[Opinion. I don’t read a lot of poetry these days but these two really moved me. Jews for Tikkun Olam is a Toronto group of social workers.]

Written in response to the Walk with Israel event in Toronto, June 7

Karine Silverwoman

Jews for Tikkun Olam: 7 Jun 2026

No, I won’t walk with Israel.

Instead I sit, a weighted blanket

over my heart, grief

stitched through each square.

You embarrass me.

You anger me.

You shame me.

Sixty thousand walked today,

fewer than the children murdered by your silence

their voices, our haunting, our inheritance.

We should be walking for Sam Fahd Abou Haikal,

Hind Rami Iyad Rajab, Maysa Mahmoud Farid Zarab,

but instead you lead us

towards the next Nuremberg trials.

How can we share the same history?

How can you refuse to see the human.

Must we wait for revised textbooks

before the dead become visible?

I am an empty cup,

worn thin as a river stone.

I have tried compassion, reason, patience,

kneeling in prayer with you.

I have read your perspectives

and swum in your algorithms.

I have protested, sat in grief circles.

I have engaged in hard conversations,

held my tongue and searched for the right words.

I have tried to find the shadow

before the fear. Dayenu.

Do you condemn

the largest orphan crisis in history

Do you condemn

entire communities being erased

in our name.

I read Ordinary Men at sixteen.

Too young, perhaps,

to study how people learn

to look away.

Too young to understand

that my ancestors were not far away.

They were in the forests,

in the pits, in piles

in the silences between pages.

I thought I was studying history,

I did not know

I was studying us.

[For those who don’t know it, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Christopher R. Browning, 2017.]

#################

In Response to the Removal of “If I Must Die” by The Toronto Public Library from a Display on the “Israel-Palestine Conflict”

Karine Silverwoman

15 Feb 2025.

Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian poet who died in an Israeli military airstrike.

When I die

May we all cover our mirrors

sit shiva for generations

When I die

May it be known

you turned our most sacred tears

to walls of grey

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

You have twisted

the most bloodied knife of our history

My ancestors did not die

in concentration camps for us to murder another people

My grandma was not forced

to make coffins for germans at 17 years old

for me to bow down to your cult of supremacy

When I die

May you sit with a thousand

torahs on your backs

knowing I thin my hair

and hide our star because of you

May you cease to speak for us

May our mouths be filled with maror

May the salty tears of all the peacemakers’

exhaustion leaven you and may you

live in the shoes of a Palestinian child for a day, an hour

When I die

cloak my jewish body with a keffiyeh

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

May our ancestors lay our fear to rest

from the river to the sea

May you be forced to read Khalidi and watch Bisan

May you be with the footage of Hind

her screams the same ones buried in our cells

Say her name.

May you face every court and tremble before god

May you rot in the rubble of what you have caused

Reminds me a bit of Allen Ginsberg.

Silverwoman is a fake name.

Edited June 22Jun 22 by Jingthing

Maybe Ben Gvir will read the poem and start crying.

Ya think? Duh, I bet her birth name was the nice Jewish moniker, Silverman. Waddya think?

6 hours ago, save the frogs said:

Maybe Ben Gvir will read the poem and start crying.

If he realised what he's done to his country, better to just shoot himself.

This made me think about how focused we are on US gun violence. Israel--obviously--has a lot of guns. Anybody know how much gun violence there is in Israel. (No, I don't mean the murderous IDF.)

I just read that the 52nd Battalion Commander who was erased by Hezbollah in Lebanon was also behind the murder of Hind Rajab--a child pleading for her life. I don't feel much compassion at his death.)

24 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Ya think? Duh, I bet her birth name was the nice Jewish moniker, Silverman. Waddya think?

No doubt.

Dollars to donute she's a lesbian.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

13 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

[Opinion. I don’t read a lot of poetry these days but these two really moved me. Jews for Tikkun Olam is a Toronto group of social workers.]

Written in response to the Walk with Israel event in Toronto, June 7

Karine Silverwoman

Jews for Tikkun Olam: 7 Jun 2026

No, I won’t walk with Israel.

Instead I sit, a weighted blanket

over my heart, grief

stitched through each square.

You embarrass me.

You anger me.

You shame me.

Sixty thousand walked today,

fewer than the children murdered by your silence

their voices, our haunting, our inheritance.

We should be walking for Sam Fahd Abou Haikal,

Hind Rami Iyad Rajab, Maysa Mahmoud Farid Zarab,

but instead you lead us

towards the next Nuremberg trials.

How can we share the same history?

How can you refuse to see the human.

Must we wait for revised textbooks

before the dead become visible?

I am an empty cup,

worn thin as a river stone.

I have tried compassion, reason, patience,

kneeling in prayer with you.

I have read your perspectives

and swum in your algorithms.

I have protested, sat in grief circles.

I have engaged in hard conversations,

held my tongue and searched for the right words.

I have tried to find the shadow

before the fear. Dayenu.

Do you condemn

the largest orphan crisis in history

Do you condemn

entire communities being erased

in our name.

I read Ordinary Men at sixteen.

