Judaica: Stories & Poetry Vol. 1
COMING SOONBy Robert M. Katzman
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“Passion, pain, and the joy of being part of something wonderful.”
It may be difficult for people of any other faith to comprehend my involvement with the ancientness of Judaism.
I am descended from four grandparents – Jews who escaped the madness of Eastern Europe between 1900 and 1917 – and I went to Hebrew School for 4 years on the South Side of Chicago (which often had strong aspects of Dublin in our area) where I was called a 'Dirty Jew' by former playmates before I understood what the words meant. My involvement in and commitment to my faith came in 1967 at 17, in Hyde Park at 57th and Lake Park Avenue under the darkened viaduct, where I chose that identity above all others. I began my self-education that year and in the 57 years since, have never finished discovering or comprehending what I decided to become a part of that day.
Before being a Democrat, before caring about my old neighborhood as a way of identifying myself, before any allegiance to any other organization or preference for some interest of mine, (like someone who is a Packers fan) I am a Jew. Before identifying myself as an American: a legal place of inhabitance and what the world usually would call me… I am a Jew. Because as I grew, read and traveled, I learned that in every part of the world I have seen, they primarily call me a Jew in one way or another. I chose this identity and it goes to my core. Nothing else matches its antiquity or meaning for me.
I am descended from four grandparents – Jews who escaped the madness of Eastern Europe between 1900 and 1917 – and I went to Hebrew School for 4 years on the South Side of Chicago (which often had strong aspects of Dublin in our area) where I was called a 'Dirty Jew' by former playmates before I understood what the words meant. My involvement in and commitment to my faith came in 1967 at 17, in Hyde Park at 57th and Lake Park Avenue under the darkened viaduct, where I chose that identity above all others. I began my self-education that year and in the 57 years since, have never finished discovering or comprehending what I decided to become a part of that day.
Before being a Democrat, before caring about my old neighborhood as a way of identifying myself, before any allegiance to any other organization or preference for some interest of mine, (like someone who is a Packers fan) I am a Jew. Before identifying myself as an American: a legal place of inhabitance and what the world usually would call me… I am a Jew. Because as I grew, read and traveled, I learned that in every part of the world I have seen, they primarily call me a Jew in one way or another. I chose this identity and it goes to my core. Nothing else matches its antiquity or meaning for me.
