prowler1971 | Jewish Poem

Will Wollison
May 25, 2004
"To be a" poetry assignment:

To be a Jewish boy is to be loved.

To be a Jewish boy is to be circumcised eight days after being born.

To be a Jewish boy is to be named after an ancestor and to be given a Hebrew and English name.

To be a Jewish boy is to have your father make sure your clothes are perfect for services so your grandmother smiles and kisses you with approval.

To be a Jewish boy is to listen in awe as the rabbi speaks words of wisdom.

To be a Jewish boy is to braid and unbraid the fringe on your father's prayer shawl.

To be a Jewish boy is to learn to read, write, and understand the Hebrew language so when you are thirteen you can conduct the Sabbath service as a bar mitzvah.

To be a Jewish boy is to be pressured into going to Hebrew school twice a week and sitting in class instead of playing ball with your friends.

To be a Jewish boy is to have feasts on special holidays with family.

To be a Jewish boy is to gamble the dreidle game and get the same old useless presents on Hanukah.

To be a Jewish boy is to carry on the traditions and heritage that began six-thousand years ago.

To be a Jewish boy is to fight prejudice and anti-Semitism when it strikes.

To be a Jewish boy is to have your name end in berg, man, or stein.

To be a Jewish boy is to be stereotyped as cheap and have someone drop a penny and say, "aren't you gunna pick that up?"

To be a Jewish boy is to have friends make jokes about your big nose and say, "Why do Jews have such big noses? Because the air is free."

To be a Jewish boy is to be expected to go to college and become a doctor, lawyer, or lender.

To be a Jewish boy is to grow up to be a loving father and husband with many children.

To be a Jewish boy is to travel to Israel to see the ancestors' homeland and experience the Jews' second home.

To be a Jewish boy is to be part of the celebration of the state of Israel in American and in the world.

To be a Jewish boy is to pray your enemies will stop the suicide bombings and killings of innocent children in Israel.

To be a Jewish boy is to remember the Holocaust when six million Jewish ancestors were brutally murdered by the Nazi regime.

To be a Jewish boy is to stand tall, to be proud, and strong.

To be a Jewish boy is to be loving.

To be a Jewish boy is to be loved.

This was written by my cousin.