Too young, perhaps,

to study how people learn

to look away.

Too young to understand

that my ancestors were not far away.

They were in the forests,

in the pits, in piles

in the silences between pages.

I thought I was studying history,

I did not know

I was studying us.

[For those who don’t know it, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Christopher R. Browning, 2017.]

#################

In Response to the Removal of “If I Must Die” by The Toronto Public Library from a Display on the “Israel-Palestine Conflict”

Karine Silverwoman

15 Feb 2025.

Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian poet who died in an Israeli military airstrike.

When I die

May we all cover our mirrors

sit shiva for generations

When I die

May it be known

you turned our most sacred tears

to walls of grey

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

You have twisted

the most bloodied knife of our history

My ancestors did not die

in concentration camps for us to murder another people

My grandma was not forced

to make coffins for germans at 17 years old

for me to bow down to your cult of supremacy

When I die

May you sit with a thousand

torahs on your backs

knowing I thin my hair

and hide our star because of you

May you cease to speak for us

May our mouths be filled with maror

May the salty tears of all the peacemakers’

exhaustion leaven you and may you

live in the shoes of a Palestinian child for a day, an hour

When I die

cloak my jewish body with a keffiyeh

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

May our ancestors lay our fear to rest

from the river to the sea

May you be forced to read Khalidi and watch Bisan

May you be with the footage of Hind

her screams the same ones buried in our cells

Say her name.

May you face every court and tremble before god

May you rot in the rubble of what you have caused

Wonderful words of wisdom, clarity and sadness. Shame on Israel for their extremist behavior. They are a pariah state, of their own making.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Wonderful words of wisdom, clarity and sadness. Shame on Israel for their extremist behavior. They are a pariah state, of their own making.

Such a poem couldn't have been written by an Israeli.

This bleeding heart "Silverwoman" diasporiarific drama queen doesn't have a clue about the Israeli experience of living in a tiny country surrounding by people who don't think you have the right to exist.

10 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

If he realised what he's done to his country, better to just shoot himself.

And then what? Go back to Hell where he came from?

This creepy video just popped into my feeds.

The "voice of British Jews expressing their bond with Israel".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERLoSBjZrQ

14 hours ago, Jingthing said:

No doubt.

Dollars to donute she's a lesbian.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Yep. As Peter Sellers had it, "I like to watch!"

6 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Such a poem couldn't have been written by an Israeli.

This bleeding heart "Silverwoman" diasporiarific drama queen doesn't have a clue about the Israeli experience of living in a tiny country surrounding by people who don't think you have the right to exist.

I sure wouldn't want to be neighbours with a tiny little country where every citizen believed I had no right to exists.

18 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I sure wouldn't want to be neighbours with a tiny little country where every citizen believed I had no right to exists.

Every citizen? Pure insanity. Also totally false except for Palestine which most Israelis don't want as a state because they know that most of the people there want them gone or dead. Again, your obsessive one sided extremist anti-Israel POV clouds your logic dramatically.

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Every citizen? Pure insanity. Also totally false except for Palestine which most Israelis don't want as a state because they know that most of the people there want them gone or dead. Again, your obsessive one sided extremist anti-Israel POV clouds your logic dramatically.

Sorry, Bro! Just 92% of Israelis approve of Israel's wars. Israel is surrounded by Palestinians! Most Xionist want them gone, or dead.

30 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Sorry, Bro! Just 92% of Israelis approve of Israel's wars. Israel is surrounded by Palestinians! Most Xionist want them gone, or dead.

Look at a map.

Your ignorance is stunning.

One thing is clear.

Neither you nor that "Silverwoman" poet would lose a minute of sleep if Israel committed national suicide in the name of social justice.

The genocidal jews are doing all in their power to sabotage the current attempted peace treaty with the orange clown in the USA and the radical extremists in power in their terrorist nation of Iran. At the end of the day, Israel and their land grabbing all over seems to be as much a part of the problems and wars, as would be the Iran terrorist nation.

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Look at a map.

Your ignorance is stunning.

Surveys from the Israel Democracy Institute indicated that over 90% of Jewish Israelis initially supported the joint US-Israeli military operation (Operation Roaring Lion). As the conflict progressed into its fourth week, support remained high, with 78% of Jewish respondents backing the continuation of the war.

Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

On 6/22/2026 at 7:38 PM, unblocktheplanet said:

[Opinion. I don’t read a lot of poetry these days but these two really moved me. Jews for Tikkun Olam is a Toronto group of social workers.]

Written in response to the Walk with Israel event in Toronto, June 7

Karine Silverwoman

Jews for Tikkun Olam: 7 Jun 2026

No, I won’t walk with Israel.

Instead I sit, a weighted blanket

over my heart, grief

stitched through each square.

You embarrass me.

You anger me.

You shame me.

Sixty thousand walked today,

fewer than the children murdered by your silence

their voices, our haunting, our inheritance.

We should be walking for Sam Fahd Abou Haikal,

Hind Rami Iyad Rajab, Maysa Mahmoud Farid Zarab,

but instead you lead us

towards the next Nuremberg trials.

How can we share the same history?

