The lessons of Edmund Fleg
<p>Edmond Fleg was a Jewish and French writer and playwright. I first read his moving poem, “I Am a Jew,” in the Haggadah my family used growing up. His work was greatly influenced by the Dreyfus Affair, the trial of a wrongly accused Jewish officer that exposed the growing antisemitism in France in the late 19th century. It also deeply impacted Theodor Herzl, who went on to convene the first World Zionist Congress in 1897.</p>
<p><img alt="Headshot of author and poet Edmund Fleg" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:212/1*tYLD0VElaUhENDgz9qCu3Q.jpeg" style="height:389px; width:236px" /></p>
<p>Edmund Fleg</p>
<p>Fleg wrote “I Am a Jew” in 1927 and I’ve long felt it powerfully expressed where I come from as a Jew, how much of my Judaism has been expressed through the empathy for others and humanity Fleg describes. Since October 7 I’ve struggled with his prose, turning it over and over in my mind. I have been trying to sort out my thoughts while swinging on a wild pendulum with no real understanding of when, or if, it will stop.</p>
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