Close to 10,000 people took part in the solidarity rally in support of Israel and Operation Cast Lead opposite the NYC Israeli Consulate on Sunday. The event, located at 42nd Street and Second Avenue, drew many supporters of Israel despite the frigid temperatures.
According to NYPD, the rally, which was cosponsored by UJA Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council of NY and an array of other organizations drew many public officials who felt compelled to speak out in support of Israel at a time when there is a growing anti-Israel sentiment in many countries.
Among the notables addressing the event was US Senator (D-NY) Charles Schumer, who defended Israel’s right to defend herself, standing by the humanitarian efforts being exhibited by the IDF, explaining Israel has repeatedly stated that “Hamas is the enemy, not the Palestinians living in Gaza”. His comments were mimicked by other speakers as well.
(YWN Israel Desk)
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38 Responses
I am so glad to hear that so many attended. We will not stand idly by while our brothers & sisters in Israel are in danger.
Such a kiddush hashem. I wish i wouldv’e been there.
I guess more people would have gone had YWN publicized it was going to happen.
I was there, and a group of women were saying tehillim which inspired others..
I would have gone if the Gedolim said to go.
saying tehillim, a very different scenario than pro-gaza rallies where the overriding sentiment is hatred & annihilation of jews….
To #5:
Do you wait for the Gedolim to tell you to go to the Bronx Zoo or Great Aventures? Is something ossur until someone says it’s mutar? Did you ask your Rov for reshus to go or maybe you are just too lazy to go and prefer giving excuses.
The turnout was unfortunately paltry considering that some 2 million Jews b’ah reside in the tri state area.
I mamish just came back from the rally and i have to say it was one of the most inspiring events i have been to, and to see so many Jews and leading politicians united together for Israel proves that we are not alone. The resounding voices screaming against the UN for their decision making on behalf of Israel, clearly with the wrong intentions, was so powerful, it must have been heard for blocks and blocks. I was right at the front and looking back you could see the crowd stretching back with hundreds of signs and flags. Red hats were worn to show our support for the Jews in Sderot who are constantly on red alert. What can be said about Bnei Yisrael other than, “mi’kiamcha yisrael?” even during the rally, towards the end you could see the Chabad guys running around getting people to put on tefillin. Really, WHO IS LIKE YISRAEL??? no one.
“I would have gone if the Gedolim said to go”.
Are these just words, or did you ask your shul rav as I did?… and then attended with a mishnayos and two kids in hand.
The gedolim did not say not to go. Why were so few frum people there?
#5 “I would have gone if the Gedolim said to go” Did they give you permission to be on the internet?
Going to a rally requires the Gedolim’s imperteur. The Gedolim have not been shy to tell us which rallies to attend.
This rally was organized by the secular, and there is no knowing or controlling what speakers might say there, which could easily be contrary to the Torah.
to see great pictures and videos go to
http://www.Hockersnews.blogspot.com
i think its on the second post
10,000 at the rally
10,000 visiting the sick
10,000 reading stories to their children
10,000 helping out their parents
10,000 raising tzedaka for various causes
10,000 in yeshiva
10,000 working to support their family
10,000 Having Kavana when they Bentch
10,000 doing their husband’s laundry
10,000 taking their kids to visit Bubby and Zaidy
10,000 reviewing mishnayos with their sons
10,000 shopping for warm clothing for their growing kinderlach
10,000 cooking for upcoming sheva brachos
10,000 addressing invitations for a chasuna
10,000 writing letters to free Jonathan Pollard
10,000 playing music for sick children
10,000 making beds for unexpected visitors
10,000 answering the door, giving a dollar to a meshulach….
Kad Yazvun Yisrael V’Askin B’Simchas HaTorah, Kudsha Brich Hu Omer L’Pamaya De’Lay…
Chazu, Banai, Chavivai
D’Mishtakchin B’Tzarah D’Lehon, V’Askin B’Chedvasa De’Lay.
