Shalit’s parents to attend parade and concert
By Mayer Fertig
Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769
The fate of Israeli MIA Gilad Shalit will be front and center at the Salute to Israel parade this Sunday and at the concert at the Central Park Summer Stage that will overlap the end of the march. Shalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, will walk up Fifth Avenue in the parade and then speak to the 20,000 people that organizers hope will attend the concert.
June 25 will mark three years since Hamas terrorists grabbed Shalit as he patrolled the Israel-Gaza border will his IDF unit. Yudi Zuller, a friend of the Shalit family, hopes their presence in New York will draw attention to Gilad’s plight.
“As President Obama prepares for his first Mideast Summit in Cairo on June 4, it is crucial that we, as American Jews, get the issue of Gilad Shalit added to the agenda of those meetings. What better place than New York, the second largest Jewish community in the world, to rally behind a young boy whose basic humanitarian rights have been trampled upon [during] these past three years?” Zuller said in a statement announcing the Shalits’ New York travel plans. Noam Shalit was last in New York several weeks ago when he appeared at local high schools.
In addition to the Shalits, concert organizers Dr. Joseph Frager and Dr. Paul Brody plan to dedicate the show to the City of Jerusalem, at risk of division again 41 years after the two parts of the city were reunited during the Six Day War.
The Annual Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann Memorial Israel Day Concert in Central Park will be hosted by Nachum Segal on the Summer Stage, entrance on 5th Ave. & 72 St., rain or shine, from 2:30-7:30 P.M.
Scheduled entertainers include Elad Snir, soloist of the IDF Rabbinical Choir, accompanied by pianist Shlomi Aharoni; Pey Dalid and the Israeli fusion band HaMakor; Shloime Dachs; father and son duo Dr. Meyer and Baruch Abittan; Michael Ian Elias presenting the lyrics and music of Cecelia Margules and Rami Yadid; Izzy Kieffer and Heshy Rosenwasser; the Yaakov Chesed band and many others.
