I Love a Parade

Parades are used to celebrate and raise spirits. I have never been in one, but I have seen a few. One year, I even sold balloons with my cousin at the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto. We made about ten dollars apiece in profits, which was not bad for a couple of hours of work, the hardest part of which was dealing with a spinning head from hyperventilating while blowing up the balloons. 

The last couple of weeks have had parades being planned, talked about and participated in. And not. Jerusalem had its Gay Pride Parade last week (Thursday), the one in Tel Aviv is this week (Friday). The two that got the most attention, however, were not in Israel, though support for Israel was the purpose. New York’s Israel Day Parade and the Walk with Israel Parade in Toronto got more notice. Both attracted between 50 and 60 thousand participants. Each had not-just-Jews participating. Different ethnic communities came to show their solidarity with the Jewish community in each city. In the face of violence towards Jews in both cities, it was certainly a welcome sight.

Of course, what caught people’s attention about these annual displays of love for Israel and the solidarity of its people, wherever they are, was not who attended, but rather who did not. New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and Olivia Chow, the mayor of Toronto, did not show. The one thing to say on a positive note about these two is that they are not hypocrites and maintained consistent positions (at least in this context; let us remember – they are politicians). 

Mamdani does not believe that Jews are a national entity. He will argue that while Jews have the same right to practice as a religious group, their expression of a national identity is false. Israel is illegitimate, and comes to be at the expense of another national entity – the Palestinians. For those who miss the irony here, it is the Palestinians who are a counterfeit nation, while the people of Israel – not Israelis, but we who are referred to as Jews, regardless of where we presently reside – have existed for millennia. 

As for Ms. Chow, she believes that Israel conducted a genocide in Gaza, as she declared at a gala of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). During the event, Chow stated, “The genocide in Gaza impacts us all.” Her position is based on findings from a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and the International Association of Genocide Scholars. In 2024, Chow chose not to attend a city hall ceremony marking Israel’s Independence Day, saying that the event had become divisive because of the ongoing war in Gaza. She may have had a hard time showing up last Sunday in the face of calling an independent Jewish state, with the privilege and responsibility of self-defence, a source of schism. 

As for the parades themselves, such gatherings serve a purpose, I suppose. I would prefer that the participants consider the prospect of not just walking with Israel, but walking to Israel.