‘Zionism is anti-American’

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Sammy Caruso began his speech leading the chant, “Free Palestine.” He concluded with another chant, directed at the U.S. government: “Not another nickel, not another dime. No more money for Israel’s crimes.”

In between, the Oakwood resident and Miami University graduate student shared his path to anti-Zionism — and explained why he started the Echoes of Gaza digital archive — in his speech to about 50 protesters at the Nov. 22 “Rally for Humanity! Call it Genocide III” gathering at the Dayton Peace Sign in front of the Schuster Center in Downtown Dayton.

With the stated goal of “calling the Israeli war on the Palestinians a genocide,” the rally was sponsored by Food Not Bombs, Gem City Action, YS Uproar, and Greater Dayton Peace Coalition.

“I want to start by talking just a little about my upbringing as a Jewish American growing up in Dayton, Ohio,” said Caruso, who wore a keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian resistance. “I had to unlearn the idea that Palestine is a land without people for a people without land. I grew up in a traditional Jewish environment. I went to Jewish day school, I went to Sunday school, I spent summers at Jewish camps. I grew up learning about the Holocaust and about the responsibility that memory carries. And I was taught to say, ‘Never Again’ — and that means never again for anyone. Growing up, I was taught that Zionism was just the simple idea of a homeland for Jewish people. The falsehood was built on the idea of supremacy, of displacement, of subjugation, of ethnic cleansing, of colonization.

“So let me be very clear. Zionism is anti-American. It is antidemocratic. It is anti-freedom. It is anti-security. It is anti-peace. And at a time of a supposed ceasefire, this is not a ceasefire. Palestinian men, women, and children continue to be murdered day after day, with hundreds of Palestinians killed since the ceasefire, thousands of homes destroyed.”

In his speech, Caruso said he founded Echoes of Gaza digital archive to document “the ongoing occupation, displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Palestinian people.”

“And let me be clear, it’s just a ceasefire in name only,” he added, “while Palestinians continue to face genocide in their stories and narratives. Palestinian history is not what is happening, it is what is recorded, it is what has survived, it is what people in power have decided to preserve. I believe history is power. History is a form of resistance. Government and media institutions, tech companies, try to silence Palestinian voices. They are trying to deny the present, and they are trying to shape the future.”

The rally’s moderator, the Rev. John Wagner, a pastor in the West Ohio annual conference of the United Methodist Church, told protesters at the rally’s beginning, “It’s very important for us to understand there are Jews in Israel and Jews around the world who are firmly on our side, in fact they are some of the most militant folks.”

Wagner was a founding member of United Methodists for Kairos Response, which in partnership with Palestinian Christians, seeks “freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.”

The pastor added that the accusation of antisemitism aimed at those who say Israel is committing genocide is “very lazy.”

“It means they’re bereft of arguments and can’t think of anything else, so we’re obviously antisemitic. We’re obviously not. We have Jews here with us today, so I think that’s important to say. Our goal is to get everybody to call it genocide, so I’m calling it genocide. It’s the word that Palestinians themselves have asked us to use. It’s an extreme situation. And I think it’s important to use the word they ask us to use.”

A Washington Post poll in early September — a month before President Donald Trump’s administration achieved the release of the 20 remaining living hostages in Gaza and an Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement — found that 39% of U.S. Jews believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. The September poll also found that 61% of U.S. Jews agreed that Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians. The poll surveyed 815 U.S. Jews from Sept. 2 to 9 and had a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

The U.S. and Israeli governments vehemently dismiss the genocide accusation.

Full disclosure: Caruso’s mother sells ads for The Observer as an independent contractor.

To read the complete December 2025 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.