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.

We Wait Night

no one will sleep 

tonight

not 

in Israel 

not 

any­where

peo­ple stand by the border

until 

dawn

with flags 

wait­ing

thou­sands of fin­gers type in 

the dark

I’m in Latvia

I can’t put my phone down

I’m shak­ing the night 

feels end­less

I wait in Warsaw

wait­ing in Belgium

with my family 

beside me

I wait in Amsterdam

we wait in Mallorca

in Ger­many

Cana­da waits

Moldo­va waits

I’m read­ing 

Tehillim

only a few hours

I won’t sleep

I’ll go ear­ly to Hostage Square

and wait there

tomor­row morn­ing I have a test

I should sleep but 

I can’t

I cry

they said six or seven 

a.m.

for us midnight

13 Octo­ber

back in Israel

we are wait­ing together 

at home again

half 

past twelve

I still can’t sleep

I’m in Los Angeles

1:34 p.m.

I don’t know how many more hours

until we 

know

I wait

we wait

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.