WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thousands of people withstood chilly temperatures and light rainfall in the nation’s capital on Sunday at a Jewish unity event that spotlighted immense challenges facing Jews in Israel and the diaspora.
The rally at Nationals Park kicked off the Jewish Federations of North America’s three-day General Assembly here. Niv Elis, a spokesperson for JFNA, estimated the crowd size at 5,000 in a ballpark that can hold 41,000 people.
The GA is an annual convention for Jewish leaders and professionals to address current issues; this is the first one held since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel. “Stand Together: Unity, Strength, Resilience” was the rally’s motto.
Entering the stadium in D.C., attendees were offered small black stickers with “401” printed on them, the number of days Israel’s hostages had been held in Gaza. Hostage family members spoke from a massive, temporary stage set up in the outfield, including the mother and brother of Omer Neutra, a 23-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier raised on Long Island, New York, who was captured near his base on Oct. 7.
“It’s been 400 days and I miss him,” Daniel Neutra, Omer’s brother, told the crowd. “I can’t count how many nights I’ve dreamed about him.”
Neutra is among the 101 hostages who remain in Gaza, including seven Americans. About half are believed to still be alive, according to the Jerusalem Post, while 37 are confirmed to be dead, including three of the Americans.
Even as the horrors of Oct. 7, Israel’s ongoing wars and a global spike in antisemitism loomed large over the event, the general mood was one of solidarity and, at times, enthusiasm, optimism and joy. The numbers were much smaller than last November’s March for Israel, which brought about 200,000 people to the National Mall for one of the largest gatherings of Jews in American history.
Sunday’s crowd cheered exuberantly during an address by 20-year-old American wrestler Amit Elor, the daughter of Israelis and a gold medalist at this summer’s Paris Olympics. Elor, who lives in Walnut Creek, spoke about spending summers with her grandmother in Ashkelon, where she trained at a local gym with Israeli wrestlers.
“They welcomed me. They were excited for me. In Israel, I felt truly included,” Elor said.
“What a badass,” a woman near the front of the stage told the person next to her, watching highlights of Elor’s winning bout played on giant screens.
Other members of the Bay Area Jewish community, including a handful of Jewish nonprofit leaders, were present in D.C. and sat together at the event.
Among them were Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, Sarah Levin, executive director of JIMENA, or Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, and Joy Sisisky, CEO of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.
Sisisky, who also came to D.C. a year ago for the March for Israel, said that Sunday’s event felt heartening and unifying in light of the challenges that Bay Area Jews face.
“Sometimes we forget — given everything that’s going on on the local level, whether it’s K-12 or in city councils — it feels really good to come together to celebrate being together, and our unity,” Sisisky said.
Levin, whose Bay Area-based nonprofit advocates for Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews across the country, concurred. “It feels really nice to be in a national collective of Jews who have experienced the same trauma last year,” she said. “To express our unity right now feels really important.”
The rally included Grammy and Emmy Award–winning comedian Tiffany Haddish, who came to the podium with a wide smile and talked about embracing her Jewish heritage, which comes from her father’s side.
“Looking out at you all, all of you beautiful people, I see what I’ve learned over my own journey — that Judaism embraces all of us,” Haddish said to cheers.
American songwriter John Ondrasik, of the alternative rock band Five for Fighting, performed the hits “100 Years” and “Superman.” Ondrasik, who is not Jewish but has been outspoken against antisemitism, said he was transformed by a trip to Israel in April.
About midway through the event, throngs of young people rushed to the front of the stage to see Israeli megastar composer and pianist Idan Raichel.
Attendees also lined up at concession stands for kosher chicken schnitzel and roast turkey sandwiches, as well as soda, beer and popcorn.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog addressed the audience, as did multiple members of Congress and Daniel Shapiro, a Pentagon official who works on Middle East policy. They spoke in between the entertainers and Israeli and American Jews giving personal accounts.
A dance troupe performed an evocative routine about the Nova music festival, where more than 360 people were slaughtered by terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Dancers reached their arms out in desperation, or huddled together, visually representing some of the scenes of the attack captured on cellphone videos.
Coming just days after Donald Trump won the election for U.S. president, the event also carried a bipartisan ethos.
Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who spearheaded widely publicized antisemitism hearings in Congress after Oct. 7, addressed the audience, as did Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan considered by many to be a future star of the party.
Whitmer, who is not Jewish, quoted from the Talmud when speaking about moving forward after a divisive presidential election.
“You are not obligated to complete the work,” she said, “but neither are you free to abandon it.”