When a Parade Becomes Something More

The Israel Parade will be here this Sunday and I’m ready to march. My only dilemma was deciding, not whether to march, but which group to go with. There were five that invited me to join them: Hadassah, Israel Bonds, ZOA (Zionist Organization of America), my synagogue and Sar-El. I chose the latter because not only is it a wonderful organization (like all the others), but it will also let me have a mini-reunion with some of the great folks I volunteered with in Israel in the past two years.

Sar-El is an organization that allows people to volunteer on army bases, in effect committing two mitzvot at once: The IDF benefits from the hands-on aid they provide, and the volunteers are given a chance to gain a deeper understanding of life in Israel’s defense forces which is central to insuring Israel’s safety and serves to knit together its society.

I love a parade and I love Israel, so why all the anguish?

Let’s  start with our Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the first Democratic Socialist and first Muslim to serve our city. He has stated unapologetically that he will not be joining us. For the very first time in the 60+ year history of the parade, we will not have our mayor joining us. That says a lot. That says that the mayor of the city with the largest population of Jews in the world, far surpassing that of any other city globally, clearly and openly does not support a Jewish state.

He feels perfectly comfortable telling the close to one million Jewish New Yorkers, as well as those who support Israel, that he isn’t with us. But that should come as no surprise to anyone who is awake (as opposed to “woke” in the re-invention of that word). When asked recently at a news conference if he would be marching in the parade, Mamdani said the following:

“You know, I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn’t be attending the parade, and I’ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear.”

That’s true, and yet despite this or perhaps because some agree, as many as 35% of all Jewish New Yorkers voted for him (though the accuracy of the number is questionable).

How’s that for Jewish Exceptionalism?

Of course, Mamdani is perfectly okay with joining other festivities such as the Lunar New Year Parade, the Phagwah Parade (Indo-Caribbean) and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, where he thought it appropriate to compare the Irish to the Palestinians in the Oppression Olympics. How’s that for a display of Jewish exceptionalism? We have been singled out by Mamdani, a proud Muslim,  who can’t abide the Israeli government but has no issue whatsoever with any other country. 

Here’s a Fun Fact: Guess which U.S. President served as Grand Marshall of the Israel Day Parade?  Yes, our very own President Donald Trump served as Grand Marshall along with Dr. Ruth Westheimer in 2004. (Zionist Organization of America | Home Israel Day Parade History and Meaning).

Then there’s the issue of safety. It’s not that I’m worried about safety, but rather the extent to which we have to be protected by a virtual army so we don’t get attacked. I’ve been to so many Israel parades that I have complete confidence in the New York Police Department. There will be hundreds of cops, and they will be well prepared, as this is something they do all the time. In fact, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is the Grand Marshall of this year’s parade, said that security would be even stronger than last year, which was in itself way more restrictive than the year before. This is due to the invasive Jew Haters who are intent on creating a destructive atmosphere around all events involving not only Israel, but Jews in general, even seemingly benign events such as the Israeli Philharmonic performing at Carnegie Hall, CUNY law school graduation, and even at  NYU Langone Health’s Tisch Hospital. 

You can expect that government officials will go into overdrive and overtime to provide the utmost in police protection: double the number of police, police with dogs, police on bikes, drones, a helicopter, anti-terrorist unit members marching alongside us, undercover police, auxiliary police. Since October 7, 2023, it has almost turned into a Police Parade. 

Unlike Mayor Mamdani, nearly all the police I’ve spoken to appear to be fans of Israel and Jews. After all, we Jews tend to be obedient when we demonstrate and don’t yell for violence and stay within our boundaries. On the contrary, we make it a point at all demonstrations and community events to thank our public safety officials. Also, it may be that they aren’t fans of Mayor Mamdani because he has spoken out for defunding the police and had called the NYPD racist and a threat to public safety.  He has backtracked on some of his more extreme ideas, but he still likes the idea of social workers handling less serious calls.   

If you’re concerned with counterprotesters raining on our parade (excuse the pun), no need for concern. You can still see the remnants of the anti-Israel crowd if you walk over to Madison Avenue, where rabidly anti-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta and their allies against Israel, the Pro-Palestinians with their flags and professionally rendered posters. Insanely religious Jews and equally insanely anti-Israel mob arm in arm, metaphorically speaking, as the ultra-Orthodox don’t condone touching. Positioned so far away from the parade as to be rendered totally ineffective, which almost makes me yearn for the old days when we would yell at each other from our assigned positions: them in Central Park, near 59th Street,  and us pausing in our march to scream at them. It’s been a tradition. 

If you’ve ever gone to the Israel parade, you will see that there is nothing so nonthreatening as watching a bunch of Jewish youngsters wearing matching T-shirts (a requirement) and yelling “Am Ysrael Chai.”  Based on the simple equation that the anti-Zionists have adopted,  that Israel = evil, they are intent on trying to silence our voices. But, hopefully, the exact opposite will happen. If we are intent on doing the right thing, more Jews and non-Jews than ever will be marching and viewing than ever before. Fingers crossed. 

