Hebrews

I belong to that ancient Hebrew race,
Wanderers from place to place,
Left the Sumerians five thousand years ago,
Always strangers wherever we go,
Though we number only thirteen million
In a world of more than six billion,
We contributed in great measure
To our world's rich treasure:
From the Bible to Abraham, Moses,
King David, Salomon, Jesus, Joseph,
Mary, The Twelve Disciples, Maimonides,
Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Freud, Einstein,
To Mahler, Gershwin, Berlin, Bernstein,
Salk, Oppenheimer, Teller and on and on,
Are the famous names of my people known,
And yet, our hosts hunted and persecuted us all,
Especially, when six million
In the Holocaust took the fall,
And often I ask myself - why would this be,
Why should we suffer such misery,
For Christians, Moslems, Arabs
Are our offspring and kin,
Without our heritage,
Where would they have been?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz