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  • To the San Francisco Delegates
  • Anne Kleiman (bio)

Here are my words to you, law makers of the world!

When the day comes    all who seek peace will stream to the assembly-hall.    And you shall know: even before you arrive,    the house will be full-    the doorposts themselves will quake with the crowds,    the faithful emissaries of the nations:                                        Whoever was a father and a mouth to us,                                                                    slumped, fallen-                                        Whoever was our son, and a hero,                                                                                and has been sacrificed-                                        Whoever was beloved, whoever was alive,                                        all the pure who fell for their country                                        all the holy who died for their torah… [End Page 70]

They are loyal messengers, emissaries of the nations,          and you will listen!          For theirs is the power, and every seat in the house shall be theirs on that day!          And you shall behold!          And you shall know! [End Page 72]

  • חנה קליימן
  • לְמִקְרָאֵי סַנְפְרַנְצִיסְקוֹ
    Translated by Yosefa Raz (bio) and דְּבָרַי אֲלֵיכֶם, מְחוֹקְקֵי חוּקוֹת תֵּבֵל!

בְּבֹא הַיּוֹם, עֵתיִנְהַר אֶל הַהֵיכָל כָּל שׁוֹחֵר שָׁלוֹם,              וִידַעְתֶּם, כִּי בְּטֶרֶם בֹּאֲכֶם              -וְהַבַּיִת מָלֵא              אַף יִרְעֲדוּ הַמְזוּזוֹת מֵהָמוֹן.               -שְׁלִיחֵי-אוּמוֹת נֶאֱמָנִים הֵמָּה:              

אֲשֶׁר אָב וּפֶה לָנוּ הָיָה,                             -כָּרַע, נָפַל                                                        אֲשֶׁר בֵּן הָיָה, וְגִבּוֹר הָיָה,אֲשֶׁר אָב וּפֶה לָנוּ הָיָה,                            -וְנִקְרַב,                                                        אֲשֶׁר אָהוּב הָיָה, וְחַי הָיָה,                            כָּל נוֹפֵל בְּטָהֳרָה עַל אַרְצוֹ                            כָּל הַמֵּת עַל קְדוּשַׁת תּוֹרָתוֹ. . . .                             [End Page 71]

שְׁלִיחִים נֶאֱמָנִים הֵמָּה, שְׁלִיחֵי-הָאוּמוֹת.וְהִקְשַׁבְתֶּם!    כִּי לָהֶם הַיָּד, וְלָהֶם כָּל מוֹשָׁב בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא!    וּרְאִיתֶם!    וִידַעְתֶּם!     [End Page 73]

Yosefa Raz

Yosefa Raz was born in Be'er Sheva and raised in Jerusalem. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous publications including ZYZZYVA, Tikkun, Moment, and Glimmer Train. Her first collection of poetry, In Exchange for a Homeland, was published in 2004 by Swan Scythe Press. She is currently a student in the Graduate Theological Union-UC Berkeley Joint Doctoral program in Jewish Studies, focusing on literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible.

Anne Kleiman

Anne Shanin Kleiman, born in 1909, is the first American-born Jewish woman to publish poems in Hebrew. The fourth of seven children born in St. Joseph, Missouri to Russian immigrant parents, she attended a community Hebrew school, where she proved herself an avid and gifted student. At the age of nineteen, Anne came to Chicago to study both at the University of Chicago and the College of Jewish Studies. With Hebrew as the language of instruction, she studied Jewish history, rabbinic thought, Bible, Hebrew language and grammar, and Hebrew literature. She wrote poems in Hebrew, which were published both in the student newspaper and in 1947 as a collection entitled N'tafim (Droplets). She still lives in Chicago.

Note\

The United Nations Conference on International Organization, an international meeting that established the United Nations, was convened in April 1945 in San Francisco. This poem was part of a manuscript published in 1947.

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