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Planes, trains and bus caravans: Ahead of mass pro-Israel rally, tens of thousands of Jews are descending on Washington

(JTA) — On Monday morning, Margie Maidman boarded a caravan of 10 buses from Boston to Washington, D.C., headed to a massive demonstration in support of Israel and against antisemitism.

The journey is eight hours each way, and most of the people on her bus, like her, are in their 60s and 70s. It isn’t the first time she’s gone to the National Mall to attend a mass rally. In 1987, she was one of more than 200,000 people to descend on Washington for another cause trumpeted by a wide range of Jewish activists: advocacy for Jews in the Soviet Union.

“The last time I did something like this was in the late 1980s,” Maidman, whose transport is organized by her local Jewish federation, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Aside from maybe women’s rights in Boston or something, I have not really been part of something on this scale.”

Tuesday’s march, organized by a big tent of pro-Israel and Jewish groups — including the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — is expected to draw crowds in the tens of thousands. It’s attracting attendees who have long been active in local Jewish groups as well as those who aren’t familiar with Jewish organizational life but feel called to trumpet the rally’s message.

Buses and flights are being organized by local Jewish federations, schools, synagogues and Jewish community centers. Other Jewish and Israeli expatriate groups are bringing delegations of their own. Still others are driving, flying or riding to D.C. on their own. Organizers asked for a permit for 60,000 people to gather, though Jewish leaders hope for more than that to come. A pro-Israel rally in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada — a Palestinian uprising that included a spree of terrorist attacks and clashes with Israeli police — brought more than 100,000 people to the capital.

“I have to do this, because I have to be there for the Jewish people,” Danielle Werchowsky, a resident of Arlington, Virginia, told JTA. “I feel very strongly about that, that we have to show solidarity because we’re getting so many of the messages from the pro-Palestinian big marches. And I don’t want the world to think that those voices are the only ones that count.”

Werchowsky, the mother of a college student, is one of thousands of American Jews who has become increasingly active in pro-Israel advocacy and efforts to fight antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. She is a member of multiple online activist groups, including Mothers Against College Antisemitism, the Facebook group that began following the attack that now has nearly 50,000 members. And she started her own local group, Arlington Parents Against Antisemitism.

As civilian casualties have mounted in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, mass demonstrations across the world have condemned Israel and called for a ceasefire. In response, attendees told JTA they felt an imperative to show up and make a large showing of their own — changing their work schedules, overcoming their fears of being in large crowds and in some cases deciding to bring their children with them to Washington.

“I’m kind of uncomfortable being in large crowds of Jews. I am,” Werchowsky said. “I’m going against my comfort zone by going, honestly, but I’m doing it. If I don’t do it now, why should I expect — you know that old saying: if not me, who?”

Tomer Shani, an Israeli lawyer who has lived in New York for more than four years, is bringing his sons Jonathan and Ethan to the march. They will be traveling on a bus chartered by UnXeptable, an Israeli expatriate group that previously protested the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul but which pivoted after Oct. 7 to organizing relief efforts for Israel.

“We’ve been fighting for the most important thing, which was our democracy, and now we’re fighting for our very existence,” Shani said.

“I think desperate times call for desperate [measures] and traveling to D.C. seems to be not that desperate,” he added. “It’s the little we can do from here to support our people back in Israel and actually the whole western civilization, as far as I’m concerned, in my humble opinion.”

Maidman said that a highlight of the eight-hour bus ride was seeing familiar faces from the Boston area. Like other attendees, she’s not only hoping to make a political statement. During what can feel like an isolating moment, she’s also excited to rally among tens of thousands of other American Jews.

“I even cheer up a little with the idea of just being with so many Jews who care so much about Israel,” Maidman said. “I think the purpose of this march is not simply to make a statement to support Israel, but to support Jews in this country and to let people know: we are here and we matter.”


The post Planes, trains and bus caravans: Ahead of mass pro-Israel rally, tens of thousands of Jews are descending on Washington appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire

Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.

It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.

The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.

“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”

“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.

The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”

Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.

“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”

Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”

The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting

FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.

The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.

“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.

The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’

FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.

US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.

“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.

“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.

“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.

The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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