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Friday November 28, 2003

March of love

Americans take to Israeli streets to send message: Jews are not afraid

by dan pine
staff writer

jerusalem | With thousands of noisy sign-waving Americans taking it to the streets, the march looked a lot like a protest from the ’60s. However, this was Jerusalem ’03, the marchers were Jews, and they were there not to protest but to profess their love for the state of Israel.

The United Jewish Communities 2003 General Assembly sponsored the Monday, Nov. 17 march as a sign of solidarity with Israel. By parading en masse in a place that so recently suffered a wave of suicide bombings, marchers hoped to send a message that North American Jews were no longer afraid.

“We’re reinforcements,” said Loren Basch, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, as he walked past the open-air vegetable markets of Meyouhas Street. “I’ve never seen more smiles on the faces of the people here than now.”

Basch’s East Bay delegation was one of several from the Bay Area and central California, including San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento. Representatives from across the United States and Canada all took their places on a line that stretched more than a mile.

The march began in the cool early evening air outside the cavernous Binyaney Ha’Ooma convention center downtown. As G.A. delegates poured out of the hall, they waved little American, Canadian and Israeli flags. Each local federation hoisted a sign, and with state delegations lined up in alphabetical order, California was the virtual leader of the pack.

As the parade wound its way through the city, Israeli onlookers seemed at first a bit bemused. But as the sky darkened, they began waving and cheering. Young Israeli soldiers, machine guns slung across their backs, joined the marchers, who greeted them boisterously with hugs and backslaps.

The entire route of the march was wired for sound. Upbeat Israeli music broadcast through loudspeakers further elevated already high spirits. Merchants handed out pitted dates. Orthodox schoolgirls handed out bud roses to the Americans. Old women in babushkas blew kisses.

It was like the liberation of Paris.

Given the severe drop-off in tourism to Israel since the onset of the current matsav (“situation”), the 4,000-strong UJC contingent, filling every hotel room and flooding the gift shops, was indeed a liberation of sorts.

The give-and-take love fest grew in intensity as marchers neared the end of the 1.5-mile route. A palpable feeling of unity between North American and Israeli Jews warmed the autumn night in Jerusalem.

The march ended at Zion Square near Ben-Yehuda Street. There, a Ukrainian youth dance troop performed, followed by happy speeches from Tourism Minister Benny Alon, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky and incoming UJC President Bobby Goldberg.

But most moving of all was an off-key performance of “Yerushaliyim Shel Zahav.” Thousands sang along, none without a clenched throat or a welling eye.

Among them was Brett “Mad Dog” Borah, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose. “It was overwhelmingly emotional,” he said afterward. “It was an epiphany.”

Added Betsy Pottruck of the East Bay federation: “To be part of thousands of Jews walking the streets of Jerusalem, there’s nothing more exciting.”

The next day, G.A. delegates returned to their work, while clean-up crews swiftly brought the parade route back to normal. That next night, other than a stray balloon or the San Antonio Mission sign leaning against a falafel stand, all traces of the march had disappeared.

But not in the hearts of Israelis who were there.

Oved Boteach, proprietor of Ben-Yehuda Gifts, stood behind the counter of his shop, surrounded by handcrafted mezuzot, Kiddush cups and candlesticks. He remembered well the strong feelings of the previous evening. “Last night,” he said, “you saw us as we all want to be: Ashkenazi, Sephardi, secular, everybody together.”

He straightened his kippah and said in a voice hoarse with emotion: “Every one of us was in shock. Israelis often feel alone, even though we know there’s a big Jewish community. We saw our brothers and sisters come and say ‘We love you.’ People will talk about this a long time. We blessed everyone who marched.”

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