Everyone is critical lf the fact that NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani boycotted yesterday’s Israel Day Parade. Of course, he is the only mayor of NYC not to join the parade, which makes it a publically anti-Israel gesture.
The problem, however, is that Mamdani did exactly what 95% of Jews in the Metropolitan area did… stayed away from the parade! How many Jews from Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, Far Rockaway, Flatbush, Lakewood and Passaic attended the parade?
Actually, there’s no need to even go to those neighborhoods. How many people from what is known as the Zionistic towns went to the parade? Outside of the parents who went to see their kids marching, how many Jews went to 5th Avenue from Kew Gardens Hills, the Five Towns, New Rochelle, West Hempstead, Teaneck and Englewood? Why do we point the finger only at Mamdani when Goldberg, Cohen, Shamilov, Sharabi and Dweck stayed away?
Let me make this perfectly clear. If you are expecting love to come from antisemites like Ugandan born Zohran Mamdani, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of failure. Include on that list former President Barack Obama, Hollywood actor Mel Gibson, political commentator Tucker Carlson, Rapper Kanye West and the entire Black Lives Matter movement. They are non-factors, not important at all and nothing more than a piece of dust on the world stage. Do not pay any attention to them… pay attention only to yourselves and how you feel about the State of Israel.
Does your shul say the prayer for the State of Israel on Shabbat? Please don’t embarrass yourself by telling me that your shul prays for the IDF soldiers (if it does) - of course they do! How can one not pray when a Jew’s life is in danger?? I am not asking that… I am asking whether your shul prays for the growth and success of Medinat Yisrael? Less than 10% of all shuls in the NY/NJ area say this prayer.
Did you celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim? A dear friend of mine from Lawrence, NY told me that the shuls in the Five Towns held a community event in honor of Yom Yerushalayim. He went and was one of 50 people in attendance… and the average age of those 50 people was 70 years old. Where were the 30- and 40-year-olds?? I guarantee you that if it had been “A Night to Taste Whiskey" the place would have been packed but “A Night to Honor Yom Yerushalayim"???
Dearest friends; stop blaming people who history will forget less than 30 seconds after they are gone. Trust me that Mamdani is not the problem and Michael Bloomberg is not the solution. The answer lies in what you see as the Jewish dream. Is the modern state of Israel - with all its limitations - the beginning of the Redemption or an accident that has nothing to do with Hashem?
Make sure you answer that question correctly and then get MAD… Make A Difference in building, settling and fighting for Eretz Yisrael… and start voting for the next Mayor of Netanya, or Ra’anana or Bet Shemesh… and not New York!
Am Yisrael Chai!