Every Sunday, New Yorkers gather in Central Park calling for the immediate release of the 134 hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza. The March 10 rally and march highlighted the sad milestone of over 150 days of the hostages’ captivity.
Organized by the Hostage Families Forum and many partnering organizations including UJA and JCRC, the rally was much larger than prior Sunday gatherings, with more than 3,000 people gathering at Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell. Many traveled to the rally from outside the city, such as Sharon Katz from West Hempstead, who stated that “although there are many rallies in the New York area, it felt good to come together as one.”
Present at the rally were hostage families, elected officials, and rabbis, many of whom addressed the crowd.
Of note, Shany Granot of the Hostage Families Forum pointed out that among the sea of Israeli flags in the crowd were flags of over 20 different nationalities, representing the nationalities of the hostages. “This is a global catastrophe,” she said, “and we demand from world leaders to step up because the citizens of the world have been taken hostage.”
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz decried the lack of media coverage of the brutality of October 7th and the hostages’ captivity, rhetorically asking the media outlets present: “Why aren’t we hearing about that?”
City Council member Eric Dinowitz noted the dramatically increasing rates of antisemitism, stating: “They are chanting slogans and holding up signs that say ‘resistance is justified and resistance by any means necessary.’” While standing on the stage directly above a large hostage poster of 1-year old Kfir Bibas, Dinowitz cried out: “Kidnapping our babies is not resistance. It’s a war crime!”
(Credit: Judith Falk)
Released hostage Karen Munder, whose father, Avraham, is still being held hostage, bravely addressed the crowd, demanding that we must bring the hostages home because “every minute there is hell.”
Rabbi Yosie Levine of The Jewish Center gave a message of hope, invoking the story of Purim, which is soon approaching. The rabbi noted that Esther derived strength to save her people when the Jews of the land came together in solidarity. “Lech knos et kol haYehudim,” said Esther. “Go and gather all of the Jews.” Drawing an analogy to present times, Rabbi Levine remarked on how we, too, have united after October 7.
“The holiday of Purim reminds us that sometimes the story of our people can turn in the most unexpected way, in an instant, Vehachodesh asher nehefach lachem mayagon lasimcha, umavel layom tov,” Rabbi Levine concluded, with the hope that “all the hostages come home safely and quickly and may our next gathering turn into a day of our celebration.”
(Credit: Judith Falk)
Judith Falk is the creator of the Upper West Side Shtetl Facebook Group. You can follow her on instagram @upperwestsideshtetl. She is a lawyer by day and a former legal reporter
