A Prophecy: The Wall



I remember the first time
I was at the Wall
It was in 1938

The few old Jews standing near the wall
With their kaftans and payot
Were a curiosity to me than
And I to them, a curiosity.

I was told to plant a prayer in the wall
"Don't let it happen here-"
I wrote on a scrap of paper
In English
Thinking of America as "Here"
I meant it,
Not realizing how much I was going to mean it!
I prayed it
Not knowing how deeply I was going
To pray it.
Hitler was a distant rumble of thunder then
And I was more interested in getting
A few good shots with my camera
Than in praying,
How dare the British soldier tell me
"No picture taking at the wall!"
Whose Wall was it?

In 1948 when I made "Alyah"
My casual prayer had been answered,
"It hadn't happened here!"
But the Wall was "Juden rein"

I remember Burma Road
600 had fallen at Latrun
Bab El-Wad was strewn with
Shot out trucks and overturned jeeps.
Ours was the first "sherut"
That went up to Jerusalem
After the siege,
We veered round sharp turns
We slid down steep hills
We bounced over jagged ruts
We skidded on rough stones.

We sang
"Me'al Pisgat Har Hazofim
Shalom lach
Yerushalayim"
We felt we were actually climbing up to Yerushalayim
for
Yerushalayim had not been destroyed
And brothers were alive within its gates

I remember the very first army parade
On the football field at the Port of Tel Aviv
I sat right behind Ben Gurion
You can recognize his two wings of white hair
on some of my film,
We clapped like mad
When the Chief of Staff
Saluted
And he saluted back.
We sobered down
At the sight of the automobile marked
"ambulance"!
We laughed at the bedraggled horse and wagon labeled
"enemy booty"
And we cried
Especially those with numbers tattooed on their arms
They cried
One said to me between his tears
"I've stood at mightier parades than this
My arm was outstretched
And I had to say, 'Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler'
Over and over again
Lest someone suspect me of being a Jew.

And now I need say nothing
My hands can clap
And my heart is beating
"This is mine! This is mine!!
Mine!
A Jewish army, Mine!

And I am crying
Because I am yelling
'I am a Jew, I am a Jew!'"

I remembered how we wondered
What we would call the state.
Judea maybe,
And then the name Israel was announced
And how right it was
How simple
How simply right!

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This material is ©1998 by Grace Hollander
3 Keren Haysod st,Ramat Ilan, Givat Shmuel, Israel 51905

Permission to distribute this material, with this notice is granted - with request to notify of use by surface mail
or at gracehollander@usa.net.