4 | NOVEMBER 4 • 2021 

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 
overuse of “over” 
in our everyday 
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. 

Sy Manello
Editorial 
Assistant

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 
on the left, to 
launching a 
first-of-its-kind 
organization to mobilize male 
allies into the fight to protect 
and expand reproductive 
freedom, I’ve proudly helped 
elect progressive change-
makers and pass landmark 
legislation.

I’ve done all of that as a Jew 
who wears a kippah in public, 
as someone who, statistical-
ly 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 neigh-
bors, 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 under-
stood 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 neces-
sary 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 sim-
ply a religious community. 
Contrary to what most think, 
antisemitism is not anti-Ju-
daism 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 kill-
ing Jesus, for making up the 
Holocaust, for being greedy, 
for undermining the white 

Oren 
Jacobson
JTA

continued on page 10

