I really enjoyed Gary Rosenblatt’s column, “Raining On The Parade” (June 8), in particular because it avoided bashing the people who work so hard every year on the parade, essentially a thankless job given the parameters within which they work.
Here are two ideas to help take the parade to the next level.
Recalling the unifying effect of years of Solidarity Sunday, which brought thousands of people to New York, why not make the Celebrate Israel parade an East Coast celebration? Have buses bring in parade watchers from Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., for example, and other locations from along the eastern seaboard. It should not take away the focus on local celebrations for Israel but complement it.
Bring in kosher food vendors along the park side of Fifth Avenue — this year there was a paucity of them — or have them at the Armory.
Adding to this is an idea to expand the title of the parade to be Celebrate Israel and Jewish pride. The St. Patrick’s Day parade manages to do both — celebrate Ireland and Irish heritage. I think by including the Jewish pride component it could broaden the appeal without taking away anything about our love and devotion to the State of Israel.
There isn’t necessarily any one answer to making the parade a more successful event. But we have to broaden it beyond one that is essentially oriented to kids and parents, and in which so many others have stopped coming.
Manhattan
