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Jews, War and the Military
If the ancient Hebrews thought they had a divine sanction to kill their enemies, the attitudes of modern Jews towards war and military service have been more ambiguous. Exposed to the bigoted charges of treason or cowardice, fighting against other Jews in enemy armies, Jewish men---also fighting for masculinity and self-respect---have written discomfiting poems about assimilation, exclusion, and the risks of taking a pacifist position.
Jewish women, automatically sidelined, have sought to reclaim the role of Deborah, the judge-as-warrior, making self-scrutinizing poems about Israelite / Zionist triumph; they have also used, as in Emma Lazarus, the image of Bar Kokhba and the Maccabean revolt as a rallying symbol for Jewish manhood.
Readings from Emma Lazarus, Charles Bernstein, Isaac Rosenberg, Nina Salaman, Alter Brody, Louis Untermeyer, Emanuel Litvinoff, Karl Shapiro, and Harvey Shapiro, others.
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