Belonging

Former Mazkira shares a poem reflecting on faith, fear, and finding home as a Jew in today’s world.

Belonging

I swallow my faith in silence,

fasting behind closed doors.

Friends guard the entrances

of buildings marked for who we are,

every step a risk.

England asks me to fade,

Israel asks me to shout,

I have no tongue for either

only a body aching to rest.

I want a place,

where I can be Jewish

without armour,

without apology,

without danger,

By showing up.

Home,

is it a land?

a language?

the courage to exist as myself?

Or is it the hope,

fragile but unbroken,

that one day I can say

I am a Jew

and the world will let me live,

proud,

safe,

Wherever I choose.