War Torn Love by Jay M. Londo Read Free Book Online Page B

important it was that I remain proud of being Jewish, how important it was that we stick together.
     
                  I was surprised that young Mr. Abram, too had been as naive as I had on what exactly it had meant to be Jewish - not the scriptural part, no both had studied the last couple of years, but how non-Jewish people really viewed us. Oh, we knew our prayers etcetera, but we had no idea how some non- Jewish people hatred Jewish people. I discovered later that this was why our family had moved and settled in Poland. Our people had been considered second-class citizens of the world since the Romans banished us from the Holy lands . Our temple destroyed, we were forced to scatter to all four corners of the world. But our people never gave up their faith through all this.
     
                  Everyday in Mrs. Kaczmarek classroom, we were tortured of sorts - by her shrill will to purposely have it out for us Jews. I would have cried most of the time- in class, if it wasn’t for Abram sheer ability to somehow cheer me up just when I needed. He always knew exactly how to make me laugh at just the right times - with his funny faces, which he snuck in when teacher wasn’t looking. It did not bother him as it did me. Of course, I have always been over-emotional. I let things get to me. Mrs. Kaczmarek would make one of the five Jewish children in her class room answer her questions each day at least twice as often as any times of the other twenty other children in the classroom.
     
                  It came to be that we were deathly afraid to answer her incorrectly. It created a constant state of fear for the five of us; we always walked on eggshells while in her presence. The five of us were assigned added addition homework every day, and she would by never award us an A-grade - even when we had all our answers right on. For example, the weekly spelling test, if an I was not dotted; the spelling word was counted as wrong. It would seem that one of the five students was being sent to stand in the corner, on falsely trumped up charges at least once a day. What was worse was that in Mrs. Kaczmarek classroom, she was creating a proliferate atmosphere of abhorrence towards the Jewish kids that had not existed before her arrival at the school. Kids that I had attended school with ever since the first-grade were now mean. They never seem to have a problem with the fact that we were Jewish, suddenly learned to appreciate our teacher-warped views. They would laugh at us when the teacher took her vengeance on one or all of us at once. That was the only time she would not yell for the entire classroom to be quiet.
     
                  None of the five set of parents of these Jewish children I speak of in my class - which included my own parents and all attended the same Synagogue - would take any sort of action on our behalf. The parents all knew it would not do any good to stir up trouble; in fact, it could make matters worse. It was a hatred that would not go away it ran deep in some. There was no way to change that.
     
                  I was so mad that Poppa would not go down to the school and punch Mrs. Kaczmarek in the nose. What I did not or could possibly comprehend at the time, just how bad the non-Jewish community - people that were supposed to be his friends, treated Poppa himself - he could not risk making waves. He needed to do business with some of these people. I was not sure if he was ashamed to tell this to me, or not. Frankly, I was just too young. I never thought it could even be possible that anyone could hurt my Poppa - to me he was like my superman. I had thought he was invincible. I guess at some point in life I had to let him off his pedestal, to realize he is only human, just like me. It was regrettable - my own lesson would come for me, highlighting this subject some years later. I realize now, we all had a test of our faith, and just how far humanity