About democracy I now poetically decide to sing,
deploring its opponents such as Putin and Xi Jinping,
wondering whether Putin bit off more than he can champion or chew,
unable to digest what’s been forbidden to him by a Jew.
If this is so he echoes Haman, who advised Ahasuerus
to kill all Hebrews, and was hanged for this. His fate does not endear us
to goyim who hate Jews today, as Putin surely hates Zelensky,—
I hope this accusation causes none to be a take-offenski—-,
although in Putin’s case his hate has quite another cause,
quite unrelated to Zelensky’s Jewishness. The man deplores
democracy, just as Ahasuerus presumably, too, did,
and is oblivious to the fact that his opponent is a Yid,
contrasting thus with Haman. Which means that no miracle will cure him,
unlike the one that cured the problem caused by anti-democrats on Purim,
anticipating Nazi criminals who dangerously detested
all Jews, and realized in Nuremberg that they were Purimfested.
The tree on which they ought to hang him is one the United Nations
reserves for Jewish victims, while for them alone accepting reservations,
“Never again” a mantra that to which it is a cruel contester,
which is the reason why each year Jews need to read the Book of Esther.
Natan Sharansky writes in Tablet on 3/7/22:
I have to say that it is very difficult for Jews to believe, but the Jewish question has nothing to do with this conflict. The fact that Zelensky is a devoted Jew is an absolutely outstanding fact of Ukrainian history, as well as the fact that even Putin, with all the awful things he is doing, is unique in Russian history for his positive attitude toward Jews and Israel. There are no anti-Jewish pogroms at this stage, neither in Ukraine nor in Russia, and it’s not the case that Jews are at the center of this….
And for this reason, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet with President Zelensky and his team. And he has always been very positive and very interested. And now he is leading the Ukrainian people, to the big surprise of Putin, in showing such a passionate devotion to Ukrainian national identity, and to their freedom. The fact that they are now an example for people all over the world, and that the one who is leading them and inspiring them and the man who is the most important president in their history is openly Jewish and proud of his Jewish roots and his connection to Israel—that is just really something. I don’t know whether to call it ironic or symbolic.
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
