Judaica: Stories & Poetry
By Robert M. Katzman
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“It's a way of looking at the world, a connectedness to other people.”
On Being Jewish from the 1950’s to Now
As I look back on my earliest friendships at a time when my home life was a battlefield and my days were spent running home every day at lunchtimes to escape the Irish kids who treated me like I was a soccer ball, I realized that the people I sought out to get to know better were the Christian boys who didn’t let religion interfere with our getting to know each other. Because of family parties, bar mitzvahs and birthdays, my involvement with Jewish peers was all mashed together in a whirlwind of ceremony.But my other objective was to learn from people who seemed comfortable with themselves, knew more than I did about something I was interested in, and who evidenced no desire to beat me up because of where my family came from. I befriended people who were older or decided to stand by me if other kids wanted to fight.
My bar to letting usually loner souls into my life was high. But once inside my defenses, both physical and emotional, my devotion to the new person was total and lifelong. Their lives intertwining with mine became a priority. No one can have 40 friends or 50 friends. There isn’t enough time to fulfill the commitment I offered to those precious few who chose, over too many difficult times, to stand with me. Stand with the Jew.
