MARCH ON, NEW YORK! LI celebrates Israel on Sunday

It’s a day when it seems as though all of New York turns out to show its love for Midinat Yisroel.

On Sunday — rain or shine — schools, shuls, organizations and individuals from throughout Long Island will joins tens of thousands of others from around the metropolitan area and beyond for the annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan from 57th to 74th streets, from 11:30 am to 4 pm.

This year’s theme is “Israel Imagines.”

For the 22nd year, there’ll be a free Israel Day concert in Central Park overlapping the parade, from 2:30 to 7:30 pm. Scheduled performers include Gad Elbaz, Alex Clare, LIPA, Mati Shriki, Tal Vaknin, and Shloime Dachs.

Among political and communal leaders expected to speak are Gov. Mike Huckabee, MK Danny Danon, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

Billed as “The Concert With A Message,” the event, at the park’s Summer Stage (enter at Fifth Avenue at 72nd Street), is dedicated to the memory of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach, hy”d. 

A multi-ethnic Celebrate Israel Festival is planned for Pier 94 off the West Side Highway, about one-and-a-half miles away, from 2 to 7 pm. Admission to this event is $5 to $15.

Among the many Jewish schools participating in the march are the Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway, Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, North Shore Hebrew Academy, the Shulamith School for Girls, and Shalhevet.

Those who can’t make it can watch a slice of the parade on FOX MY9 from noon to 2 pm.