Hostages Release.” USA Today headlined it “‘A Terrifying Time’ to be Jewish.” The New York Times front page featured a picture headlined “A Rally for Israel.” It sent readers to see page A21 – which was more than The Washington Post did: the paper did not feature the rally in its own city on the front page at all.
Although many had different takeaways from Tuesday’s March for Israel, everyone could agree on one thing: the rally exceeded everyone’s “wildest hopes and expectations,” a Jewish Federations of North America official, one of the organizers of the event, told The Jerusalem Post.
Indeed, with only 60,000 people ticketed by the DC officials – the tickets were actually coveted blue bracelets which allowed people to get past security to the front of the mall by the Capitol – the spillover of another 230,000 people filled the mall’s grassy sections almost as far back as the Washington Monument.
With an estimated 290,000 people from around the country, the March for Israel was the largest gathering of Jews in the US in history, surpassing the famous Soviet Jewry rally in 1984, which boasted 200,000 people.
“In the long years in prison, I was told again and again that I’m alone, that I’m abandoned,” Natan Sharansky told the crowd, noting that he knew the KGB was lying to him. “This picture of one Jewish fighting family is always in my head,” said the former Soviet dissident. “As long as we all stand together and fight together, we will win. That’s what gives us hope today in Israel.”
No one singular message
The main difference between the “Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews” in 1984 and “March on Israel” in 2023 is that Tuesday’s rally did not have one singular message.
“I’m 77 and I remember back in the days when the Soviet Jewry rally was, we had over 200,000 people and now we had almost 300,000,” said Jack Bendheim, CEO of Phibro and cochairman of the international board of directors of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. This week’s rally, he said, was with “one voice. We’re fighting the fight to help Israel to win and destroy Hamas, we’re fighting to get all the hostages back, and we’re saying to the people in the US, ‘Don’t let this be an opportunity for antisemitism to rise’ – we’re not going to let that happen.”
Many Jewish leaders spoke of the multiple purposes of the march. To show “the incredible bond between the United States and Israel, the need to stand up against antisemitism here, to defeat Hamas, and to free all of the hostages were front and center,” said Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, principal of SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, which brought 20 buses with more than 1,000 students. For him the rally was like the last month since the attack: “simultaneously incredibly sad and incredibly inspiring.”
Rabbis, educators and students from across the country felt empowered by the sheer force of the rally.
“It was important for our students to see what a united Jewish voice looks like,” said Dr. Eytan Apter, upper school principal of Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey, whose school had three buses in the delegation of 30 brought by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest.
“Bringing students to this march showed them they can stand with pride as they outwardly wear their Judaism,” he said, noting that seeing the hundreds of thousands of people taught them that “even a people considered a minority can have a powerful voice and send a powerful message to the country and world.”
When students witness people “of all stripes” coming together, it’s very powerful, said Rabbi Barry Gelman of The Denver Kehillah. “The rally was especially important for young people. Many college students are feeling harassed and unsafe, and they were given a collective hug from the Jewish community, and recognition that what they are doing is meaningful,” he said. “This is the type of day that can give birth to future Jewish leaders.”
Stern College student Shira Kramer was buoyed by the crowd. “Today I’m part of a rally, part of change. I feel safe together with my Israeli brothers and sisters,” said the 19-year-old from Baltimore. “Today we’re making change in a real way: People will see that we, as Jews, Israelis, allies, we are here and we’re not going to be quiet.”
Twins Kayla and Taryn Megronigle came from Stockton University in New Jersey. “We’re activists: we fight for things we believe in. We’re here to support the people in Israel and our homeland.”
Attending the rally was a “once in a lifetime” experience for Rachel Grose, executive director of the Jewish Free Loan Association in Los Angeles, who came from California with her daughters. “It reminded us of all of the power of unity and the strength that we can derive from each other.”
US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt told the crowd that when Holocaust memorials are desecrated, when Molotov cocktails are thrown at synagogues, when children are harassed, when protesters chant “Gas the Jews,” “that is not expressing support for Palestinian rights; that is Jew hatred, pure and simple.... No group of Americans should have to live that way.”
Lipstadt gave practical advice: “Let me be clear: Do not sink to the level of those who harass you, do not tear down posters, do not intimidate those who disagree with you, do not cross their path or taunt them as they do to you. But do not cower. Allow no one to make you afraid.”
