By: Jeffrey Farek
Sports and Health Editor
I Hide
I will often tell someone I am Jewish.
Just as often, I decide against it.
I hide my faith when I don’t feel like bringing it up.
I hide my faith so I won’t feel uncomfortable or scared.
I hide my faith because I’m not very religious.
I hide my faith because my temple was bombed by white supremacists in the 1950’s.
I hide my faith from people I don’t know very well.
I hide my faith because Jews were the victims of 54% of hate crimes in 2016.
5 I hide my faith from people wearing a Confederate flag.
I hide my faith because that flag marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
I hide my faith because 11 Jews were murdered for their faith in Pittsburgh in 2018.
I hide my faith because I don’t want that to happen to me.
I hide my faith when someone makes a joke about Hitler.
I hide my faith because Holocaust deniers still exist.
I hide my faith because I don’t have to share.
I hide my faith because I wish I didn’t have to worry about it.
I hide my faith when the person I’m talking to is anti-Israel.
I hide my faith because I care about my people.
10 I hide my faith when the person I’m talking to is pro-Israel.
I hide my faith because I care about their people, too.
I hide my faith because I don’t want to distract from the problems facing other minorities.
I hide my faith because I’m unwilling to admit my people also have problems that need to be addressed.
I hide my faith because it’s not important.
I hide my faith because a white man is more privileged than a Jew.
I hide my faith.
I hide my faith because on the first day of high school, a classmate told me he hates Jews.
I hid my faith.
I hid my faith at Dachau because I didn’t want their sympathy.
15 I feel guilty for hiding my faith.
I feel guilty because my ancestors had to hide, and I’m lucky to have the choice.
I will hide my faith again.
I will hide my faith again because I learned not to announce my presence.
I refuse to let history repeat itself.
And I’m afraid because it already has.
Next, they’ll come for you –
And who will be left to speak out for you?
If you would like to know more about each couplet, please look below for context:
1 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm
3 https://www.the-temple.org/bombing
4 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/statistics-on-religious-hate-crimes
5 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/nazis-racism-charlottesville/536928/
6 https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-victims/index.html
7 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/the-world-is-full-of-holocaust-deniers
9 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/anti-israel-behavior-is-anti-semitic-vandalized
10 https://www.jta.org/2018/10/19/news-opinion/the-telegraph/majority-american-jews-say-can
11 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/migrant-children-detention.html
14 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-dachau
15 https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-9/survival-hiding
17 http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/refugees-ship-st-louis-1939-germany-nazis-cuba-trump
18 https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the