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Melissa Jane Kronfeld
PhD. Philanthropy. Politics.

No, Not In Our Name…

NOT IN OUR NAME!
They cry in the streets.

NOT IN OUR NAME!
They assemble and meet.

NOT IN OUR NAME!
Diaspora Jews declare.

NOT IN OUR NAME!
Israel, don’t you dare!

NOT IN OUR NAME!
Their new battle cry,
before returning to the safety
of their comfortable lives,
something not possible
for those Jews who died.

Something impossible
for us Jews still alive.

NOT IN OUR NAME!
Oh, how loud they all are!
Prancing about
in their kafiya scarves!

NOT IN OUR NAME!
As they embrace Palestinian flags,
like the burned, conjoined bodies
of that one mom and dad…

So what is their name?
And who are these Jews?
So righteous and proud
of their self-proclaimed truth!

These are the Jews who comfort the squad,
those in the Congress and those in Hamas.
These are the Jews who plead, LET GAZA BE!
The Jews who vacation at The Dan Tel Aviv,
a place far enough from the south they can’t see
the decapitated babies of our burnt moshavim.

“Cultural” Jews who support BLM and diversity!
“Educated” Jews demanding equality… or is it equity?
Jews so committed to “peace” no cost should be spared!
Jews who believe it can still be repaired.

Jews indistinguishable from Gazans in the streets,
celebrating dead Jews by eating sweet treats.

Jews who believe, as delusional it is,
that the true promised land is where they still live!

At the Reform,
non-denominational,
irreligious
shuls they attend
they feign empathy,
SOLIDARITY!
with their, “poor Israeli friends”
then thoughtlessly text:
“are you okay..?”

again, again and again.

No.
We are not okay.

But still not in your name?

Jews who boast of their organizational ties,
pats on the back while clad in black tie
at galas more expensive then the aid they provide.
These are the Jews who still have peace of mind…

while Israel is at war.

I remember the luxury of being that Jew,
how simple it was, the choice we must choose,
hasbara, of course, is what we must do!

A Jew who thought that peace was still possible!
A Jew who thought “they” can’t be that horrible!
A Jew unafraid of what would, or will, happen tomorrow…

Because “next year in Jerusalem!”
We say at our tables.
But now you must ask:
will you be able,
to return to the capital
you wish to divide?
Shop in the shuk
and turn a blind eye?

Not in your name?
So who will you call
when you pray at the Wall
and “they” come to slaughter you all?

Not in your name?
That’s your slogan?

It’s fine.

But I won’t forget
NEVER AGAIN
is still mine.

No, not in our name
will we let you pretend
that the fault of this massacre
is ours in the end.

No, not in our name
will we let you now speak
for the hundreds of Jews
lying dead in our streets.

No, not anymore,
can you call us your “family”
when you ignore that it’s we
who are victims of tragedy.

No not anymore
do we care what you say
when it is we who hear sirens
all night and all day.

No not anymore
will we permit your disdain,
allow you to judge us,
or march in our name.

No not anymore
can it be only convenient for you
to stand with your people
who fearlessly proved
what it takes to establish
a land for the Jews,
who accepts the responsibility
our forefathers knew
was incumbent on us all…

not just us few.

No, not in your name
will we win this war;
you’ve forgotten the Jews,
we’re not WE anymore.

But me?
I’m a Jew,
whose trauma and pain
made me acutely aware
we’re no longer the same…

A Jew who is scared,
a Jew never the same.

I am a Jew who has suffered great loss,
a witness to the horror of Israel’s first Holocaust.
I no longer believe it can’t be or will not…

now anything is possible.

But you are a Jew who says not in my name.
A Jew who is blind to how everything changed.
A delicate Jew who seeks understanding and peace,
with the rapists, the killers, the terrorists we’ll defeat.

Go stand with your Gazans,
who elected Hamas,
your poor oppressed Arabs,
the “occupied” lot!

And after when they come next for you,
I will cry out:

But your name was NOT Jew!

You said not in your name!
But for my poor Muslim brothers!
You said not in your name!
Or for our bereaved fathers and mothers!

BUSHA.

I am a Jew
who came here to stay.
I refuse to hide,
I will not run away.
I’m defeated, depleted, diminished, depressed,
I can no longer shed tears,
my eyes are bereft.

But I know, in my heart,
that we can’t,
must not stop…
because that’s what it says
in the book that we got.

For I am a Jew,
like those before me,
who tries to reason,
find reason,
in our pain and suffering.

I will maintain faith in God
and have hope that still He
has purpose, and foresight
and (as insane it may be)
a message for us;
some intentionality…

notwithstanding the fact
He’s not answering me.

How I wish He would
just
answer
me…

For I am a Jew
who must try to believe
that God awakened His people,
to set Israel free.

Because I’m now also a Jew who learned the age old lesson:
the cost of Jewish freedom is unbearably expensive.

So here I will stay
and here I will fight,
with all of my will
and what’s left of my might.

But I won’t fight for you,
I will fight for for my land,
for Judea and Samaria,
the north and coastal sands,
the desert, the cities, the hilltops, the south…

I’ll fight for Gush Katif,
and they won’t kick us out.

I’ll support the mission of our brave IDF,
not with #hashtags or #hugs
but duct tape and cigarettes.

And I will fight for my birthright…

it’s all I have left.

I will pray every night
that our soldiers find strength
to show them no mercy
and do what it takes
to honor our dead,
and seek retribution
so that my generation
is the final solution

to Jewish persecution…

terrorist intrusions…

civilian executions…

and the utter delusion
of those still under the illusion
that Hamas does not seek
Israel’s total dissolution.

No, not in your name,
don’t worry it’s true!

We don’t share a name
if you are THAT Jew.

About the Author
Dr. Melissa Jane Kronfeld is a journalist and former university lecturer focused on foreign policy, national security, Israel and the Diaspora. She has been a featured speaker at conferences around the world, including at the United Nations, the White House and Capitol Hill, and on variety of television, print, radio, podcast and online media outlets. Dr. Kronfeld is the founder of Passion For A Purpose, a boutique social impact consultancy with offices in New York and Tel Aviv; High On The Har, a US501c3 non-profit organization and Israeli Amuta focused on securing equal rights and access to the Temple Mount for people of all faiths; and The PFAP Foundation, a US501c3 non-profit organization and Israeli Amuta which supports community projects advancing Judaism, Zionism and pro-Israel sentiment, as well as the welfare of the Jewish people in the Jewish state.
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