Meanwhile, Back at the Rally, a Huge Crowd Gathers at the United Nations in Solidarity With the Jewish State

“Every Jew I have ever met is here,” a woman with an Israeli flag draped around her said with a laugh as she exited the New York Stands with Israel vigil and rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. The event yesterday evening was organized by a dozen Jewish organizations and featured several New York political figures.The crowd was so large that those who didn’t arrive early were too far away from the main stage to hear the speeches or see the program, but they didn’t seem bothered. The main interest was in being present, uniting with other New Yorkers, and expressing solidarity with Israel.“We have to come together, we are stronger together,” a British-born mother of three, Emma Mahfar, who lives on the Upper East Side, said. “We will not stand for this,” she said, referring both to the attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians over the weekend and the demonstrations in support of those atrocities that have popped up in New York City and around the world.A junior at SAR Academy at Riverdale, 16-year-old Doni Marder, said he showed up to support Israelis. “I don’t want the only thing they see on the news to be the people who are against them,” he said. A small band of those people were across the street from the entrance to the rally holding signs that read, “Israel is Responsible” and waving Palestinian flags.“I’m not paying attention to them,” a 43-year-old from Jersey City, David Chernin, said. “Nothing surprises me these days. This is what moral relativism looks like.” He said he didn’t even know who was scheduled to speaker at the rally — he showed up simply to show his support for Israel. “Numbers matter. Visibility matters,” he said.A digital agency executive, Zachary Thacher, came in from Crown Heights to participate. He said he hoped the large turnout would “send a message to more of the far-left politicians that mainstream, pro-Israel New Yorkers are a force to be reckoned with.” A self-described “leftist,” Mr. Thacher said the Democratic Socialists of America disclosed itself to be “an odious organization,” following its rally in Times Square this past Sunday that featured support for Hamas.Standing on the sidewalk near the entrance to the rally holding a large unified American and Israeli flag was the deputy director of the Philos Project, a community of Christian leaders advocating for pluralism in the Middle East, Luke Moon. “The friends the Jews want are not the friends they have,” he said, noting that he didn’t see anyone from Black Lives Matter in the crowd supporting Israel. “And the friends the Jews don’t want are the friends they have.”He didn’t need to explain who he meant. Mr. Moon said he hoped the rally would change the views of Jews whose prior comments about Israel have provided what he calls an “onramp” for antisemitism. “The people who hear that stuff — first they hate Israel, then they hate the Jews. I stand in solidarity with Israel and with Jews.”Rabbi Israel Kaplan and Rabbi Shia Shmotkin were there to show solidarity as well. They were stationed near the entrance offering men the opportunity to wrap tefillin, a widespread outreach effort of the Chabad movement’s emissaries around the globe initiated by the Lubavitcher Rebbe after the Six Day War. “The tefillin are about standing proudly,” Rabbi Shmotkin said. “We have to show them that we won’t back down, and we will move forward.”

Meanwhile, Back at the Rally, a Huge Crowd Gathers at the United Nations in Solidarity With the Jewish State

Meanwhile, Back at the Rally, a Huge Crowd Gathers at the United Nations in Solidarity With the Jewish State

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