Rally Fiasco Highlights Failure of Major Jewish Organizations

The rally in Washington last Sunday illustrates how major Jewish organizations have become detrimental to the Jewish people and are urgently in need of replacement.

This rally was a stunning failure and was essentially not reported in any major media. According to reports, the rally attracted a pathetic grand total of approximately 2,500 attendees.  This number is compared with about 300,000 who attended the rally last year.

The event was jointly sponsored by Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The stated goal of the event was to “Stand Together: An Event of Unity, Strength and Resilience.” Organized prior to the election, those in charge apparently planned that no matter which party won, this event would unite Republican and Democrat Zionists.

I was one of the few attendees.  I came down from Brooklyn in a bus sponsored by the Marine Park Jewish Center.  We spent nine hours round trip on the bus in addition to the subway from the bus parking lot to the stadium.  I arrived home just before midnight.

One reason I felt called upon to attend is that I am the founder of a Facebook group called Zionist Brooklyn. My group is part of a network of grassroots organizations that essentially operate as the vanguard of pro-Israel activism in America.  Members of my group and I attend rallies and vigils on the streets and campuses in New York, remove hateful graffiti, monitor and confront owners of stores with hateful content, support Israeli businesses, travel to Israel to volunteer, write articles, and stand as plaintiffs in lawsuits.  Several members of my group have been physically attacked in the streets.

I became aware of the rally about two weeks prior and posted it in my group. I canceled a prior commitment in order to attend.  It was already clear that the event was barely advertised at all, and there was no information available on buses that would take people from New York and other cities (I found out about the bus I took a few days before.  This was a gracious and well-organized effort on the part of Marine Park Jewish Center).

The rally disorganization became even more apparent the night before the event.  The rally was scheduled to take place in the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington, but my ticket was not issued.  I texted my bus group saying I was hesitating to come without a ticket and people assured me I should come to D.C. and that the ticket issue would be resolved on the bus.

On our way to D.C., I received messages from my Zionist Brooklyn members saying that about a dozen of them had not received tickets and were therefore not coming.

Some of the people on the Marine Park bus discussed the disorganization and especially the fact that the event had not been publicized and there were almost no buses going from New York.  Somebody hypothesized that the Federation was concerned that there would be unrest in Washington since it was scheduled for less than a week after the election.  This begged the question of why the rally was scheduled for that particular date.

When we arrived at the rally, I spoke to some young people who were distributing signs for people to hold.  They told me that they were employees of the Federation and came from cities all across the country.  When I remarked on how wonderful it was that they had all come such a way for the rally, they corrected me.  They were in the capital for the Federation’s General Assembly which was taking place on the same weekend, not for the rally.  This, I realized, was the reason the rally was scheduled for the week after the election; it was done for the convenience of Federation members who were in the capital for their General Assembly.

The order of the speakers at the rally added insult to injury, in particular in regard to those of us who came down from New York.  Early on in the lineup was a recorded speech by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.  The choice of Senator Schumer to fulfill the stated goal of unity is ludicrous.  It is not an exaggeration to say that he is loathed by many Zionists and he was very loudly booed at the event. On the other hand, Congressman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, who actually bothered to show up in person, and is much-loved by Republican Zionists as well as Democrats, was inexplicably shoved off to the end of the event.  He spoke after 5:00, the announced time for the rally to end.  Since we had to get back to our bus, we missed hearing Torres.

By the time I left the stadium and Torres spoke, rain was falling on an essentially empty stadium.  Needless to say, the rain had been forecast a week in advance.