About being a diaspora Jew

[PrinceMyshkin]

Let me talk to you
about being a diaspora Jew.

It’s kind of like being a Gentile
- only not;

kind of like being black
- only not;

kind of like being at home
- or just a few unmanageable steps away.

[breathtest]

kind of like being at home
- or just a few unmanageable steps away.

I can't imagine many things worse than being a few unmanageable steps away from home. What a nightmare. I have dreams a bit like that. A wonderful poem again Prince.

[Jerrybaldy]

Nobody has me reaching for the dictionary more than you Prince. So now I know what a diaspora Jew is and i have new knowledge in the bag, I would like to say that I enjoyed your lines and I would like to ask if you were the subject?
BW
JB

[blank|verse]

An occasion where the 'buttonholing' tone of the narrator is apt and adds a simmering anger to the poem - nicely achieved, PM.

As breathtest stated, the last stanza is the most powerful and is quite heart-breaking.

[breathtest]

Am i right in thinking a diaspora Jew is a Jew in exile from Israel? Because then the final line is altogether more poignant and effective than i first suspected before thinking about it properly.

[AuntShecky]

Magnificent!

[Virgil]

I have say I really like that closing, but I just found the center of the poem only so-so. I understand what it says, but it seems kind of trivial. I'm talking about this part:

It’s kind of like being a Gentile
- only not;

kind of like being black
- only not;

But this is a great closing:

kind of like being at home
- or just a few unmanageable steps away.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thanks Jerrybaldy, breathtest, Aunt Shecky and Virgil:


Am i right in thinking a diaspora Jew is a Jew in exile from Israel? Because then the final line is altogether more poignant and effective than i first suspected before thinking about it properly.


The diaspora is commonly accepted to have begun with the 8th–6th century BC conquests of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, destruction of the First Temple (c.586 BC), and expulsion of the population, and is also associated with the destruction of the Second Temple and aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt during the Roman occupation of Judea in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
A number of Middle Eastern Jewish communities were established then as a result of tolerant policies and remained notable centers of Torah life and Judaism for centuries to come. The defeat of the Great Jewish Revolt in the year 70 AD and of Bar Kokhba's revolt against the Roman Empire in 135 AD notably contributed to the diaspora as many Jews were scattered after losing control over Judea or were sold into slavery throughout the empire.
from Wikipedia

There is a division, then, in current times, between those Jews who live in Israel and those who remain in the Diaspora (from the same root as dispersion in the rest of the world.

[breathtest]

Thanks a lot Prince for shedding light on that

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thanks a lot Prince for shedding light on that

Thanks, breathtest. Google and Wikipedia are indispensable aids. You might also like to check out http://www.aldaily.com/ now and then for articles or reviews that are well worth reading or downloading.

[qimissung]

The first two lines are ok, and the last two lines are great, but the middle lines seem to cast a negative connotation, and neither do they add to to the sentiment you are trying to convey.

[PrinceMyshkin]

The first two lines are ok, and the last two lines are great, but the middle lines seem to cast a negative connotation, and neither do they add to to the sentiment you are trying to convey.

Thanks, Qim. I think there is a negative element throughout this beginning with the use of "Diaspora Jew" in the title, meaning not an unqualified Jew but one of the dispersed, the deracinated. The middle lines are attempts to define myself by association, first, with the dominant group, the Everyman & Everywoman, in my surroundings and then with the most visibly excluded group, but neither is quite right...

It reminds me - in not too frivolous way, I hope - of a time when I sat in one of the stalls in the men's bathroom at the university. Scribbled or scratched on the door in front of me were the words:

"What is it like to be circumcised? I would like to know."

Well, this was after all a university and the question might be an honourable one but - how to answer it? Finally I wrote in the spirit of a Socratic dialogue:

"What is it like to be uncircumcised?"

But the respondent was evidently not interested in dialogue and soon replied:

"Uncircumcised men make better lovers."

Case closed.

[angliholic]

Let me talk to you
about being a diaspora Jew.

It’s kind of like being a Gentile
- only not;

kind of like being black
- only not;

kind of like being at home
- or just a few unmanageable steps away.

Thanks, Prince, for sharing the story.

It's a catching wonderful short poem.

If you never told,
We'd never know
What a diaspora Jew is like.

Don't we all feel like
Just a few unmanageable steps away from home
--The eternal home.

[qimissung]

Thank you, Prince, that really does help me understand better what you are trying to say. To not have ahomeland is to be "a few unmanageable steps away from home." I can appreciate what you've written a lot better.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thank you, Angliholic, and you, my very dear friend Qim


Thank you, Prince, that really does help me understand better what you are trying to say. To not have a homeland is to be "a few unmanageable steps away from home." I can appreciate what you've written a lot better.

Funny thing is, this morning at the Cafe I noticed two middle-aged women peering in the front door of the Cafe, considering whether to enter or not. I assured them it was a very welcoming place. Turned out they were sisters visiting here as tourists, one from Australia, the other now living in western Canada. After further conversation I learned that they were Jews and that as soon as they saw me they had each thought of my doppelganger in Australia, and I recited them this poem, which they understood and appreciated. Lillian and Jacquie.

[Asphara]

This is great - very clenched.

[qimissung]

Thank you, Angliholic, and you, my very dear friend Qim



Funny thing is, this morning at the Cafe I noticed two middle-aged women peering in the front door of the Cafe, considering whether to enter or not. I assured them it was a very welcoming place. Turned out they were sisters visiting here as tourists, one from Australia, the other now living in western Canada. After further conversation I learned that they were Jews and that as soon as they saw me they had each thought of my doppelganger in Australia, and I recited them this poem, which they understood and appreciated. Lillian and Jacquie.


Only you, Prince, only you!