In fact, last year while waiting our turn to march,  I saw a sizable group of Chinese-Americans in traditional Chinese outfits with drums and ribbons joining us on Fifth Avenue. So gratifying to see. In the best of all possible worlds we would see an increasing number of non-Jewish supporters marching, but I don’t expect that this will be the case. (I’ll be writing a follow-up report after).

And as a New Yorker and as a Jew, I’ve always felt very comfortable here. In fact, we probably have the largest number of non-Jews outside of Israel who understand and even use themselves the following Yiddish words: Shmear, schmatta, schlamazel, mazel tov, goy, oy vey, and shalom. Jewish food, such as bagels, lox, pastrami on rye and now the Israeli dishes like hummus and shawarma are so ubiquitous as to be considered New York cuisine. It’s a fun place to live whether you’re Jewish or not.

And the parade reflects that good-natured fun of marching with your friends down Fifth Avenue with Israeli flags and posters and singing popular Jewish songs while waving to your friends and relatives along the parade route. It’s a good time to bask in our pride of being outwardly Jewish, supporting our homeland of Israel.

However, the parade has, over the past few years, been slowly and steadily eroding in the fun aspect.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed…but I have.

I remember marching bravely with the Republican Jewish Coalition in the early 2000s. Republican Jewish Coalition. As a proud Republican, I must say I have very fond memories of those few years when it was allowed. We just marched to show our support and didn’t promote any candidates or get political. As far as I know there wasn’t a similar group of Jewish Democrats. We did receive quite a warm reception and had fun showing our true colors in a city that is and remains decidedly Democrat and now full blown “Progressive.” I suppose we just weren’t so polarized then. I think it was when Bloomberg was mayor and he was more of an Independent, (depending on what year).

However, not surprisingly, we weren’t allowed to march soon thereafter. Sad, but completely predictable. If only there was a similar Democrat organization I think we could have continued. Their fault!

Then in 2011 the JCRC-NY, sponsor of  the parade, decided to change the name from “Salute to Israel” to “Celebrate Israel.” Most didn’t appear to notice. According to the graphic designer Milton Glaser the name change was made to illustrate the bond between AmericanJews and Israelis. He said, quite poignantly, “The Celebrate Israel Parade makes the statement that we stand with Israel through thick and thin, and that the fate of our nations are linked.”

I love that sentiment. That year was also the first time that the parade was broadcast on TV. 

All was good because there was much to celebrate.

In 2024, however, the name was diminished to Israel on Fifth. No mention of parade, no mention of celebration, replaced by much confusion. Why was this done? Not clear, but it downplays the feeling of celebration to one more akin to, say, a shopping expedition to an upscale department store, like Saks Fifth Avenue. 

Nevertheless, I continued to march, and even was my synagogue’s chairperson of the Israel Parade Committee. Even with ten synagogues from Queens and Eastern Nassau County, however, we found it more and more difficult to fill a bus. This reflected the decline of robust Conservative, and Reform congregations in our borough.

But the most ridiculous indication of how politicized the parade had become (absent Republicans) was during COVID.

Here’s what I had to say about that two years ago and it bears repeating (because I can’t say it any better!):

In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, it was cancelled. In 2021, it was also cancelled, but instead of just admitting it, the organizers pretended that a parade could be virtual. If that wasn’t silly enough, the powers that be decided to postpone the “virtual” parade from its original date in June to the following week, because, get this, the virtual parade would interfere with a Black Lives Matter real, in-person protest taking place that day. (After all, it was settled science that protesting for BLM protects you from the Covid virus). So those in charge said we should show our solidarity by not holding a “virtual “ parade that day.

I won’t go into the many levels of pure idiocy regarding that decision. Needless to say, I, as well as most parade goers, didn’t involve ourselves in the pretend parade. Finally, in 2022 the regular parade resumed with the regular cast of paraders.

So with all these changes and challenges and lots of ways to make our parade less enjoyable, what should our response be? Should we not bother going as so many Jews do who don’t feel a particularly strong connection to Israel? Should we watch it on streaming and pretend we attended? Or should we davka go and be even louder and more fierce as we take over about 15 blocks of prime real estate for one day?

Last year the largest contingent at the parade was the Bring Them Home coalition. Demanding the safe return of the remaining kidnapped victims in Gaza. 

And…We did indeed bring them home.

I think that by refusing to march with us, Mamdani has thrown down the gauntlet and has inspired more of us to join together to demonstrate our strength and determination.

Now it’s time we Zionists bring home our message of proud and unwavering support of the Jewish State. Let’s all march to this year’s wonderful and unifying theme: “Proud Americans, Proud Zionists.”