Today, I was in a rush for no good reason and ran through the Foodtown grocery store like a tornado. I had a 10 percent-off coupon, so my cart was jam-packed.
The store was short-staffed, so the checkout lines were long. My first thought was, “Of course, on the day I’m in a rush, the lines are long.”
I let three people go ahead of me because they had one or two items. My second thought was, “I guess I’m not in that much of a rush.”
Right before the cashier began ringing me up, an elderly man shuffled up behind me, holding a roasted chicken and wearing a large Star of David.
“WAIT!” I yelled to the cashier, way louder than I had anticipated. So loud that some people in the other line turned around to see what the commotion at the local grocery store was about.
I gave them a Queens wave, then told the cashier, “Ring this gentleman up first.”
The elderly man smiled at me and said, “I saw you kindly let three people go before you. I figured three strikes…”
I answered without thinking. “You had me at your Jewish Star.”
As he checked out, he didn’t have a bag, so I gave him one of mine.
He told me that the star he was wearing was a replacement for the one recently ripped off his neck in New York City. He went on to explain that he was upset because his wife had given it to him, that she had recently passed away at 90, and that he was 91.
I replied that he looked great for his age, though that wasn’t entirely true. He was bent over and frail, and I figured he was in his 90s. Then I told him I was sorry he had to endure such anti-Semitic ugliness.
After he paid, he thanked me for my thoughtfulness and the bag, and wished me a “Shabbat Shalom.” I returned the wish for a peaceful Sabbath, a greeting many Jewish people exchange on Fridays.
I’ve been thinking about that old man all day.
I can’t get him out of my head.
When I told my husband, the son of Holocaust survivors, about my encounter with the elderly Jewish man at Foodtown, I asked him how people could be so despicable. He looked at me sideways and replied, “You still don’t get it?”
Yeah, I get it, but I still don’t understand it.
So I keep asking the same question over and over, hoping for an answer other than the one I already know.
JEW HATRED.
And yet, here I am, still asking.
WHY AND HOW COULD SOMEONE BE SO VILE AS TO RIP A JEWISH STAR FROM THE NECK OF A FRAIL, HUNCHED-OVER 91-YEAR-OLD MAN?
I’ve been asking myself and others WHY since October 7, 2023, and I’m so sick of asking the same old, heartbreakingly disappointing question.
BECAUSE I GET IT, BUT I DON’T WANT TO GET IT.
Boy George, whose career is probably over for daring to write a song defending Jews, put it best: