do it. Just follow three rules...
Copyright © | Year Posted 2020


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Date: 6/23/2020 6:51:00 PM
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Gershon! True portraits in courage and resilience, you bring an important perspective into our discussion! Well done, dear friend. Three rules to live by - family, faith and education. Can't beat those rules!
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Gershon Wolf
Date: 6/23/2020 7:48:00 PM
Really appreciate your enthusiastic support for this write, Sam. Here's to you and to Life! Warmest wishes, Gershon
Date: 6/23/2020 1:49:00 AM
For you too can do it. Just follow three rules...Ended with a great message.. The three rules are proved and still living to check.. A thought provoking poem with powerful voice of truth.. Great write Gershon..
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Gershon Wolf
Date: 6/23/2020 3:37:00 PM
Thank you, Jenish. Glad you found it penetrating... I realized as I penned it that it wouldn't get much play on the Soup, but I just had it in me to say. :) gw
Date: 6/22/2020 10:33:00 PM
Very inspiring poem, illustrating the strength, resilience and faith of the Jewish people. Those three rules mentioned, are very good ones. Best of wishes, Evelyn
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Wolf Avatar
Gershon Wolf
Date: 6/22/2020 11:35:00 PM
Thank you so much for your support on this one, Evelyn!!… My own wife, who immigrated here (legally) at age 37 with $100 to her name and one large suitcase, lived in a cockroach-infested apartment with her father and nephew for 18 months... her father got the one bed; she slept on two chairs in the kitchen; she didn't know any English either... So, she started learning English, babysitting, working odd jobs... Her day was 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m... She did all the cooking and cleaning in the apartment too... Today she is a highly respected Business Analyst in downtown Chicago... It CAN be done, and we all know it! Light and Joy, Gershon
Date: 6/22/2020 10:12:00 PM
They have never let their oppression stop their growth. well written
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Mcguire Avatar
Timothy Mcguire
Date: 6/23/2020 4:19:00 PM
My father was poor Irish in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky during the depression. As a child he worked a mans job to help support his family. He never had excuses or complaints. He did what he had to do to give his children a better life than he had.
Wolf Avatar
Gershon Wolf
Date: 6/22/2020 10:17:00 PM
That's right. Instead of going in for destructive destruction, Jews have always gone in for constructive construction. No time for crying over spilled milk, or lamenting prejudice and inequality and such. My own father endured withering bias to become a successful lawyer -- after first putting his older brother through college and dental school and then serving in WW2. He was 37 by the time he passed the bar. An amazing man; I don't even come up to his toenails...Thanks for your support, Timothy! Blessings, Gershon
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