While the Sunday, July 23 San Francisco solidarity rally was the largest so far in the Bay Area, it was far from the only gathering of Israel supporters in the area.
A number of pro-Israel events in every corner of the Bay Area have drawn thousands of supporters, young and old.
In Marin on July 20 around 350 people gathered at Tiburon’s Congregation Kol Shofar for an “emergency community meeting” on Israel. Speakers included Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council; the Rev. Doug Huneke, the pastor of Tiburon’s Westminster Presbyterian Church and a longtime Israel supporter; and Omer Caspi, the deputy consul general of Israel.
“I think people were really appreciative of the fact that there was widespread support for Israel,” said Mark Levy, Kol Shofar’s executive director.
“People were relieved to see we have security here [in Marin] and it was fairly low key.”
On Sunday, July 23 around 400 people rallied in downtown San Jose at the Circle of Palms in support of Israel. A quartet of area rabbis — Melanie Aron, Eitan Julius, Dana Magat and Daniel Pressman — addressed the crowd.
One day later, at Los Altos Hills’ Congregation Beth Am, roughly 600 people crowded the synagogue’s sanctuary. Caspi — a very busy man with Consul General David Akov in Israel — spoke, as did Zack Bodner, regional director of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.
“Some people had kids that were in Israel or were supposed to go to Israel, so I think they really needed the connection to the community,” said Karen Stiller, the JCRC’s Peninsula director.
On Tuesday, July 25 about 300 attended a solidarity gathering at San Mateo’s Peninsula Temple Beth El. Kahn addressed the crowd, as did two Israeli graduate students at Stanford, Binyamin Blum and Yotam Margalit. Both served in the Lebanon War as young men.
Several other events were scheduled to take place. On Wednesday, July 26, Oakland’s Temple Sinai was slated to hold an event. With Caspi speaking in Portland that night, the consulate tapped Michal Michlin-Friedlander for the event. She is the consulate’s director of academic affairs, a former attorney with Israel’s Ministry of Justice, and her immediate family lives in Haifa. Rob Ruby, the vice president of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, was scheduled to speak about his experiences in Israel on a recent federation mission.
On Thursday night, July 27, the East Bay was slated to host a second solidarity gathering at Lafayette’s Temple Isaiah. Among the speakers scheduled were Josh Newman and Miriam Moses, teens recently returned from the Let’s Go: Israel trip.
Finally, on Wednesday, July 26, an event was scheduled to be held at Petaluma’s Congregation B’nai Israel.