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New York City’s Celebrate Israel Parade is back and taking place on Sunday, May 22. This year the parade will be followed by the Arutz Sheva Jerusalem Conference.
“We’re back on fifth avenue and we hope everybody will be joining us there,” says Michael Miller, CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY). “There has been a parade in support of Israel in new York for more than 50 years. We have been running it for the past 10 years, and it has 40,000 marchers and several hundred thousand spectators along the storied fifth avenue of New York, going north.”
People see the spectators and support for Israel and it’s contagious, Miller tells Israel National News.
“It’s not only contagious to Jews. What’s important as well is that New York will be there across the board, all the different ethnicities, all the different groups from all around the world who reside in New York, we want them to see how we celebrate the State of Israel in New York, not only with our marchers but without spectators as well.”
They make it a point to bring everyone together for the parade, people affiliated with all sides of the spectrum of Israel support.
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Miller describes it as crucial to do so, though the effort does come with “certain bumps and bruises as you go along.”
“It’s so crucial that we show that support for Israel is across the board, and for those who are further to the right they have their point of view, for those who are further to the left they have their point of view, and our organization is right down the middle, down the center, and we have our point of view. If we can march… for five hours, just getting 40,000 people plus the floats, plus the marching bands, it’s just an amazing experience.”
This year after the parade finishes, there will be the Arutz Sheva Jerusalem Conference, a conference which has been taking place for almost 20 years in Israel is now coming to New York – a continuation with the same basic idea to sit down and discuss.
How does Miller see the connection between the Arutz Sheva Jerusalem Conference and the Celebrate Israel Parade?
“I give great credit to Arutz Sheva for bringing a piece of Jerusalem into New York and bringing people to speak about Israel and to express their love for Israel,” he says. “Public officials as well as private individuals, people who have a long history with the State of Israel, including the governor of the State of New York and the mayor of New York City. Whatever ability people have to bring Israel to New York is something very special, and people will have an opportunity to hear from some of the decision makers from the State of Israel as well as individuals who have made their mark to share their story with us in America.”
The conference is also about connecting to Israel through understanding and hearing firsthand from Israelis and supporters of Israel.
“I have led more than 100 missions to Israel of non-Jewish influencers from the New York area, more than 100 trips during the course of my tenure when I was the full-time CEO of the JCRC,” Miller says.
”My expression to them was ‘seeing is believing.’ I have seen almost everything there is to see in [Israe] but I never see it through somebody else’s eyes until I’m with them so to have some of those eyes come to New York to share with us their experience of Israel, it’s the second best thing to being in Israel itself. Having the Jerusalem Conference in New York is a very special feeling.”
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