ISRAEL

He turns his eyes to the East
And yea, even his blistered feet
Drag slowly home:
This travel-weary specimen of man;
My fathers' shame and mine
Condemned to roam
Through history's sins and blood dipped pen,
A jest for Kings, a middle-man for War;
And still he grew!
Still he grew! With a gifted hand,
A surgeon, a scientist, a bard.....
The wandering Jew.

He turns his eyes to the East
And yea, his heart propells him forth
To that small place,
That arrid strip of toil and miracle;
That well of Jewry between teeth of steel,
Birthplace of his race....
Israel....the bootmark of the world!
Israel....the saber-slashed and torn!
With entrails strew
From North to South...from East to West
And spattered on the Robe of Justice...
O Home of the Jew.

Her turneth his eyes to the East
From whence his soul cometh
And his religion drank.....
And he looketh for green valleys of peace,
And oil for his head and water for his feet...
He cometh in rank.
His women cry behind him in their poverty,
And his children hunger after friendship....
And at their tryst
They turneth their eyes to heaven..........
And I, evenI[sic], call unto God,
"Bring forth their Christ!"

He turns his eyes to the East
To a teeming strip of land,
And we of the West
Are girdled with soil...fattened with soil!
He travels shunned and weary
And we have rest.
We are the homeless for our lack of heart;
We are the shunned for our narrow souls;
Hating is bitter brew,
And I am shamed...................I am shamed
That he is weary, the he is worn O Jew, Jew
My brother Jew.