Memorial for the Dead

Return to your ancient past Aid your sister with education and culture And people of Israel will once more be a nation. Awake, daughter of Babylon, mother of knowledge Take up in your hand the pen…

My grandfather’s kinsman, a Jew who tamed bears, Performed in the market towns; By day his beast was confined in chains; At night, they danced under the stars. Nicknamed “Ten Commandments,” the man…

An old Jew asked me near the Jaffa Gate: “Is the Saxon Garden still there? The same as ever? Is there a fountain? At the entrance from Czysta Street In the old days confectioners had a shop there…

See the Mount of Olives and the Greek monastery. Minarets and cupolas abound, Squares of yellow houses like honeycomb. The valley of Josephat, white, dry fields— There in the dell, where it is…

Oh my God, my God, Mighty One of my existence, have mercy on Your lost son who has wandered from the ancestral path and, exiled to cold and unfamiliar climes, sought to be close to You, but has not…