Tens of thousands of demonstrators assembled on the National Mall in Washington on Tuesday to show support for Israel and to condemn mounting antisemitism as the Jewish state wages war against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.
Called the “March for Israel” and organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the rally’s purpose was to show solidarity and support for Israel and its people.
The gathering was in response to those still being held by Hamas since its deadly Oct. 7 attack against Israel, in which terrorists killed about 1,200 civilians and abducted about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
The massive crowd waved Israeli and American flags, signs announcing their respective city’s support for Israel and laminated posters of kidnapped hostages. They chanted “Bring them home.”
Attendees came from all over the country and told The Washington Times that the recent events in Israel and attacks on Jewish Americans in the U.S. motivated them to show up.
“In 1963, my two aunts and my grandmother came to the civil rights march on Washington and my grandmother was about as old then as I am now,” Caroline Heck Miller, 74, of Miami, Florida, said. “I always remembered it. And I thought, ‘This is the time for me to come to Washington.’ The Jewish people have always been there to speak out for and help others who are facing injustice. And now is the time for us to speak out for ourselves.”
Steve Frankel, 63, a resident of Los Angeles who works in the real estate industry, told The Times that he came to the rally because it was “time to speak up for humanity, justice and to protect Israel, who’s surrounded by enemies who wish to destroy her on every border.”
He said, “We must defend Israel as a democracy and as a shared value of Western values.”
Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate took to the stage to show common solidarity with the rally-goers.
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Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat and a Jewish lawmaker, promised that the U.S. will always stand with Israel.
“History shows that when antisemitism rears its ugly head, if it’s not dealt with forcefully and directly, it grows into a deadly force,” Mr. Schumer said. “But my friends, history reminds us also of one thing, that even in its darkest days, the United States has always stood with Israel. And we will do everything to see that that never, ever changes.
“We will not allow history to slide back to the days of the Holocaust, when Jews were targeted and murdered and butchered. Instead, the Jewish people will be resilient. And today all of you are here showing we will not hide in the face of adversity in America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told the crowd that lawmakers earlier in the day viewed a “horrific film” produced by Hamas from their own cameras as they committed the Oct. 7 assault. He said calls for a cease-fire in Gaza are “outrageous.”
“It’s unspeakable. The auditorium was full of Republicans and Democrats in the House. And they wept as we watched the film together — most couldn’t sit through it,” he said.
“These Israeli hostages were kidnapped in their homes by barbaric Hamas terrorists for simply being Jewish and living in Israel. As [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu says so well, this is a fight between good and evil, between light and darkness, between civilization and barbarism.”
The gathering was the largest Jewish rally in the U.S. since 1987, when Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews took place on the National Mall.
The March for Israel comes days after more than 180,000 people across France, including 100,000 in Paris, marched peacefully to protest against rising antisemitism around the globe.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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