With a colorful parade through the streets of New York, 10,000 Jewish students from universities, colleges and high schools in the New York area celebrated Israel’s 17th anniversary today, culminating the festivities with an outdoor rally in Central Park as part of their “Salute to Israel.” More than 20,000 watched the parade.
Carrying American and Israeli flags, students danced and sang as they marched to their culminating Central Park parade ground where they released 17 white doves, symbolic of world peace, and participated in prayers for peace. The students presented a Torah scroll to the State of Israel to Ambassador Katriel Katz, Israel’s Consul-General in New York. A taped greeting was broadcast during the rally from Israel’s President Zalman Shazar, New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner addressed the meeting and called for a prayer for peace for Israel.
The color guard heading the parade with hundreds of American and Israeli flags was composed of representatives of veterans of the Jewish Legion, the Jewish volunteers who fought in the Middle East with the British Army during World War I; veterans of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948-49; and a group of participants in the “illegal” immigration to Palestine during the years immediately preceding the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
Among the marchers were students from many Jewish religious and youth groups in the New York metropolitan area, including holders of the Jewish National Fund’s “Jerusalem Banner.” There were also youth groups from the so-called “Black Jewish” community, and members of ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican youth organization.
The event was sponsored by the American Zionist Youth Foundation; the education and cultural department of the Jewish Agency, as well as the Agency’s Torah education and youth and education departments, the Jewish Education Committee, and the youth and education department of the Jewish National Fund. Today’s parade and Central Park rally were the beginning of a week’s celebration of Israel’s 17th anniversary to be observed here, and around the entire United States, in many forms.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
