Upfront at The Israeli Day Parade

Held since 1964 the Israeli parade organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York took place on June 2nd 2024 from 11:30-3:30 PM along 56-74th Street and Fifth Avenue.  Pre October 7th this parade was called “Celebrate Israel Parade” and contained bands floats and music-post October 7th the toned-down version’s theme was “Israel Day on Fifth.”  My first time marching I was not sure what to expect especially with the tightened security which included, barricades, metal detectors, K-9 units bike patrols, snipers and a heavy police presence. The expectation was for myriad loud protests and perhaps some aggression leading a fair amount of attendees to skip the festivities.

Despite one crazy masked man carrying a sign calling to “kill the hostages now” the parade largely went off without a hitch. As far as I could tell most of the crowd including the schools were orthodox as Ramaz, Moriah, JCRC, HAFTR along with 200 other participating synagogues and schools came out in droves.  In fact there seemed to be many more marchers than spectators perhaps due to the closed off streets, the hot weather, and the fear of pro-Palestinian marchers.  I had the privilege of accompanying Grand Marshal Harley Lippman on the route-and it was an experience I will never forget.  Harley is a diehard lover and advocate of Israel.

After founding Genesis10, a professional technology consulting firm in 1999 his firm has grown organically with more than 2,000 employees and 20 sales and recruiting offices.  Harley could be enjoying cocktails in his Miami Beach mansion, or hanging out in his Park Avenue pad-but that is not Harley.  In typical Lippman fashion he not only headed the parade which included him flying over some of more than 70 hostage family members represented-but he went over to each individual crowd introducing those whose children had been kidnapped or killed and asking the crowd to advocate for Israel against the “New Nazis”-Hamas.

The hostage families were clad in black T-shirts as they carried posters of their loved ones and joined the crowds in chants of “Bring Them Home Now.”  There were hosts of politicians including Chuck Schumer who began the parade as a heckler screamed “Go Home,” Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, Ambassador Gilad Erdan and others; however, this afternoon was all about the victims of October 7th-and yes as in any Jewish crowd their views were far from monolithic.

Standing next to Rabbi Zvika Mor from Kiryat Arba, whose son Eitan is being held by Hamas, was eye opening as he called for the crowd to not only bring back his son but to “win the war.”  Zvika shot to fame when he told a Channel 14 interviewer “I love my son, but my country comes first” remarking that “he was ready to make sacrifices.”  On the other end of the spectrum is Eli Shtivi whose son Idan was kidnapped from Nova and who has repeatedly called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to end the war so the hostages can return-even staging a hunger strike to call attention to their plight.

The lugubrious faces of Itay Chen’s parents, Hagit and Ruby, whose son was killed by Hamas was hard to bear; as was Dani Miran who is still waiting to hear the fate of his son Omri who was abducted from Kibbutz Natal Oz and has two young girls anxiously anticipating his arrival.  The crowd listened to their stories with tears in their eyes as this year’s parade was almost too much to bear.  Mayor Adams, an ardent advocate of Israel, stood near Israeli singer Eden Golan who recently represented her country at Eurovision despite death threats and fear of violence as Adams declared “destroy Hamas, bring home the hostages.”

Due to the ongoing grim circumstances there was little music, no bands or celebratory chanting at this year’s parade- and I am afraid that was a huge mistake as the afternoon lost its celebratory feeling.  Despite the circumstances of the war the necessity of manifesting our joy at the miracle of the 1948 statehood remains and so the thousands marching lost their sense of purpose and excitement.  This year’s parade also seemed more business oriented as it really was about getting the hostage families to the right politicians in order to make things happen.

As the steamy day concluded and more than a couple of parade goers were taken out in stretchers I bumped into hero Rami Gold from Kibbutz Beer a 70 year old war veteran who witnessed October 7th firsthand and who grabbed an M16 rifle from one of his dead friends and fought hundreds of terrorists for 12 hours-until he came down to his last bullet and two reserve soldiers came to save him-and this is what makes Israel so great-even when it appears they are down and out they come back ten times stronger-Am Yisrael Chai!