Israel solidarity rallies were held in venues across the United States as several groups sent missions to Israel to experience the siege on Israel first-hand.
Some 2,000 Chicagoans gathered in downtown Chicago Tuesday to show their solidarity with Israel. The rally was sponsored by the United Fund and JUF's Jewish Community Relations Council, in cooperation with the Chicago Board of Rabbis and JUF's Rabbinic Action Committee.
Demonstrators waved Israeli flags and held signs which read “I Stand with Israel,” “Israel has the right to defend itself,” and “Hamas the Aggressor, Israel the Beacon of Freedom.” Young people in the crowd sang “Am Yisrael Chai” and “Hatikvah.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent a statement of support that was read at the rally: “There is no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself,” his statement said.
Meanwhile, on Sunday in Los Angeles, some 1,400 demonstrators voiced their support for Israel's right to defend itself and its ramped-up operation against escalated rocket attacks on its South from the Gaza Strip.
In New York, hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators are expected to rally across from the Israeli Consulate in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon in an event sponsored by Jewish organizations from across the political spectrum.
Also in New York, in suburban Westchester County, a rally was scheduled for Tuesday evening at Temple Israel Center in White Plains. U.S. Reps. Nita Lowey, Nan Hayworth and Eliot Engel are scheduled to attend.
Other rallies were scheduled Tuesday in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Seattle and West Hartford, Conn.
At the Los Angeles rally, the demonstrators gathered outside the Westwood Federal Building in West Los Angeles to voice their support for Israel at a rally organized by pro-Israel organizations StandWithUs, the Israeli-Leadership Council and the Zionist Organization of America-Western Region.
“We are here to protest the necessity of peace, the danger of those who would seek to destroy us and our determination to live both in strength and with justice and with peace,” Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple told the crowd.
Some 100 pro-Palestinian counter-demonstrators carried signs that read “Let Gaza Live: Free Palestine,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel,” and “It’s not a war. In Palestine, it’s genocide.”
In Boston, some 1,000 pro-Israel demonstrators rallied Monday night in an event organized by synagogues, schools and Jewish nonprofit organizations, including the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, J Street, the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC.
The Boston rally “is a statement to our sisters and brothers and cousins in Israel that we’re supportive and we feel your pain,” Rabbi David Lerner of Temple Emunah in Lexington, Mass., told The Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, lay and professional leaders from The Jewish Federations of North America arrived in Israel on Nov. 18 for a two-day emergency solidarity mission.
The leaders from New York, Chicago, Boston, New Jersey, Cleveland, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington, Minneapolis and Birmingham, Ala., visited southern Israeli cities under fire, including Ashkelon, Sderot and Beersheva, offering solidarity with the residents and examining areas of need.
“The ongoing crisis being faced by the people of Israel, particularly those in the South, will not be fought by the Jewish state alone,” Michael Siegal, JFNA's incoming chair, said upon arriving in Jerusalem. “We are here to express our firm solidarity and to say that as always, when Israel is in need, we are here.”
The JNFA already has committed $5 million in assistance to the Jewish Agency's Israel Terror Relief Fund for the immediate needs of the people living under fire.
Organizations representing Orthodox Judaism — the Rabbinical Council of America, the Orthodox Union and the National Council of Young Israel — on Monday called on “all Jews to increase their Torah study as spiritual support and merit for those Israeli soldiers and civilians on the front line of battle.”
A Conference of Presidents leadership delegation, led by Richard Stone, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, together with 30 leaders representing a wide spectrum of organizations, landed in Israel on Wednesday.
The group is scheduled to meet with soldiers, civilians, and visit communities affected by Hamas rocket fire. The mission participants also will meet with top government and IDF officials to discuss the latest progress in addressing the attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The RCA instructed its members to hold special classes and lectures in their communities on Wednesday and Thursday “dedicated to the support of the IDF and the State of Israel.”
“In the merit of our increased study of Torah, may we merit the promise recorded in the Talmud, Sotah 21a, that the study of Torah protects and rescues those who engage in it,” said a statement from the three organizations.
A delegation of 20 rabbis from across North America toured areas of southern Israel Tuesday as part of an emergency solidarity mission of the Rabbinical Council of America.
The rabbis paid condolence calls to the families of the three Israelis killed in a rocket attack on an apartment building in Kiryat Malachi.
“Visiting this shiva house was a truly moving experience and allowed us to assure those who lost family members that their deaths were being felt by all of Klal Yisrael,” said Rabbi Doniel Kramer of Brooklyn.
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