Social Media influencers on the racist right
said us Jews control radio and TV
That we rot the roots of morality’s tree,
The implication is clear; there’s no society free.
One TV personality invited a guy
who spouted reasons for Hitler's views
As the real deal, I wonder why
So much dumping on the Jews
They talk of the 'noticing' - a kind of right wing 'woke'
where folks wake up to Jewish control
They take advantage of a center that's broke
Old ideas corrupt a bewildered soul.
Some shout that we’re pushing everything gay,
Yet many gays march against Israel today.
On campuses now, free speech has its price—
Debate is forbidden; it just isn't nice.
Even China got into that social media bed
plus it helps Iran, the Houthis, lots more could be said
In Brooklyn, some blacks punch Jews in the head
In America, some Jewish blood spilt and ran red
Yes, it’s true we have fools, that cross red lines,
Who chase after causes that darken our times.
But most of us build, most of us mend—
Confuse friend and foe, and you hasten the end.
Bad ideas never die
Let's stand firm against the lie.
Categories:
antisemitism, evil, jewish, patriotic, race,
Form: Lyric
For those who want to ‘kill all the Jews’
Here’s some food for thought
Get a rabbi to extend Passover one more week
You’ll love what will have been wrought
For another week of ‘matzo only’
Jews’ stomachs will do somersaults
And that way it won’t be antisemitism’s fault
~ that our bowel functions came to a halt
Categories:
antisemitism, food, holiday, humor, irony,
Form: Rhyme
(“Glimpsing Hokusai”, 2017, original encaustic)
Intifada aka “Kill the Jews!”
While we were sleeping content in our lives
Something dark and ugly was growing inside
Spreading across the lawns, and fibers of the net
An intifada of hate as old as time,
For those People of the Book who hold the power
Maybe we fear, maybe we envy.
“Kill the Jews” was once tolerated,
Then condemned in shame,
And now pridefully in distain proclaimed.
“Kill the Jews” may sound hip and cool
Until you realize where this led last time,
And how a Jew is no different from you.
Everyone now who’s saying it,
Gleeful as you rise up to burn again,
What it’s taken so long to build,
Consume with a hate as old as time.
But how will you feel in the morning
When the next wave comes for you…
(11/25/24)
Categories:
antisemitism, fear, hate, youth,
Form: Narrative
It's hard to fathom that in 2024,
the ugliness of antisemitism has
reared it's head once more..
Campus students need to
change their perspective.
It's not the Jewish peoples fault
whom Israel elected..
Netanyahu failed to keep his people safe
and now he's killing the Gaze an children
at a horrifying rate..
The hostage families didn't ask for this
aggressive war, only to have their loved ones
returned, to have their families restored..
It's shameful and myopic to attack their
Jewish peers, subject them to racial slurs,
instilled by threats and fears.
Freedom of speech implies a moral responsibility,
not to chant "to obliterate Jews from the river to the sea".
Categories:
antisemitism, america, anger, angst, anxiety,
Form: Rhyme
Speechless at Auschwitz
by Ko Un
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
mountains of shoes ...
returning, we stared out different windows.
Ko Un speaks for all of us, by not knowing what to say about the evidence of the Holocaust, and man's inhumanity to man.
Ko Un was speechless at Auschwitz.
Someday, when it’s too late,
will we be speechless at Gaza?
—Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, Auschwitz, antisemitism, inhumanity, brutality, terror, mass murder, genocide, infanticide, matricide, ethnic cleansing, Gaza, racism, Zionism
Categories:
antisemitism, holocaust, horror, race, racism,
Form: Epigram
Starting from Scratch with Ol’ Scratch
by Michael R. Burch
Love, with a small, fatalistic sigh
went to the ovens. Please don’t bother to cry.
You could have saved her, but you were all tied up
complaining about the Jews to Reichmeister Grupp.
Scratch that. You were born after World War II.
You had something more important to do:
while the children of the Nakba were perishing in Gaza
with the complicity of your government, you had a noble cause (a
religious tract against homosexual marriage
and various things gods and evangelists disparage.)
Jesus will grok you? Ah, yes, I’m quite sure
that your intentions were good and ineluctably pure.
After all, what the hell does he care about Palestinians?
Certainly, Christians were right about serfs, slaves and Indians.
Scratch that. You’re one of the Devil’s minions.
Categories:
antisemitism, christian, evil, god, hate,
Form: Free verse