(Writer’s notes: Most of you have seen that my output has been low lately. I’ll make it easy and simple: My work is mentally exhausting. I generally like to write, but when I get home from tough days of figuring out problems, I sometimes don’t have the capability to write. I am working on it for 2020, however, and hope to have more. I definitely have ideas. Here’s today’s fictioneers…)
© Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
I Am I Said
by Miles Rost
Eschel looked down at the foyer table. Yarmulke on one side, phone on other.
He wanted to go to synagogue tonight, but the attacks on his brethren nearby in Westchester were still playing through his mind.
His wife, Lillia, pleaded with him to call an Uber, or a taxi, to take him there. She didn’t want to see him jumped like the ones in Brooklyn last week.
He bowed for a second, before putting on the yarmulke.
“I am not afraid. I’m Jewish. There’s no crime in that.”
He wrapped his long coat around him, and went out the door.
(In memory of those who lost their lives while enjoying Hanukkah celebrations with their rabbi in New York.)
Music and Fiction 
I hope your workload lightens for you enough not to stifle your creativity. Your story is excellent.
Thank you. We’ll see what happens in the next two weeks. If I end up getting FTE (which just opened up for consideration), I would be much more secure to do more things on my own.
And thank you! The story is very simple, but it has its own air to it.
Is FTE full time? You are welcome.
p.s. I love that song and video.
Thank you for this moving tribute to our Jewish friends and neighbors. “No crime in being Jewish”—unless you are full of hatred that you don’t even understand yourself.
I’ve seen a lot of it, even as a bystander. Not just among the Jewish folk, but many times in Korea it was present. You should be able to go to church/synagogue/temple/studio without worrying about whether you’ll be macheted.
Tough story about a quiet hero. I hope he doesn’t get jumped.
Eschel is a brave one. And in my story, he doesn’t. He has a normal night, like every other night.
A very beautiful and fitting tribute. It is hard to even consider that our brothers and sisters need to fear worship. So very sad indeed. Great writing for a tough subject.
Some of it comes from my time in Korea, which does have a lot of ethnocentrism. Not as much as it used to, but that experience translates easily.
I’ve heard such from missionaries to that region. I’ve seen it, too, in other countries and to some extent even my own (USA). We were attending a larger church that went to having police officers in the foyer for our protection. That alone is a bit scary. We left to a much smaller church tucked away deep in a neighborhood that most people fear to tread in. We are a very small congregation (maybe 30 at most) but the fear is much less here.
It seems like the “crime of being Jewish” … is on some people’s mind, has anything really changed.
There’s a lot of pigeonholing happening. Everyone’s going to try and pigeonhole others. It just gets really bad when someone gets physically hurt or killed by it. Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
I hope he’s going to be ok. We’re seeing a rise in anti-Semitism here in the UK too, though not as bad as in the US. Absolutely dreadful.
Eschel’s a strong one. He just needed that breathe to get the steel in his veins. Courage always starts with taking that first step.
There’s no crime in being Jewish indeed. Nor in beeing anything else that is a target of all the haters that feel so emboldened as of late. Excellent story, and I hear you on the work woes.
They’ve always been here, they were just released through certain avenues of entertainment and social isolation (as the primary reasons). And thanks on the work woes. I have one colleague who is helping me with staying motivated and writing longer-form again.