Likewise, a huge percentage of the spectators lined up along Fifth Avenue to show their support are conspicuously Orthodox – men wearing kippot and tzitzit and women dressed modestly, the married ones sporting tichels and caps. Many of the spectators are in fact parents, siblings, uncles and aunts of the marchers and they call out to loved ones when their day school or organization marches past.
So for people like Michael Brenner to dismiss the concerns of Torah-observant Jews, without whom the Celebrate Israel parade would be a shell of itself, is as shortsighted as it is unfair.
It’s actually a terrible shame that such a small percentage of Jews living in the tri-state area bother to show up for the Celebrate Israel parade. Maybe if more of them did, Mr. Brenner would have more of a leg to stand on.
Chaim Rich
(Via E-Mail)
Israel Parade Controversy (III)
Reader Michael Brenner is wrong in his assertion that the Celebrate Israel Parade is not a Jewish parade. Our claim to Israel is that God promised the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants. Israel is our land because we are Jews.
Further, the same Torah that records God’s promise to give us the land of Israel also condemns the gay lifestyle.
A true concern for the unity of the Jewish people would dictate that the minority capitulate to the majority, not the other way around.
Josh Greenberger
Brooklyn, NY
Appreciating Jerusalem, Joy Of All The Earth
Beautifully Written
I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the beautifully written “Joy of All the Earth: Meditations on Jerusalem” by Faigie Heiman (op-ed, May 23) which you ran in honor of Yom Yerushalayim.
It is a moving love letter to the magnificent city that has been the focus of our collective dreams and aspirations for thousands of years.
May all of Klal Yisrael treasure the priceless gift Hashem has given us and may we B”H merit a Divine return to our miraculously reunited Holy City speedily in our days.
Naomi Gross
Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel
Moving
I was so moved by Faigie Heiman’s memories and eyewitness account of our beloved Jerusalem. We were blessed to be there last week and experience the Mamilla Mall ourselves.
Lynn Feingold Michalski
Napa, CA
Lyrical
Faigie Heiman’s unusual, lyrical article about Jerusalem is at once poetically written and historically informative.
Thank you to the author
Sarah Shapiro
Jerusalem
Editor’s Note: Sarah Shapiro is an author and editor whose books include “All of Our Lives: An Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Writers,” “A Gift Passed Along: A Woman Looks at the World Around Her,” and “Wish I Were Here: Finding My Way in the Promised Land.” She teaches writing in Israel and the United States.