The Jewish heart is very warm,
at least, that’s what is commonly believed,
but if you think all Jewish hearts conform
to such a temperature be undeceived.
Jews vary, just like Jewish hearts,
and differ greatly in both shape and size,
conforming sometimes to the charts,
and sometimes off them with their lows and highs.
Some Jewish girls are lovely, some
are not, the same applies to Jewish guys,
and Jewish mothers––maybe not your mom! ––
are also sometimes hard to idealize.
Some don’t eat pork, but it is rare for Jews
to follow all the laws they got from Moses;
although some do, most now refuse
to follow anything except their noses
which are not all extremely long,
though some, like those of gentiles, have been shortened,
and sad to say some think it wrong
to shorten something that’s far more important.
I’m sorry that you must be told
I think that Jewish hearts are overrated;
some warm, some cold, but all within the fold,
within their heart of hearts believe they’re hated.
Scott Thurow writes in Atlantic, December 2005, about how he failed to respond to Saul Bellow after Bellow sent him a letter commending his first book, telling him it was better than his second:
“Sometimes I fear ‘the warm Jewish heart’ may be misleading, ” Bellow wrote, “i.e. that it does not give or receive the real facts. Which seem also worse and worse. But then it must in itself be a good thing.” Epigrammatic and musing, the few lines were essential Bellow, especially the brief musing about the “real facts, ” a preoccupation that was typical of his characters from Henderson the Rain King through Sammler and Herzog, all struggling to discern the true position of humankind in a universe ever more chaotic by untruly feelings.
11/14/05
gershon hepner
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/jewish-heart/