How can you refuse to see the human.

Must we wait for revised textbooks

before the dead become visible?

I am an empty cup,

worn thin as a river stone.

I have tried compassion, reason, patience,

kneeling in prayer with you.

I have read your perspectives

and swum in your algorithms.

I have protested, sat in grief circles.

I have engaged in hard conversations,

held my tongue and searched for the right words.

I have tried to find the shadow

before the fear. Dayenu.

Do you condemn

the largest orphan crisis in history

Do you condemn

entire communities being erased

in our name.

I read Ordinary Men at sixteen.

Too young, perhaps,

to study how people learn

to look away.

Too young to understand

that my ancestors were not far away.

They were in the forests,

in the pits, in piles

in the silences between pages.

I thought I was studying history,

I did not know

I was studying us.

[For those who don’t know it, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Christopher R. Browning, 2017.]

#################

In Response to the Removal of “If I Must Die” by The Toronto Public Library from a Display on the “Israel-Palestine Conflict”

Karine Silverwoman

15 Feb 2025.

Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian poet who died in an Israeli military airstrike.

When I die

May we all cover our mirrors

sit shiva for generations

When I die

May it be known

you turned our most sacred tears

to walls of grey

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

You have twisted

the most bloodied knife of our history

My ancestors did not die

in concentration camps for us to murder another people

My grandma was not forced

to make coffins for germans at 17 years old

for me to bow down to your cult of supremacy

When I die

May you sit with a thousand

torahs on your backs

knowing I thin my hair

and hide our star because of you

May you cease to speak for us

May our mouths be filled with maror

May the salty tears of all the peacemakers’

exhaustion leaven you and may you

live in the shoes of a Palestinian child for a day, an hour

When I die

cloak my jewish body with a keffiyeh

What happened to you?

What happened to us?

May our ancestors lay our fear to rest

from the river to the sea

May you be forced to read Khalidi and watch Bisan

May you be with the footage of Hind

her screams the same ones buried in our cells

Say her name.

May you face every court and tremble before god

May you rot in the rubble of what you have caused

Remind me. Who attacked, slaughtered, kidnapped and raped the kids at a music concert?

39 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Surveys from the Israel Democracy Institute indicated that over 90% of Jewish Israelis initially supported the joint US-Israeli military operation (Operation Roaring Lion). As the conflict progressed into its fourth week, support remained high, with 78% of Jewish respondents backing the continuation of the war.

Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

Straw man garbage.

27 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

Remind me. Who attacked, slaughtered, kidnapped and raped the kids at a music concert?

Perhaps Israel should have responded to that with a strongly worded letter of concern and a poem.

7 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Straw man garbage.

That's exactly what it is.

10 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Such a poem couldn't have been written by an Israeli.

This bleeding heart "Silverwoman" diasporiarific drama queen doesn't have a clue about the Israeli experience of living in a tiny country surrounding by people who don't think you have the right to exist.

Karine Silverwoman is a professor of social work and therapist who calls herself "an uninvited guest/settler" on First Nation tribal land. She is the epitome of wokeness. https://karinesilverwoman.com/

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Evil Penevil

5 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

Karine Silverwoman is a professor of social work and therapist who calls herself "an uninvited guest/settler" on First Nation tribal land. She is the epitome of wokeness. https://karinesilverwoman.com/

She seems like an incredibly captivating and appealing woman.

1 hour ago, nick supreme said:

incredibly captivating and appealing woman

She looks like Damian Lewis in drag.

2 hours ago, nick supreme said:

She seems like an incredibly captivating and appealing woman.

I have a feeling men are not her preference.

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Straw man garbage.

5 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Remind me. Who attacked, slaughtered, kidnapped and raped the kids at a music concert?

And, in your eyes, that deserved the slaughter of an entire population?

Did the IDF eliminate Hamas, do you think, along with all the women and children?

37 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

And, in your eyes, that deserved the slaughter of an entire population?

Did the IDF eliminate Hamas, do you think, along with all the women and children?

Entire population?

Do you actually believe that?!?

Edited June 23Jun 23 by Jingthing

46 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Did the IDF eliminate Hamas

Of course not.

They can't. They're neither intelligent nor strong enough.

All the while the country is weakening. Fighting age Jewry fleeing.

Not many friends left.

Future funding?

2,000 million Muslims v 16 million Jewry, half of which are soft, fat north Americans.

We all know what the future holds for Israel and the Jewry that stay there. Don't miss that last plane out, whatever you do. 🙂

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Entire population?

Do you actually believe that?!?

Barely hyperbole, Jing. What would you call it if 100k Israelis, including women and children, were killed in a three-year period? A necessary tactic or a slaughter?

So answer the question. Did the IDF wipe out Hamas, justifying the extent of the genocide? If they didn't, they're no better than murderers.

5 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Barely hyperbole, Jing. What would you call it if 100k Israelis, including women and children, were killed in a three-year period? A necessary tactic or a slaughter?

So answer the question. Did the IDF wipe out Hamas, justifying the extent of the genocide? If they didn't, they're no better than murderers.

Troll baiting.

Straw man garbage.