I am the Jew,
the face of God’s chosen people,
whom you despise
for no reason but rash treason
against the One Who created us
in His likeness with kindness.

Your hatred is blasphemy
without just cause,
Anti-Semitism the projection of your flaws
— your failings as men,
spreading lies about the truth and justice
by slandering me without end,
with blood libels and litanies of false accusations,
bombarding me with slurs when
I am in your presence,
and gossiping a religion of prejudice
when I am in your absence.

You declare wars for peace
when you advocate for and tolerate
my persecution, foolishly covering up
the mess your ancestors
slopped up in the Crusades, the Pogroms,
the Spanish Inquisition, and the Holocaust.

You assault the Messiah’s wisdom
when you insult His irrefutable authority
to bless whomever He shall bless
and to curse whomever He shall curse,
whenever you use His gifts
to erase the facts of history,
to make time reverse!

You don’t need a Swastika
to provoke the wrath of the LORD:

I am Israel.
I am Judah.
I am Reuben.
I am Joseph.
I am Ephraim.
I am Manasseh.
I am Issachar.
I am Simeon.
I am Levi.
I am Benjamin.
I am Naphtali.
I am Zebulun.
I am Asher.
I am Dan.

I am the Messianic and the Orthodox,
the Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.
I am Sephardic, Yemenite, Ethiopian, Igbo,
Ugandan, Chasidic — encompassing many points of view.

I am the Jew,
in Diaspora until the Second Coming of Christ
— Who is God as Man.
I have sought His redemption in the Wilderness
and heard His revelations on Mount Sinai.
I have walked with Moses and Joshua
and the prophets,
they who were justified
because of the faith that strengthened them
in the forges of Canaan and Egypt.

I am the seed of Adam, of Seth, of Enoch,
of Jared, of Lamech, of Methuselah, of Noah,
Shem, and the Patriarchs,
an oracle of the LORD
as Paul of Tarsus so aptly wrote:

We are ordained in the laws
and ordered to teach them
by applying them to our daily lives.

I am the Jew,
who has done so much
to lift up the world
that still hates me
because I exist,
with the favor the LORD
has given to me
as part of the Covenant
that He has maintained
throughout the ages
because He is faithful;
not because I deserve it.

I am the Jew,
who endures like my Creator
as the face of His chosen people
who are no more inherently
righteous than those who call us evil,
nor as evil as those we call righteous.
I am the Israelite,
whose forebears and descendants
number more than the stars in the Heavens
because our God dotes upon us
His unfailing grace.

I am the Book of Genesis
through Deuteronomy.
I am the collective writings
of Daniel, Samuel, Elijah,
Jonah, Obediah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel,
and the rest of the prophets,
among the voices of the innocents
who perished in the slaughterhouses
of ancient empires, under foreign governments.

I am the enduring reflection of the LORD:

What you say about me mirrors your attitude toward Him,
He Who was born in Bethlehem
to a Jewish family,
He Who took on the world’s sin
to become the everlasting enemy
against our human carnality,
so that we can unite with Him
in Paradise,
in bliss
consecrated by sanctified immortality,
in total liberation from sorrow and prejudice
as Jew and gentile alike,
resting in community
for all of eternity.

Published by Andrew Blitman

Andrew Blitman is a poet and artist who is also the webmaster of this blog. He is the published author of 13 books, including "Birthright 2012: A Voyage into the Heart and Soul of Israel" and the "Wild Writers" Series. He can be reached at this e-mail address: andrew.blitman@gmail.com View all posts by Andrew Blitman