Whom to ask
“Who is a Jew?”

The rabbis offer
guidelines
but along the wayside
many are left bereft
of their true identity

Who decides
who is a Jew –
those who don’t hesitate
to transport
on cattle cars?

When my brother enrolled 
in the Israel Defence Forces
he was ordered 
“Don’t get killed
We won’t know
where to bury you.”
Yet our mother’s brothers
were both deported
to concentration camps

When a mother lights 
the Shabbat candles
though her mother
may not be considered
officially Jewish
Is she not lighting
The way
for her children?

Channah Moshe wrote her first poem at the age of 10 as a school assignment. Having lived in England, Switzerland, the USA and Israel, she is open to different cultures, which reflect in her poems being published in Europe, India, Italy, Kenya, South Korea and the USA.