Report From the Five Towns Israel Rally - UPDATED

Pictures from this evening's Israel rally in Cedarhurst Park:








I won't deny that the turnout was a bit disappointing, but it was not as sparse as it appears in the pictures - the crowd was spread out all over the park, which is quite large. In addition, today was visiting day for almost every one of the Modern Orthodox sleepaway camps. Factoring that in, and the fact that a somewhat sizable number of locals spend weekends in the Catskills, it was not quite as disappointing as it would have been on an ordinary Sunday - though it was still disappointing. The most personally disappointing to me: I saw almost no one from our Chevrah of friends.

Another part of the rally I found interesting was the interdenominational aspect of the rally. There was an Orthodox Rabbi who spoke, as well as a Reform and a Conservative Rabbi. The Conservative Rabbi mentioned in his speech that this is an issue that all denominations in the Five Towns can agree on, and one that can bring unity to the Five Towns - clearly alluding to the recent rancor in the community. That said, the rally was, to my eyes, attended almost entirely by Orthodox members of the community. I wouldn't minded seeing the issue of support for Israel picked up by some of my non-Orthodox neighbors in a more visible fashion.

Update: A few commenters have correctly pointed out that the turnout for this rally was not that disappointing when the lack of publicity it received is considered. We heard about the rally when we were forwarded an e-mail about it this morning, otherwise we probably would not have known about it at all. When I wrote this post, I did not know that this rally's lack of publicity was universal to the community, rather, I thought the Orthofamily was somehow alone in missing the bulletins. So please take that into account when considering the crowd.