A Tearful Shabbat Shalom

Firefighters gather at the scene of a fire at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6, 2024. (Tania Lee/AFP)

Shabbat Shalom
The putrid taste of
Kristallnacht 2024
The shards of glass
Rip through my heart
Before dawn in Australia
At Adass Israel synagogue
Two malicious miscreants
Rapaciously poured gasoline
Into the womb of the synagogue
And lit the match.

Kfir Bibas and his mother Shiri Bibas, who were abducted to Gaza by Hamas terrorists, along with Kfir’s brother Ariel and father Yarden, from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)

Gutted, seared rooms
Revealed wretched prayer books
Clinging within bookcases
Screaming NEVER AGAIN!
But the world is deaf.
Two scorched Jewish men praying
Confronted the arsonists
And the cowards scampered away
Leaving their feckless, toxic, detritus behind.
The broken hearts of the Jewish people cry in pain.
Hallelujah! The precious, Holy Torah scrolls
Were safe. Amen.

Jewish community members remove holy scrolls from the burnt Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6, 2024. (Tania Lee/AFP)

From one Holocaust to today’s
Will this nightmare ever end?
Melbourne, Los Angeles, Paris, New York
Armed guards and metal detectors
At checkpoints? No, welcome to Shabbat services.
Israeli parents fear sending their kids to War,
Today, Jewish parents fear sending their kids to college!
Hide your kippah. You can’t learn, speak, or teach here!
Our Jewish reality.
October 7th Denial? Where have we heard this before?
101 Hostages corpses and alive? still held
Their families tortured for over a year,
Fearing the IDF knocking on their door with devastating news.

Hostage-families-whose-loved-ones-taken-by-Hamas-terrorists-on-October-7.-Times of Israel, Courtesy-Ziv-Koren-Polaris

Gang rape, assailants playing with severed, mutilated breasts,
burning babies alive,
Is Resistance? In what depraved dictionary?
This is EVIL!
And women’s activists are silent.
Do I look like Boo-Boo The Fool?
Is Jewish genocide against university rules?
It depends on the context.
WTF?

Embed from Getty Images

If you have a Jewish friend,
They need empathy,
They need a hug,
They need effective, uncompromised, support.
Why are we again the most hated
Invisible Minority?
May Their Memories Be a Blessing
May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.