Proudly protesting for Israel in Washington DC was not only a case of “being there” but being there with who and being there why.
By Sandra Kagan
It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny, fall morning as my son Larry and I drove from my hometown of Philadelphia to DC for the march in solidarity with Israel.
On our way, we saw buses making their way to Washington from Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Maryland. At one of the rest stops en route I felt as if I was in Israel with so many Jews of all ages bustling around. Strangers talking to one another and yet not strangers as we all felt we going to a ‘family affair’ – to show solidarity with Israel in its war with Hamas and condemn the frightening rising antisemitism in the USA.
We drove through a deserted Washington and surprisingly found parking one block from the National Mall. As we made our way to the Mall, we noticed enormous barriers set up for security. Then we saw a massive crowd stretching across the Mall from the Capital on one side to the Washington Monument on the other, nearly 300,000 pro-Israel supporters. This was the largest number of Jews ever in one place in the United States and one did not just feel it but felt invigorated by it – proud to be a part of it. Israeli flags, people with placards from every city and state across the USA were represented.
As we made our way through the throngs of people, the first voices we heard in the crowd were very familiar. “Joburg or Cape Town?” asked Larry.
All were from New York and like us, formerly from South Africa.
On the Mall we found a place near a large jumbotron. These were placed on either side of the mall at intervals projecting the rally’s speeches. It was very emotional as the huge crowd sang the National Anthems. The Star-Spangled Banner followed by Hatikvah. As I looked around, I did not see a dry eye. I could not help thinking of the significance of the words of these two anthems. When raising my voice to sing “the land of the free and the home of the brave” I asked myself, how really FREE are we in the USA when our Jewish students are terrified on campuses.
Then when we sang Hatikva (“The Hope”); how it resonated as 300,000 strong collectively HOPED for Israel to be safe and the safe return of all the hostages.
In a rare moment of party solidarity, leaders of both partes, the Democratic and the Republican spoke in support of Israel. The first Jewish Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer did not mince his words when he said, “When Hamas says from the river to the sea, they mean all the present-day Israel should be a Jewish-free land,” and that the US will “stand with you, and we will not rest until you get all the assistance you need.” He concluded by leading the crowd in chants of “Am Yisrael Chai.”
I could not imagine a time before when so much Hebrew – if ever – had been heard on the Mall. This came with the musical performances by Israel’s music stars Ishay Ribo and Omer Adam who also addressed the crowd exclusively in Hebrew.
For me, most impressive were the words of the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who revealed his grip of Jewish suffering and persecution over the millennia when he said:
“The Jewish people were violently expelled from the Middle East. The Jewish people were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. The Jewish people were violently attacked by Hamas on October 7th, resulting in the largest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust. So, we are here to unequivocally declare, Never Again. Never Again. Never Again. The State of Israel must always exist as a safe haven for the Jewish people.”
The people there all understood that with Hamas entrenched in Gaza holding hostages including a 10-month-old baby and Holocaust survivors as well as with over a quarter of the country’s population displaced, the people of Israel were not safe.
The plight of the hostages was brought home to the crowd listening to members of their families. “Why is the world accepting that 240 human beings from almost 30 countries have been stolen and buried alive?” asked the mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Biden’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt issued a warning that “Those chanting ‘glory to the martyrs’ are inciting hatred,” while Natan Sharansky reminded us that 36 years earlier, he had stood at this same spot to appeal on behalf of Soviet Jewry “To let my people go”. And here we were in 2023, a new generation of protestors and again appealing “To let our people go”.
FROM THE WALL TO THE MALL
And then Israeli President Herzog addressed the sea of blue and white which he did remotely from the Western Wall.
We fell silent as we listened:
“Thank you, all people of good will, friends from different communities, faiths and denominations, who have gathered today for this massive show of solidarity. In the State of Israel’s darkest moment, you stood up and declared: Hineni, I am here. We are here. There is no greater and more just cause than this.”
He reminded all there and those who were not that:
“…. we come together to march for good over evil, for human morality over blood thirst. We march for light over darkness. Eighty years ago, Jews came out of Auschwitz and vowed ‘never again.’ As the blue and white flag was hoisted over our ancient homeland, we vowed ‘never again’.”
In the wake of Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel, Herzog emotionally concluded that the world should once again renew that vow:
“Never Again.”
As I listened to Israel’s president, I thought back to George Washington. I had recently been in Newport, Rhode Island when I visited the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the USA. There I saw a letter written by our first president to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, reassuring that religious liberty was assured. Quoting the Bible’s Old Testament, Washington wrote, “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” This was the promise of this country, so I asked myself:
“Why are we Jews afraid?”
It was an orderly well-behaved crowd. Not one incident was reported according to security. As we made our way from the Mall we met people from every state while Larry took photos documenting an amazing day. I was struck by the number of young people, many of whom had been bussed from around the country. This I found reassuring thinking that many of them will be the Jewish leadership of tomorrow. They will think back to this day as Larry and I will; proud, in the words of President Herzog:
“Hineni”.
Everyone appeared to be inspired and as we very slowly made our way out of a bustling Washington, filled with people draped in the Israeli flag, singing and dancing through the streets of the capital. They were making their way back to every corner of this vast country praying for peace and showing their love and solidarity with Israel.
About the writer:
A citizen of Philadelphia, USA since emigrating from South Africa in 1978, Sandra Kagan has taught at a Jewish Day School, trained teachers at the University of Pennsylvania, and thereafter for 20 years, taught English at a public school to speakers of foreign languages. With two grandchildren presently attending US colleges during the atmosphere of rising antisemitism at US campuses, Sandra is very sensitive to the issues that she hereby writes about.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