Thank to all of you who came to the Rally. Thank you to all of you who rallied where you were needed.
Mi K’Amcha Yisroel, Goy Echad Ba’Aretz!
I guess it’s the same “gedolim” who wouldn’t sanction demonstrations for Russian Jewry in the 1970’s. Or for European Jewry in the 1940’s. Guess what? Hashem gave us all free will to decide what is right. Wouldn’t today have been a wonderful opportunity to THINK? What a shame that less people attended today’s rally than the grand opening of Pomegranate in Brooklyn.
#15: You don’t know that to be true, you don’t have the numbers on either event. Let’s be dan l’chaf zchus. Wouldn’t that help Mashiach come? So what, so made a comment that if the Gedolim told them to go they would have gone. Big deal. What’s this prove? It proves that they listen to Daas Torah. It couldn’t hurt anyone to do that. To jump down their throat and imply that they don’t make any of their own decisions, is not fair, and perhaps your taking out your anger which should be reserved for the goyim that want to kill you all too quickly, on your fellow Jew. Shfoch Chamascha Al HaGoyim. You say that by your seder, no? You mean it? Bottom line: anyone who on their own made their own decision to be mitztaref in the klal, while in Europe their protesting you and calling for your death as a Jew, kol hakavod to you for going and showing our numbers in our own backyard. People are scared of looking like Zionists. Well, guess what, to the world you look like Jews. The world likes to cry over Jews once they’re dead. But the world doesn’t like to protect them with action while they’re alive. So it’s up to you do decide to be counted, and shout back to the world: Am Yisrael Chai! B’zchus that bravery, achdus, and arvus, Melech HaMashiach Tzidkeinu should come and get us right now!
The rally consisted of a big mix of men and women. At one point there was singing – again men and women. I was there because I felt I should go but I can also understand why some might not have wanted to be there and instead perhaps stayed in Yeshiva and learned (although in theory if yeshivas did go then they could have just stuck together and wouldn’t have really had the aforementioned problems especially since you couldn’t really hear much in the back).
hashem yerachaim
To Will Hill:
I go to these rallies all the time and strangely, I have not heard antything that could conceivably be objectionable. What exactly are you worried that will be said that will be potentially so offensive. This is an excuse I have heard for years and it frankly bears no merit. It is just an excuse for passivity.
i heard 7 police offivers were injured at the rally,could anybody confirm this.
Personally, I spent the day telling people that there is a war going on in Eretz Yisrael. Apparently, there are some who don’t know that Jewish Men have been dying so that we could live, and learn, and daaven, and eat out in Chic restaurants with mehadrin hechsherim.
Silly me, I thought by now that they knew.
One person asked me when the cease fire ended.
I asked “What cease fire?” If you know about a cease fire, by all means… please share that information.
It’s kind of reminicent of the people I met on 13th Avenue on Thanksgiving. They were standing around shmoozing, listening to music across from Shomer Shabbos… a 24/7 minyan factory in Brooklyn.
I had interrupted my daavening, my tehillim, and monitoring of the events in Mumbai… just long enough to run a few errands, and get some groceries. Yidden were being terrorized in India, it was all over the news, and nobody in at the take-out seemed to care. Or even be concerned. I couldn’t believe it. And then I commented on the situation, and people starting rambling incoherently about a terrorist. I said, actually, 10 hotels in India were attacked, and they are searching out Jews. There are yidden, right now, in danger in India. Yidden from Brooklyn, and Eretz Yisrael. And they suddenly became like wide-eyed children.
I told the guy behind the counter that there are people with guns and bombs shooting Jews. That they have either injured or killed the Holzbergs, and we know that because his clothing is covered in someone’s blood, R”L. He was quite shocked.
He asked the Hispanic workers behind him what I was referring to. They knew.
I suggested that this would be a good time to daaven. He said “I will”.
I said “Now”.
He said, “I only have a tehillim”.
I said, “That will do”.
