5 Towners join 15,000 at NYC rally for Israel

People from all streams of Judaism and non-Jews as well stood shoulder to shoulder in Manhattan’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Monday in a display of unity and support for Israel.

The South Shore Jewish communities were well represented; buses brought participants from many shuls and organizations including the Young Israels of Woodmere and West Hempstead and the Five Towns JCC; others traveled by car and train. Three Zionist Orthodox camps — Moshava, Mesora and Morasha — sent busloads of their older campers and staff, riding more than four hours to get to the rally.

In a display of unity, representatives of Yeshiva University shared the stage with those of the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary and the Reform Hebrew Union College. All together, an estimated 15,000 people participated.

“We’re here to show the American people that Israel has a right to defend itself and shouldn’t be treated different from any other nation,” said Rabbi Josh Goller, assistant rabbi of Young Israel of West Hempstead.

The event’s overriding message was the need to support Israel, that Hamas is a terrorist organization bent on destroying Israel, and that there will not be peace until Hamas and Gaza are demilitarized and the terror tunnels running through Gaza and crossing the border of Israel are destroyed.

Sen. Charles Schumer said the rally sent “a message to that building over there [the United Nations] and around the world” that there will be “no peace as long as Hamas has power.”

Citing bipartisan support for Israel, Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel noted that Israel shares values with the U.S. and “you don’t have to be Jewish to love Israel.” He condemned the media’s “biased coverage” of the war. “Everyday in the civil war in Syria there are more killed, [but for them] Syria is yesterday’s news.”

Alisa Doctoroff of the UJA-Federation heralded the “wide support for Israel.”

Calling the rally “the world’s largest display of support for Israel,” Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Ido Aharoni, expressed the “gratitude of Israel” having spent, to date, “21 days in bomb shelters … facing an enemy that seeks our destruction.”