This piece is part of our Wit­ness­ing series, which shares pieces from Israeli authors and authors in Israel, as well as the expe­ri­ences of Jew­ish writ­ers around the globe in the after­math of Octo­ber 7th.

It is crit­i­cal to under­stand his­to­ry not just through the books that will be writ­ten lat­er, but also through the first-hand tes­ti­monies and real-time account­ing of events as they occur. At Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, we under­stand the val­ue of these writ­ten tes­ti­mo­ni­als and of shar­ing these indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences. It’s more impor­tant now than ever to give space to these voic­es and narratives.

Words Are All That I Have: A Found Poem [1]

Words are not enough, not even words like

ter­ri­ble hor­rif­ic dev­as­tat­ing killing

suf­fer­ing tragedy trauma 

hell.

But words are all that I have.

My own, and those of others.

I mourn with words. I pray.

And I share.

Every day I use my voice, in

every place and plat­form I can,

bear­ing wit­ness to the attacks and the victims 

and the hostages.

It is an oblig­a­tion, nec­es­sary and sacred, 

because there are oth­ers out there

who don’t know the sto­ry of Octo­ber 7

or don’t believe it.

Who don’t know, or believe, that Hamas is responsible

not only for the attacks and the sex­u­al vio­lence and the families

and friends and fes­ti­val-goers and souls torn apart in Israel, 

but also for the months of death and suf­fer­ing in Gaza.

Who don’t know, or believe, that a hostage-and-cease­fire deal 

is not — or not only — up to Israel.

Hamas could release the hostages. 

Hamas could end the suf­fer­ing and bring peace.

I am not giv­ing up until every hostage is reunit­ed with their family

and there is no need for Rachel’s piece of tape; until that time, 

I mourn, and I pray, and I use my voice, because

words are all that I have.

[1] Source text: ​“Remarks by Sec­ond Gen­tle­man Dou­glas Emhoff at the Nation­al Vig­il for the Hostages at Adas Israel Con­gre­ga­tion,” Sep­tem­ber 3, 2024.

The views and opin­ions expressed above are those of the author, based on their obser­va­tions and experiences.

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