Who’s Afraid of Jerusalem?
Open To Question: Michal Govrin responds to Jay Michaelson and the debate with her poem shaped around questions.
Who’s afraid of Jerusalem?
Who loathes and despises her?
Who execrates her, heart and tongue?
Who says, What am I doing in this city of black hats
And maniacs
This city of blood and enmity
Where Hillel the Elder pursues peace
Amid the broken cups and carnage?
Who hates Jerusalem
For the love wherewith he loved her once in secret
Courtyard shadows of the vine
Twilight, jasmine blue?
How cruel is the hatred of Jerusalem
A very flame
Many waters cannot quench it.
After the terrorist attack at Café Hillel in September 2003
From “And So Said Jerusalem, Poems and Hymns” (Devarim/Carmel, Jerusalem 2009).
Translation from the Hebrew by Betsy Rosenberg (sponsored by the “Museum On The seam,” Jerusalem).
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