He asked which perek. I said, “It doesn’t matter”.
He just stood there looking dumb.
I said, “Say Perek Chaf (20)”.
And he did.
That is why I Think out loud.
Apparently people can’t hear me when I think quietly.
כלל ישראל must learn and internalize the lesson that אין לנו להשען אלא על אבינו שבשמים. The fact that politicians speak to us encouragingly from the podium is a welcome change, but the more we rely on them to accomplish anything for us, even in a political sense, the less we are being נשען על אבינו שבשמים.
I, for one, would have been a lot happier if I had seen a post stating that some mainstream Yeshiva had invited its student body, including parents, spouses, children, supporters, etc., and conducted a יום תפילה.
Good heavens! Must we pick at each other over everything? Everyone should do what he/she/they are capable of, and let’s appreciate that Am Yisrael is one body with one soul.
Genuk with the Gedolim bashing a/k/a Torah bashing!
One Yid at home saying Tehilim did a lot more than all 10,000 of those at the rally.
If the Gedolim would’ve preferred us to go to Manhattan rather than say a few kapitalach Tehilim or learn a few blat Gemora’s, they would’ve made themselves quite clear.
The fact they hadn’t speaks for itself. Stay in the Beis Hamedrash and learn or pick up the Tehilim and daven.
Period.
Oh, and the guy from the jewish theological seminary leading the prayers… something like “I CANT HEAR YOU…” Really Kosher
What would have been so terrible if major Jewish organizations, like Agudah and/or Torah Umesorah had gotten the schools to come out in numbers? What would have been so terrible if we woudl have gathered together to publicly daven and publicly say tehillim? Extra hours here or there are wonderful! Extra learning sessions and extra tehillim gatherings for those who weren’t there today are wonderful! But, we need to be “in their faces” with our tefillah; “in their faces” with our support of our Jewish brothers and sisters who are living in the Hamas rockets direct paths! We need to be out there together, in achdus and unity, to support the chayalim on the front lines, both in Gaza and Northern Israel and at every holy site and city that they are keeping watch over day and night, so that we can have an Eretz Yisroel to live in and visit. Where were we?! During WWII, there were those Jews who were “comfortable” and then later “shocked” when shoved into ghettos, onto train cars, into work camps and gas chambers. If history is not the best teacher, what is?! We must look/listen/read the news about the things that are happening to Jews across Europe and here in the US and stand together publicly to cry out against them. Maybe this is our “destiny”…to prevent, Chas V’Shalom that we ever know it firsthand, another Holocaust……my fellow Yidden, WAKE UP!!!
of course the frum community didnt show for this – we cannot be seen as being on the side of the zionists – its one thing to daven in private for the zionists to succeed either bec they are tinokos shenishbu or bec theres yiden living under their rule but we cant publicly side with the army that fights hashem
daasbaalhabayis, since you don’t wan’t to stand with the zionist who “fight hashem” you could have shown up to join neturie karta, I am sure they would have made space for you andmade you feel comfortable.
daasbaalhabayis:
your name indicates that you believe your da’as is on par with that of someone who has spent lots of time learning Torah. That could be true, if you happen to be such a tremendous ba’al avodah, that Hashem gives you the wisdom you could have had, if you weren’t so busy doing chesed.
So I’m not claiming to know if you have any source for your statement.
All I know is what I have learned, and told by my Rav. I have had different Rebbeim at different times, and I have switched gears in my life, but I have always has a Rav, since I was of age to make my own decisions.
My Rav holds of HIMSELF:
Al ta’amin B’atzmecha ad yom moscha.
The Torah says Lo Sa’amod al dam reyacha.
Nobody here is fighting for Zionism.
Nobody here is fighting for Politics.
some of you are apparently living in the past.
Which is fine, if you don’t use
the internet,
a cellphone,
or power steering,
or a kosher lamp,
or a shabbos clock.
Currently, we all have families and friends living in Eretz Yisrael. We have cashed in on the Winnings of the 6 day war, The Yom Kippur War, and a host of other “Zionist” creations.
