PURELY COMMENTARY essay
Over and Done With
I
n 1917, many an ear caught the bars of “Over There,” a highly patriotic song by George M. Cohan. It was hard to overlook its popularity. It was never considered overdone; however, we can easily make a case for the Sy Manello overuse of “over” Editorial in our everyday Assistant speech. We are desirous of having roofs over our heads; but to purchase the same, we may get in over our heads. Home costs are often over the top. Buying without doing due diligence may find you crying over spilt
milk. Don’t get the gambling bug; lean over backwards to avoid it. It may lead you into a situation where you are asked to fork over what you owe. If you do not, you may get a working over, which could then lead to you being hung over. Have you ever been so surprised by an action that you could be knocked over with a feather? Maybe you were the one someone else put one over on. Well, if it is over and done with, there is no use in losing sleep over it. It is no fun to be taken advantage of; when you realize that you have been run
roughshod over, you know that the party’s over and vow that such a thing will happen again only over your dead body! Do not wait until you are over the hill to fall head over heels in love. It is nice to have someone to make a fuss over. If that someone can skim over your faults rather than chew
them over, you will know that your wait is over for the love of your life. Well, it is time to end this set of observations because I hear the zaftig woman warbling. (That means it is over because the fat lady is singing. I do wish you would remain a bit more with it!) Over and out.
opinion
To My Fellow Progressives: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism
I
’ve spent most of the last decade focused on grassroots organizing and capacity building inside the American progressive movement. From helping build the largest leadership development organization Oren on the left, to Jacobson launching a JTA first-of-its-kind organization to mobilize male allies into the fight to protect and expand reproductive freedom, I’ve proudly helped elect progressive changemakers and pass landmark legislation.
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I’ve done all of that as a Jew who wears a kippah in public, as someone who, statistically speaking, shouldn’t exist. My grandfather is one of the 10% of Polish-born Jews to survive World War II. Three million of his Jewish neighbors, and another 3 million across Europe, were packed into boxcars and sent to the slaughter, to gas chambers, to the ovens. What I am is central to who I am. So when I saw the statement from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise movement explaining its refusal to march in a voting rights rally with Jewish groups because they are “Zionists,” I understood immediately that it
was deeply problematic. Not only did the decision have the potential impact of spreading anti-Jewish bigotry, but it also weakened our movement more broadly at a time when democracy, which is necessary to ensure civil rights, is under assault in America. I also understood right away that, for many people, the anti-Jewish nature of the statement wasn’t so obvious. When moments like this arise, I get texts and calls from progressive peers across the country who ask: “Is this antisemitic?” To answer the question, I begin by explaining what it means to be a Jew. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. But Jewish identity
is so much bigger and more diverse than religion. Some of us are deeply religious. Some of us are totally secular. All of us are Jews. We’re a people, not simply a religious community. Contrary to what most think, antisemitism is not anti-Judaism in its modern form (several hundred years). It’s anti-Jew. It’s not about how Jews pray, but rather about who they are and what they are accused of doing. Jews get attacked for supposedly controlling the world (governments, banks, media), for being disloyal to our home countries, for killing Jesus, for making up the Holocaust, for being greedy, for undermining the white continued on page 10
NOVEMBER 4 • 2021
