An excellent and poignant poem, Daniel! The opening of the poem alludes to the fact that your ancestors were expelled from Spain in the 1400s. The Sephardic Jewish community were never truly accepted as being Spaniards. They were always seen as this alien presence that didn’t fit in with the nation’s Iberian Catholic majority and was seen as a threat to its way of life and national security. Yet the Spanish Jewish community were the most successful people in the Kingdom and their expulsion was an economic disaster for Spain. Nonetheless, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made the decision to expel the entire Jewish community and exile them to the Ottoman Empire basically, whom they enriched with their talents, knowledge and vast wealth. The Turks rescued the Spanish Jewish community and gave them a new lease on life. The Sephardic Jewish community were second-class citizens in Ottoman Turkey but they nonetheless, prospered, had a degree of self-autonomy and had religious freedom. The state would leave them alone as long as they were loyal to the empire, followed the laws and paid the Jizya Tax. That’s more than can be said for the Spanish Kingdom.
The second part of the poem is quite touching as it is all about how the Jewish people were once strangers in Egypt so they have a duty to be kind to and help others. The Jewish people were treated as strangers in Ancient Egypt back in Antiquity, they were treated as strangers in Spain in 1492, they were treated as strangers in Tsarist Russia in the 1880s, they were treated as strangers in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and they were treated as strangers in the Soviet Union throughout its entire existence. It is for this reason the Jewish people and the state of Israel must be inclusive, welcoming and moral towards those who come to their door seeking refuge and must treat non-Jewish minorities with dignity and equality.
This Israel most certainly does! Let’s get in a time machine and go back to 2018 shall we? Over 20,000 Israelis came out and protested in favor of letting African asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea stay in the country after Bibi threatened to deport them all. As a result, these folks were able to stay and live in Israel in freedom and safety. Israel opened its doors and welcomed the Black Hebrew Israelites and African-American Christians respectively into its bosom. When the Syrian Civil War broke out in the early 2010s, Israel took a number of orphaned Syrian children and adopted them out to Israeli Arab families. During the Ukraine War, Israel gladly accepted thousands of Ukrainian refugees. While Israeli Arabs face social challenges, they have had full equality with Jews since 1966. They serve in the Knesset, have their own political parties, are increasingly becoming middle class and opening successful businesses, the owner of the biggest bank in Israel is an Arab, and 30% of Israeli doctors and 50% of the pharmacists are Arab. The Druze, Bedouin and Circassian communities have had a good relationship with Jewish communities in Israel since before the War of Independence. Christians in Israel have a safe haven where they won’t face persecution. Meanwhile, in the rest of the Middle East Christians are being oppressed, attacked and murdered. Just look at what Syria’s Jihadist dictatorship is doing to Alawite Christians right now as I type this!
The Jewish people have also always stood with other oppressed groups of people. They were very prominent in the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation Movements and the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa. Israel is at the forefront of doing great humanitarian work around the world and helping the people of Africa live a better quality of life. American Jews were also prominent in the fight for LGBT rights. Israel was quite ahead of its time in its treatment of both women and LGBT people as well as integrating neurodivergent people such as myself into the workforce.
I am not Jewish myself but rather a Lutheran. But I know from experience that the Jewish community has always been kind to the stranger and taken them in, fed and clothed them. This poem reflects that tradition and why it must continue. It’s a tradition we ALL could learn from and would do well to remember given the rampant xenophobia going around in the West these days and the rise of far-right populist parties in Europe.
An interesting interpretation of the poem Noah. I should say that I consider myself to be the stranger precisely because I don’t and likely will never fit into any group. I've accepted it!!
I see, you were speaking of yourself. I’ll admit I did not pick up on that. But maybe that’s the way you intended it for everyone to have different interpretations of it. I’ll be honest, I could’ve sworn you were speaking of the Jewish people in this poem! It just goes to show how thought-provoking art can be.
Indeed Noah. Well me and the various scattered strangers around the world. You are right that one interpretation could be about Israel as the stranger among the nations. As you say that is the beauty of art!!
You might be interested in a book, "The Territorial Imperative" by Robert Ardrey, 1966, about the inbuilt biological evolutionary reaction of all sorts of organisms to defend their territory.
There are 2 amazing things here: A) The poem, B) The whopping disinterest of your "followers".