But many said they have been afraid. “As a New Yorker who grew up Jewish, I always felt like I was in the majority because of the city’s dense population of Jews,” said Laurie Graff, a publicist and playwright. “I no longer feel safe – not in the streets, not in conversation, and not even amongst longtime friends,” she said, adding that for the first time her life, she feels like “the other.” But coming to the rally made her realize she was not the only person feeling that way. “Having community was helpful and somewhat healing.”
Sending a message to politicians and the world
For many, what was crucial was the political message.
“The most impressive thing was the way the heads of Congress from both parties were there, and unequivocally saying that it’s America’s role to never abandon Israel, that we’ll always stand beside Israel,” said Yariv Hofstein, an Israeli-American psychologist living in New York City.
He was also impressed by the positive messaging of the rally. “No one in the entire rally – there was not one word of hatred against Muslims or Palestine,” he said, noting that the only exception was against Hamas, “unlike all the rallies [where] we’ve seen people chanting “From the river to the sea....”
Ari Blech, Ann Arbor Orthodox Minyan visiting rabbi, said his decision to attend was deeply personal, considering his history: In October 1938, his grandfather was one of 400 rabbis who marched to Washington to urge the president to help save Jews in Europe. “Just over 85 years later, I’m marching, with hundreds of thousands of people of all faiths, to thank our president and government for their support and to show the world, and our family in Israel, that they are in our hearts and on our minds.”
Many had family in Israel they also wanted to show up for. “I’m here to support our extended family in Israel who, I know, are going through some tough times,” said Leo, a fourth grader from New York, “and to show everybody that I really care and that just because I don’t live in Israel doesn’t mean that I am not interested!”
Israelis at home were feeling the love. “I so, so appreciate the support and help from afar,” said Dikla Levy, a special needs children’s occupational therapist who lives in Kibbutz Kabri with her husband and three children. (Most of the residents left the kibbutz during the war, and they decided to stay.)
Oshrit Zohar live streamed the rally from Petah Tikva and said it was “so heartwarming. It means a lot to us [in Israel]. This connection crosses oceans and is felt.”
Bring them home
Every speaker and most people spoke about the hostages.
Tova Soclof, a 20-year-old from Cleveland, said she wants to bring the hostages home. “I’m here because I want to stand against the atrocities Hamas is committing. I want to show the world they’re spewing a bunch of ridiculous lies: it’s horrific what Hamas is doing in Gaza and in Israel.”
Her father, Jeff, said the large rally “informs the politicians that there are many, many constituents who are very concerned about the October 7 pogrom and the safe return of the hostages.”
Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer recounted how he felt an obligation to go to Israel after the October 7 attack. After he and the other congressman met with families of the hostages and heard their stories, “the five of us wept and cried for an hour,” he said. “We will continue fighting for the release of all hostages till they return to safety,” he said, and when the crowd chanted “Bring them home,” he chanted “Let them go!”
That’s what the mothers of the hostages said.
“To everyone gathered here today, I want to tell you there is power in speaking Omer’s name, posting his pictures, and keeping his story in the public eye,” said Orna Neutra of her 21-year-old son, who was taken hostage, reminding everyone to call their representatives every single day. “We all must use the power we have to help bring Omer and all the hostages home now.”
Rachel Goldberg, mother of injured hostage Hersh Goldberg-Pollin, said the families of the hostages have “third-degree burns on our souls – our hearts are bruised and seeping with misery.” But the real soul suffering is that of the hostages, who want to ask everyone in the world. “Why? Why is the world accepting that 240 humans from almost 30 counties have been stolen and buried alive?”
“We were all brought to tears when the family members of the hostages spoke,” said Danielle Cohen, a teacher from New York who attended the rally with two former IDF soldiers. “As parents ourselves, we can only imagine their pain, and we were so grateful to be there with 300,000 people to show them that we will do everything we can to bring their family members home now.”
After the rally, many left with a sense of renewed purpose: for fighting antisemitism on college campuses, for calling their elected officials about bringing the hostages home, for thanking US President Joe Biden for his support, for helping Israelis however they can.
“As prime minister Golda Meir said,” actress Tovah Feldshuh told the crowd, citing the person she played on Broadway: “‘Some people love ya, and some people love ya and show up.’ You showed up, and that makes all the difference.”