Tuesday, November 14, 2023, will go down in history as a good day for bus companies.
It will also be the day that, hopefully, hundreds of thousands of Jews and our allies make a powerful statement on the National Mall in Washington, DC in support of Israel, against antisemitism, and to bring home the 240 innocent hostages held by Hamas terrorists. (All who can, MUST be there!)
This is not something that Jews do regularly, but, sometimes, it must be done.
The first Jewish march on Washington was on October 6, 1943. Three days before Yom Kippur, more than four hundred Orthodox rabbis marched to the White House to plead with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to rescue European Jews from the Nazis. The rally was the brainchild of 33-year-old Hillel Kook, a Jerusalem-born nephew of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who arrived in the United States in 1940 and took the Americanized name Peter Bergson. He led a group of activists whose mission was to draw attention to the murder of Jews in Europe and the reluctance of the British to let them escape to Palestine. The president refused the rabbis’ request to hand him their petition. FDR’s Jewish advisers denounced the protesters. Prominent Jewish leaders urged them to cancel the march and some publicly condemned them. Why did the march provoke such criticism? Why did the rabbis persevere?
Rafi Medoff noted various rationales for opposing the Rabbis’ march. Politically, meeting with the rabbis would legitimate their request, while snubbing them would keep their issue from gaining any traction. Jewish opposition came from the discomfort Americanized Jews had for their more traditional brothers. A prominent Jewish member of Congress, Representative Sol Bloom (D-New York), urged the rabbis to call off the march on the grounds that “it would be very undignified for a group of such un-American looking people to appear in Washington.”
Medoff posits that the very fact there was strong opposition from Jewish quarters convinced the rabbis their strategy made sense. They marched “precisely because their view of the place of Jews in American society was so different from that of their critics.” While many Jews worried what America would think of their standing up for their particularistic issue, the rabbis cared about one thing: saving Jews.
And their effort bore fruit. Building on the publicity from the march, Bergson’s friends in Congress introduced a resolution asking FDR to create an agency that would find ways to provide refuge for those Jews who remained under Nazi rule. As part of the effort, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau drew up a report for the president revealing the State Department’s efforts to make Jewish immigration to the U.S. almost impossible. Within days, FDR established the War Refugee Board, which during the final year of the Holocaust was responsible for the rescue of thousands of Jews and increasing Jewish immigration to America.
During World War Two, the Orthodox rabbis and their allies were in the minority. By 1987, things had changed.
On December 6, 1987, an estimated 250,000 participants gathered on the National Mall for “Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews,” calling on Mikhail Gorbachev to extend his policy of Glasnost to Soviet Jews by putting an end to their forced assimilation and allowing their emigration from the Soviet Union. The rally was organized by a coalition of Jewish organizations, and it was reported by the JTA to be the "largest Jewish rally ever held in Washington.”
What changed?
In a word (or number): 1967
Israel’s victory in the Six Day War, coming during a time in which people were expressing pride in identity, was key to American Jews shaking off the cobwebs of assimilationist tendencies. The community - both in Israel and more broadly - was coming to terms with the Holocaust as survivors started telling their stories and the world was transfixed by the Adolf Eichmann trial. This increased focus on the horrors of the Shoah shone a spotlight on the danger of silence. A new stronger, louder Jewish identity became acceptable. As Rabbi Haskel Lookstein often says, “Before 1967, Jews were akin to question marks – stooped, bowed, lacking confidence. After 1967, Jews became exclamation marks – ramrod straight, confident, and loud.”
This new confidence paired well with Jewish “smarts” of how to make an impact. The rally was planned at a time when Gorbachev would be in America. Among the speakers was Vice President George H.W. Bush, who echoed the words of President Reagan at the Berlin Wall, saying "Mr. Gorbachev, let these people go. Let them go." Historian Henry L. Feingold noted that the rally “demonstrated that public relations techniques to focus attention on the plight of Soviet Jewry had become a formidable skill developed by the American Soviet Jewry movement.”
The Jewish community realized the power of a public statement, knew how to make one, and had the confidence to show up.
Fifteen years later, it was time for another statement.
On April 16, 2002, upwards of 100,000 people rallied in front of the Capitol on one week's notice. This was at the height of the Second Intifada with Israel responding to horrific terrorism. In familiar fashion, the world called on Israel to show restraint, and the organized Jewish community, led by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, decided to do something. There had been criticism from both Israeli officials and the Jewish grassroots for a perceived lack of visibility, so the community responded.
There were all kinds of signs and messages that day, but, for many, there was a need to be surrounded by lovers of Israel. One participant noted, “I just wanted to experience this feeling of standing with all these Jews, who might not feel the same way about the conflict, but who can agree that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.”
Why the reluctance to rally?
In the years between 1987 and 2002, the culture changed. There was a national trend in the weakening of social connections, the “Bowling Alone” phenomenon. Many Americans placed less stock in organized groups. While this may sound strange to Orthodox Jews whose lives are lived within a very specific congregation and community, large gatherings were less impressive to those outside such existing groups. At the same time, Jewish organizations felt an impact could be made through statements made by leaders of the community. A press conference attended by government officials, media celebrities, and known thought or religious leaders might attract similar attention as a large rally. In the shrinking attention spans of Americans, the emphasis should be on creating the memorable moment alongside relationships with powerful allies, rather than “historic” gatherings in Washington.
To rally or not to rally? Who’s right?
As war in Israel continues, calls for rallies started to be heard again. There have been, of course, impressive local efforts including tens of thousands of attendees in New York City and large gatherings in other locales – including hundreds right here in Atlantic Beach. Yet, this war is different. It was preceded by a terrorist attack that will go down in history as Israel’s 9/11. Regardless of how effective the community’s strategy in defending Israel, winning over Congressional allies, and garnering support from the White House, how can we not make a strong statement in our nation’s capital? How about the loud, angry pro-Palestinian rallies? Don’t we have a response? Natan Sharansky, the hero of the Soviet Jewry movement, called for a national rally, and the Jewish community is responding.
We have a rally.
And while all or some of the above reasons have led to Tuesday’s march for Israel, I think it is the culmination of all the variables and lessons learned from Washington rallies over the past 80 years. We rally from a position of strength to make a statement in our nation’s capital while Congress is in session (that’s why the rally is on Tuesday and not on Sunday) to declare that Israel is our ally in the fight for democracy, that innocent hostages deserve to be free, and that antisemitism is an ugly hatred that has no place in America. Whether it is wise to rally or not, we’re coming together to be surrounded by other lovers of Israel, of America, of freedom, of humanity, and of decency. We know that plenty of lesser gatherings or activities garner media attention and likes and clicks, but we must make a show of force and strength in numbers.
Like they declared back at Solidarity Sunday marches for Soviet Jewry, “We are Jews; we couldn’t be prouder. If you can’t hear us, we’ll shout a little louder!”
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