Thanks for your support!
An excellent and poignant poem, Daniel! The opening of the poem alludes to the fact that your ancestors were expelled from Spain in the 1400s. The Sephardic Jewish community were never truly accepted as being Spaniards. They were always seen as this alien presence that didn’t fit in with the nation’s Iberian Catholic majority and was seen as a threat to its way of life and national security. Yet the Spanish Jewish community were the most successful people in the Kingdom and their expulsion was an economic disaster for Spain. Nonetheless, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made the decision to expel the entire Jewish community and exile them to the Ottoman Empire basically, whom they enriched with their talents, knowledge and vast wealth. The Turks rescued the Spanish Jewish community and gave them a new lease on life. The Sephardic Jewish community were second-class citizens in Ottoman Turkey but they nonetheless, prospered, had a degree of self-autonomy and had religious freedom. The state would leave them alone as long as they were loyal to the empire, followed the laws and paid the Jizya Tax. That’s more than can be said for the Spanish Kingdom.
The second part of the poem is quite touching as it is all about how the Jewish people were once strangers in Egypt so they have a duty to be kind to and help others. The Jewish people were treated as strangers in Ancient Egypt back in Antiquity, they were treated as strangers in Spain in 1492, they were treated as strangers in Tsarist Russia in the 1880s, they were treated as strangers in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and they were treated as strangers in the Soviet Union throughout its entire existence. It is for this reason the Jewish people and the state of Israel must be inclusive, welcoming and moral towards those who come to their door seeking refuge and must treat non-Jewish minorities with dignity and equality.
This Israel most certainly does! Let’s get in a time machine and go back to 2018 shall we? Over 20,000 Israelis came out and protested in favor of letting African asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea stay in the country after Bibi threatened to deport them all. As a result, these folks were able to stay and live in Israel in freedom and safety. Israel opened its doors and welcomed the Black Hebrew Israelites and African-American Christians respectively into its bosom. When the Syrian Civil War broke out in the early 2010s, Israel took a number of orphaned Syrian children and adopted them out to Israeli Arab families. During the Ukraine War, Israel gladly accepted thousands of Ukrainian refugees. While Israeli Arabs face social challenges, they have had full equality with Jews since 1966. They serve in the Knesset, have their own political parties, are increasingly becoming middle class and opening successful businesses, the owner of the biggest bank in Israel is an Arab, and 30% of Israeli doctors and 50% of the pharmacists are Arab. The Druze, Bedouin and Circassian communities have had a good relationship with Jewish communities in Israel since before the War of Independence. Christians in Israel have a safe haven where they won’t face persecution. Meanwhile, in the rest of the Middle East Christians are being oppressed, attacked and murdered. Just look at what Syria’s Jihadist dictatorship is doing to Alawite Christians right now as I type this!
The Jewish people have also always stood with other oppressed groups of people. They were very prominent in the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation Movements and the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa. Israel is at the forefront of doing great humanitarian work around the world and helping the people of Africa live a better quality of life. American Jews were also prominent in the fight for LGBT rights. Israel was quite ahead of its time in its treatment of both women and LGBT people as well as integrating neurodivergent people such as myself into the workforce.
I am not Jewish myself but rather a Lutheran. But I know from experience that the Jewish community has always been kind to the stranger and taken them in, fed and clothed them. This poem reflects that tradition and why it must continue. It’s a tradition we ALL could learn from and would do well to remember given the rampant xenophobia going around in the West these days and the rise of far-right populist parties in Europe.
An interesting interpretation of the poem Noah. I should say that I consider myself to be the stranger precisely because I don’t and likely will never fit into any group. I've accepted it!!
I see, you were speaking of yourself. I’ll admit I did not pick up on that. But maybe that’s the way you intended it for everyone to have different interpretations of it. I’ll be honest, I could’ve sworn you were speaking of the Jewish people in this poem! It just goes to show how thought-provoking art can be.
Indeed Noah. Well me and the various scattered strangers around the world. You are right that one interpretation could be about Israel as the stranger among the nations. As you say that is the beauty of art!!
You might be interested in a book, "The Territorial Imperative" by Robert Ardrey, 1966, about the inbuilt biological evolutionary reaction of all sorts of organisms to defend their territory.
Good Luck.
Martin Nash
Thanks. I'm curious about the relevance.