the absent jews of szeged

our elderlies still remember
that their parents told them
about old times
when during the great holidays
not only the synagogue
but also the garden
had been full of jews

the synagogue in szeged
is the fourth biggest
in the world

it can hold two-thousand people

and the garden outside
holds two times as much

children ran around
lovers hugged in secret
men argued
about the newest automobiles
and women discussed life

inside
rabbi immanuel löw
talked to two thousand people
then two thousand people talked
to god

in the evening and morning of shabbat
yesterday
barukh prayed inside
with those of the remaining jews in szeged

they filled not even forty seats
of the one thousand three hundred and forty

one thousand and three hundred sitting
and seven hundred standing jews
didn’t come to this shabbat in szeged

as they hadn’t come
a week earlier
and would not come
next week

they were absent

they are absent

their absence is excused

they are dead

they were murdered

or weren’t even born

their parents were murdered
even before
the children could have been born

they are bodiless souls
wandering
with a divine spark
glowing inside them

more than a hundred years ago
jews of szeged
bought this land
and built this synagogue
with their own money

the fourth biggest synagogue in the world

they believed in god

believed in szeged
believed in hungary

they wanted to find
the promised land
if not in palestine
then in the carpathian basin
on the great hungarian plain

they wanted to find it very bad

instead of the jordan river
on the banks of the tisza
among these trees
behind the walls of this synagogue

they believed in szeged
and believed in hungary

but szeged and hungary
didn’t believe in them

six million murdered jews
isn’t possible to grasp
but one thousand and three hundred
empty seats is

it is draining to pray
in the synagogue in szeged

you are praying on behalf of
one thousand and three hundred sitting
and seven hundred standing jews