We send our children to learn or tour in Eretz Yisroel.
We buy souvenirs from the wood shop.
We send our relatives to ask shailos and get brachos from gedolim who have built yeshivos and Shuls in places that were desolate from 1948 to 1967.
We buy silver jewelry, and framed art, and Chocolate, and seforim from our brothers in Israel.
We wouldn’t be able to do that if not for the IDF that stands by, on alert, paying attention, looking to see if there’s a chefetz chashud in your tefillin bag. So that you can daaven where you want to daaven. And so that you can learn Torah where you want to Learn Torah.
If you want to undo the past, because you believe that somehow the Ribbono Shel Olam lost control of His world and needs your help, that is fine. There are some other People who believe that too. They have attended Holocaust Denial conferences in Chassidishe Levush. The Umos Ha’olam have seen them at pro-Hamas rallies in the last 2 weeks. I guess it was OK, because there was no ta’aruvos?
I don’t know who their God is. My G-d is the one referred to in Shema:
ONE G-d, continuously controlling the world, Deciding what will happen, how it will happen and to who. In FULL control of Good AND Evil. All we get to do is choose which side we want to be on.
In case we aren’t clear about it, The Torah even tells us:
U’Bacharta BaChaim.
Choose Life.
If you can’t figure out which side is pro-life nowadays, we are getting reminded every day. If you want to make a kiddush haShem, Keep the Torah in public, not just in private.
don’t allow the Umos Ha’olam to continue to believe that Torah Jews don’t know the difference between Good and Evil. You manage to go on the subway for parnassa, despite the co-mingling of women and men. You manage to seek out Doctors and Lawyers of more “modern” persuasion, when it comes to your health or your money. Jewish Lives are at stake around the world. If you don’t have the courage to speak up, don’t blame it on HaShem. He never told you to stand by and allow your brothers to be attacked by rotzchim.
It’s like you are writing your own Torah!
THAT would be a Chillul Hashem.
bacci,
Give the Gedolim a call and kindly advise them you know what its ”prudent” for them to do, that they have in your great wisdom and estimation failed to do.
Oh wait.
The Gedolim HAVE made Tefila gatherings. Except instead of it being in the streets of Manhattan, it has been in the Beis Hamedrahes and Beis Hakeness’ around the world.
Ahh.
I hope that Schumer, Weiner and their ilk will now be less “progressive” and STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION in light of those people making pogroms in Manhattan, but they nevel learn until it’s too late.
“The Gedolim HAVE made Tefila gatherings. Except instead of it being in the streets of Manhattan, it has been in the Beis Hamedrahes and Beis Hakeness’ around the world”.
The Gedolim have had gatherings in the streets of Albany for yeshiva funding and other issues affecting the klal. I attended over 10 years ago a huge rally in Wall St. area sponsored by Agudah, and we gathered in the streets of Manhattan, taking up lots of room B”H, and the large rally in Washington (5+ yrs ago) marching together with several roshei yeshiva, menahalim of yeshivos and bais yakovs…..so the streets have been full of Gedolim followers.
#13,
U R totally correct.Thank U 4 voicing my opinion. “yarbu kamoischa b’yisroel”.
34, Stan, please let us know where these upcoming events will be held… It wouldn’t hurt if YWN actually listed times and addresses for events as well, otherwise the listings are fairly useless.
#34, Yes, if and when the Gedolim make that determination. Not you, and not I.
(Additionally, many of the street gatherings the Gedolim organize are Tehilim rallies, not protesters with speakers and bullhorns.)
#35, Thank You!
We will do what our Gedolim direct us to do, and not otherwise!
(Additionally, many of the street gatherings the Gedolim organize are Tehilim rallies, not protesters with speakers and bullhorns.)
The huge WASHINGTON RALLY had both!!!!
39, Did the Gedolim endorse it? If not, fuggehdaboutit.