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.

If I For­get Thee

If I for­get thee, oh Hersh Goldberg-Polin

let my right hand for­get its skill


the way your left hand, blown off your arm

was forced to for­get its gentleness

and its strength as you were loaded

into a truck and for­ev­er stolen away;


If I for­get thee, oh Hersh Goldberg-Polin

let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth


and let no more words escape my lips 

except I’m sor­ry

the last words you texted your mother

though you had noth­ing to be sor­ry about;


If I for­get thee, oh Hersh Goldberg-Polin

let my ears hear no sound at all


like the ring­ing silence between shouts

of your name cried by your mama

and dada as they stood at the Gaza

strip bor­der call­ing, call­ing, calling;


If I for­get thee, oh Hersh Goldberg-Polin

let my eyes see only the thick darkness


of a tun­nel deep below the dank earth 

where no sun, try as it might, could reach

the son so beloved by moth­er, father,

sis­ters, fam­i­ly, friends, tribe;


If I for­get thee, oh Hersh Goldberg-Polin

if ever I ever for­get thee.


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

Sup­port the work of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil and become a mem­ber today.

Lesléa New­man has cre­at­ed 85 books for read­ers of all ages includ­ing the mem­oirs-in-verse, I Car­ry My Moth­er and I Wish My Father; the nov­el-in-verse, Octo­ber Mourn­ing: A Song for Matthew Shep­ard; the short sto­ry col­lec­tion, A Let­ter to Har­vey Milk, and the children’s books, The Bab­ka Sis­ters; Wel­com­ing Eli­jah: A Passover Tale With A Tail; Ket­zel, The Cat Who Com­posed; and Joy­ful Song: A Nam­ing Sto­ry. Her lit­er­ary award include two Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards, the Syd­ney Tay­lor Body-of-Work Award, a Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts Poet­ry Fel­low­ship, and the Mass­a­chu­setts Book Award. From 2008 — 2010, she served as the poet lau­re­ate of Northamp­ton, MA.