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It may have lacked the pomp and circumstance of some other gay rights marches, but local Jewish community members who attended Sunday's Millennium March on Washington said there was plenty of substance to make up for the lack of sizzle.

Tennis star Martina Navratilova, comedian Ellen DeGeneres and DeGeneres' partner, actress Anne Heche, spoke at the rally, where attendance reports ranged widely from 250,000 to one million.

Tony Harris, who lives in San Francisco, where he attends Reform Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, said the rally was the first gay march in which he's participated.

"I only came out in 1993, so I missed a lot of the other national events," said Harris, who attended the rally with his partner, Mark Gershman. "But I felt that this event was exceptionally inclusive — for one thing, it was evenly divided between men and women, which I found refreshing."

When asked about the high level of corporate sponsorship at the event — which contributed to a surprisingly low turnout from the Bay Area gay community — Harris was nonplused.

"The fact is, if you have 500,00 people there, somebody's got to foot the bill," Harris said. "You've got to pay for the police, for amenities, and for other logistics. But I thought it was very tastefully done."

In keeping with the spirit of inclusiveness, Harris added, "there was a lot of focus on the issue of hate crimes — and not just on issues affecting the gay community."

He said the families of two hate-crime victims spoke at the rally: those of Joseph Ileto, the Filipino-American postal worker who was slain last summer near the scene of the Los Angeles-area Jewish Community Center, and James Byrd Jr., the African-American dragged to his death in Texas behind a pick-up truck two years ago.

Additionally, the rally had a strong family presence, according to Harris.

"I'd like to have a family some day," he said. "So it's good to see other gay couples successfully dealing with children — I found that very inspiring."

"Inspirational" was the adjective Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman also used in describing the event.

Litman, the education rabbi at Berkeley's Congregation Beth El, and a board member of the march, said the nation's capital was a fitting backdrop.

"I felt a real sense of awe and mission being there," said Litman, who presided over a mass commitment ceremony at the rally.

"I spoke to same-gender couples who have been together for over 40 years," she added, "and they're married in God's eyes, but not in the eyes in U.S. government."

Litman, who brought along her two children, ages 9 and 12,, also was pleased at the family turn-out.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum hosted several events over the weekend, according to Litman, including an appearance by Gad Beck, a gay German Jew who fought in the underground movement against the Nazis.

"The Holocaust is, in many ways, a model for the marginalization of all people," said Litman, "and its lessons were even more profound last weekend.

Additionally, Litman and her family (as well as Harris) attended a pre-rally service at Bet Mishpachah, a predominately gay Washington synagogue.

"What I really took home with me," Litman said, "was the experience of fighting for fundamental human rights in a city full of monuments which express the primacy of liberation. Being at the rally under the gaze of Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was remarkable."