Mom's poem from 1965

Today I came across a poem my mom wrote when she was 17. It got published in the junior section of the Jerusalem Post.

The Ma'apilim were "illegal" immigrants to British mandate Palestine. They got on boats (most famous one was the Exodus) and tried to sneak into the Holy Land under cover of darkness.

She tells me she wrote it to express the injustice inflicted by the British prior to 1948, when they restricted the immigration of thousands of Jewish holocaust survivors. The British saw first-hand the suffering caused by the Nazis when they liberated the camps. They then proceeded to deny many of those people the right to return to the ancestral home of the Jews.

I feel that some of the frustration and anguish reflected in this poem resonates today. Israel is treading in rough waters today just as it has for all of its existence. The sea still has no pity.

Here is the poem:


The Ma'apilim

Far away the sun is rising.
Men are holding hands, praying.
Who are they?
Do not ask...
They have no answer, but an aim
They are what they are...
But the sea has no pity

It seems to want to swallow them
It might do so without effort
Because they have no power, only hope...
They come with the great belief that the
World is on their side.
But the sea has no pity!

They are not allowed to come on shore.
Only one thing is left.
The sea will be their home for ever ---
Unwanted, they are now allowed to return
To the East where they can become again the sons
of God.
But the sea has no pity!

Yet they won't give up
Because it is their only home ----
But the sea has no pity!

Dated Feb. 12, 1965