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daniel kahn - the jew in you lyrics

[verse]

all you drunken shiksa are sweethearts with your bloodshot eyes of blue
all you border+crossing feyglekh who’ve been quarantined for flu
all you lost exilic aliens, you migrant mongrel stew
you needn’t feel farloyrn, you don’t have to be blue
just climb aboard this ark of ours and join the soggy crew
it’s a diasporic politics, it’s a reconstructed you
with permeable borders in between the old and new
a way to hide away what they would take away from you
forget your god and country, and your revolution too
it’s possible for you to leave the many, for the few
it don’t matter if your daddy is from poland or peru
your blood might comе from turkey, or detroit or timbuktu
your language could bе farsi, sanskrit, german or zulu
come on we’ve got some wandering to do

[refrain]

so bring out your jew
bring out your jew
you may have a jew inside of you
a jew, a jew
a secret little jew
a secret jew is buried inside you
[verse]

my definition here could use some explanation, true
you have to ask yourself just what i mean when i say jew
well, the jewishness concerning us should not be misconstrued
blood and land are things with which it doesn’t have to do
religion is a matter most irrelevant here too
so let’s try to look at this anew
to find a category underneath the ones we knew
a mercurial identity for people who are strewn
in countries far and wide who haven’t got a home and view
who drag around like shackles all the roots from which they grew
well others have endured this goles too
and here i offer it all up to you
a kosher yiddish food for thought that goym now can chew
it’s what they did with jesus when they wrote the bible new
rebranded monotheism for wider public view
so learn to take the rootless cosmopolitan worldview
in hidden interstices we all normally eschew
to shlep your goles proudly you must learn how to make do
and learn learn learn is what the wise men tells us to

[refrain]

so learn to be a jew
learn to be a jew
you may have a jew inside of you
a jew, a jew
i’ve read too much about you
a secret jew is hiding inside you
[verse]

why should i put the emphasis on inner secret jews?
we all have different nations that we wear like different shoes
they carry us around so that our feet don’t get too bruised
it may seem to be easier to just go out in the nude
to throw up our identities like half+digested food
so maybe its reductive what i’m trying to pursue
i mean it’s philo+semitism in a cheap semantic ruse
it’s highly problematic, it would probably confuse
and what about us people who are actually jews?
with traumas all my deconstructive theories can’t subdue
just ask a gentile german for a history review
she’ll tell you how they marked us with numerical tattoos
they turned us in ashes, hair and lamps and soap and glue
and no it wasn’t something that i personally knew
but they taught me all about it in my temple sunday school
and i guess it kinda left me with some hang+ups and taboos
how can we wear the mantle of the martyred ghetto jews?
we turned our backs on everything that brought our people through
did it really work to try to make a new hebrew?
with the enemies we slew, the hatred grew and grew

but the thing you hate in others, is the thing you hate in you
now exile will return like deja vu
and where it all went wrong n0body knew
we all will have to learn it anew
not only as a victim, but a perpetrator too
[refrain]

to learn to be a jew
learn to be a jew
learn to be a post+israeli jew
a jew, a jew
the problem isn’t new
you must be a jew among the jews

[verse]

so when they ask you for your papers, and you don’t know what to do
remember what this moment you’re carrying with you
because the day will come when all your papers are refused
and then you’ll find yourself in exile too
you’re living in a land and time that aren’t made for you
you’re refugees from wars between religious points of view
and you shlep around like shackles all the roots from which you grew
so i talk about the inner other hiding inside you
the name i give this other is a jew
but a jew could be an arab, or a german, or a druze
so if you would have a better name that you would like to use
well i’d love to read the testament of you
the imaginary messianic diasporic youth
the broken and neurotic post+apocalyptic you
see i mean this as a question, not an answer to your blues
the question is the answer, and the answer, it is you

and forgive the self+indulgence that i spew
see i just wrote this f+cking thing where every sentence, rhymes with jew

[refrain]

so bring out your jew
bring out your jew
you may have a jew inside of you
a jew, a jew
a secret little jew
a secret jew is buried inside you

[verse]

well the hour’s getting late, soon we’ll have to pay our dues
we’re faced with situations where we all will have to choose
and no one will recover what we’re all about to lose
and history’s a river full of things we’ll have to use
the world is turning colder, and the walls are high and true
and the cities all are burning into something dark and new
the fire and the ways to beat the heavens black and blue
and you refugees from wars between religious points of view
and all the broken borders of the names they put on you
you’re strangers in your home, even strangers sur+la+vue

well i have little prophecy for you
an apocalyptic mystery, a clue
as the world becomes detroit, we all become like jews
when zion is destroyed, the promise will come true
detroit is all your cities, and zion is in you
so learn to take it with you, learn to be a jew

- daniel kahn lyrics

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