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New York Jews, grappling with surging antisemitism, are bolstered by massive pro-Israel rally
(New York Jewish Week) — Congregants lined up in the morning cold outside the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the Upper West Side as the dawn broke Tuesday. Many of them held signs in support of Israel as well as supplies for the long day ahead as they boarded a large tour bus headed for Washington, D.C..
“This is an important act of unity and solidarity,” Rabbi Dalia Samansky told the passengers as the bus slowly made its way toward the March for Israel rally at the National Mall, as tens of thousands of other Jews from around the country headed toward the event. The Reform synagogue’s cantor, Daniel Singer, then played a rendition of “Tefilat haderech,” or “A prayer for the road,” on an acoustic guitar.
The congregants said they were inspired to make the long, trafficky trip to the rally to support the hostages held by Hamas, publicly back Israel, and take a stand against antisemitism as anti-Jewish discrimination surges in New York and elsewhere amid the fallout from the war. After event organizers announced a historic turnout of nearly 300,000 people at the rally, the participants said the event had bolstered their spirits and made a powerful statement in support of Jewish solidarity and Israel’s cause.
The group of marchers from Stephen Wise included synagogue members, some of their friends and family, and others who occasionally attend services. The contingent ranged in age from high schoolers to the elderly, and included several family groups. The synagogue’s chief rabbi, Ammiel Hirsch, is in Israel on a trip.
“I’m joining because I see the scary rise of antisemitism and I’ve been talking to people, and it’s just heartbreaking,” said Maxine Albert, a Manhattanite who sometimes attends services at the synagogue. “People are telling me that they’re not wearing anything that identifies them as Jewish.”
“It scares me and I want to stand up,” she added.
Samansky said the rally came as many congregants felt increasing pressure over their support for Israel, as many activists clamor for Israel to accept a ceasefire with Hamas and the memory of the terror group’s Oct. 7 atrocities fade from the public discourse. Many of the congregants also felt isolated and abandoned by their former allies on the left due to the lack of a condemnation for antisemitism, Samansky added.
“A lot of our congregants are really struggling with their own place in the world, their own place in the social justice world that they have believed and been a part of for so long, while also dealing with their fear of being Jewish right now,” she said. “More and more congregants are saying, ‘Should I wear my star? Should I have my mezuzah be so prominent?’”
“It’s so important to be at this [rally] to say we have a right to be Jewish, we have a right to be proud to be Jewish, we have a right to support Israel, and Israel has a right to be proud and to defend itself,” she said.
Several congregants said that the defaced and ripped up hostage posters around New York City were a reminder of the hostility around them, and some compared the tense atmosphere in the city to the rising antisemitism in prewar Europe. A number of attendees also cited the hostile atmosphere on college campuses as a worrying harbinger for the future.
“When I was growing up, it was [shortly] after the Holocaust, so antisemitism wasn’t considered to be mainstream. It had to be hidden,” said Joyce Goldwyn-Spencer. Now, she said, “so much time has passed and they have the excuse of using Israel, blaming Israel.”
“I think there is a sense of awakening,” said congregant Debra Warren, saying some U.S. Jews had become aware of “the Jew hatred that’s probably been simmering under the surface that’s now bubbled above the surface.”
The congregants firmly backed Israel’s need to defeat Hamas while mourning the Palestinian victims, and blamed much of the toxic discourse surrounding the conflict on a lack of nuance in the conversation and poor understanding of the complex issues at play in the region.
After the five-hour drive, the synagogue’s bus pulled into a parking lot at FedEx Field in North Englewood, Maryland, some nine miles east of the National Mall. The congregants spilled onto the asphalt to join throngs of other Jews and allies; the Stephen Wise group mostly broke apart as they mixed in with the thousands who made their way to the rally via shuttle, subway, taxi and on foot.
The masses in attendance at the rally included secular Jews and non-Jews, Haredim, school groups in matching shirts and Israelis navigating the crowds in Hebrew. Youths from the Chabad movement manned a tent, putting tefillin on passersby and handing out yellow balloons to high schoolers as young men wearing kippot danced in a circle nearby. Many in the crowd, framed on the lawn between the White House and the Washington Monument, carried U.S. and Israeli flags and photos of hostages. The crowd fell silent as families of the captives spoke, with some in the audience breaking into tears.
The crowd size — likely the largest Jewish gathering in U.S. history — was a powerful message for the congregation. “That’s what we needed, to make it really significant and historic,” Goldwyn-Spencer said.
Several congregants also said the support from public officials and non-Jews inspired confidence.
“It was exciting and beautiful to see Jews coming together,” Warren said, adding that the wide range of groups at the rally was affirming. “I think the hardest part has been the sense of feeling alone. As Jews, we have each other.”
“I never thought that we would need to do this but the time is now so I’m glad to be there,” said congregant Michael Sherman, adding that he was cheered by “Jews putting arms around each other, helping each other — secular, Orthodox.”
On the way back to the parking lot, young Israelis and Haredim alighted on the subway together as a group of high schoolers sang. The Stephen Wise delegation boarded the bus back to New York, and the cantor, Singer, played “Oseh Shalom” as two teenagers passed out bags of chocolate chip cookies to the weary congregants.
“This isn’t 1939. We’re not going to stay silent in the face of antisemitism. We are going to stand up, we are going to protect ourselves and be proud of who we are,” Samansky said. “We’re determined to continue speaking out and being present and reminding the world that we are here and we have the right to be here.”
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The post New York Jews, grappling with surging antisemitism, are bolstered by massive pro-Israel rally appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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