1. All the generations before me Nathalia, Marcos

2. back All the generations before me contributed me Little by little so I will emerge here in Jerusalem All at once, like a prayer house or a philanthropy. That compels. My name is the name of my contributors. That compels.contributedJerusalemMy name is the name of my contributors I approach the age of my father's death. My will has many patches. I have to change my life and my death Day by day, to fulfill all the prophecies That prophesied me. So they won't to be a lie. That compels. prophecies I passed my fortieth year. There are jobs I cannot get. If I were in Auschwitz They wouldn't have sent me to work, They have burned me right away. That compels.Auschwitz All the generations before me

3. back Contributed Israel was created by Jews abroad "contributing" large sums of money for weapons, prayer houses, hospitals, money to build one new country. It was created by wealthy Jews like Rothshield that came here and "contributed" of their wealth to build whole towns and settlements.

4. back Jerusalem What is the importance of "Jerusalem" in Judaism? Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish people on the time of the bible and is until now. This is the place that the Jewish people feel is their house, and this city is considered a city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Yehuda Amichai, the author of the poem, was born in Jerusalem. All the generations that came before him always fought to live there, and just because of that effort it was possible for him to be born there.

5. back The 12 tribes The name Yehuda was one of the 12 tribes of Israel from the Bible. On the history from the bible, Jacob fathered 12 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. They are the ancestors of the tribes of Israel, and the ones for whom the tribes are named. Each occupied a separate territory on Israel (except the tribe of Levi, which was set apart to serve in the Holy Temple).

6. back Prophecies In Judaism we have one day (Yom Kippur, that means the day of forgiveness) that we take account of all that we did on the year, good or not. The name of this accounting is "heshbon nefesh “ or self-examination. This part of the poem refers to the “ self- examination" that a Jew does as he gets older, before he dies, and the author of the poem feels that his time is getting closer. next

7. back Prophecies For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever. Jeremiah 7:5-7 This is the prophecy that is written on the bible about the Promised Land, which was promised for the Jew people. Yehuda Amichai refers to this prophecy when he writes the poem.

8. back Auschwitz Auschwitz is the name used to identify three Nazi German concentration camps and sub-camps. Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area. The camps were a major element in the perpetration of the Holocaust. The total number of casualties is still under debate, but most modern estimates are around 1-1.5 million. About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, with about 300 attempts successful. next

9. back Auschwitz A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. The Jews were removed from the deportation trains onto the ramp where they faced a selection process- some were sent immediately to their deaths, while others were sent to slave labor. Almost all the Jewish people know some one or have some relative that died on the holocaust. But what is the meaning of the holocaust for an Israeli or a Jewish, if not this pain? With the holocaust the world realizes that the Jews needed one safe place to live, one country for them, because if they have one place this cannot happen again.