{"id":108605,"date":"2023-11-16T18:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=108605"},"modified":"2023-11-16T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T14:25:46","slug":"22-00-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=108605","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Israel and the Jewish People Are Not Going Anywhere\u2019: Celebrities Show Support at Historic DC Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\u2018Israel and the Jewish People Are Not Going Anywhere\u2019: Celebrities Show Support at Historic DC Rally<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Debra Messing speaking at the \u201cMarch for Israel\u201d rally in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 2023. Photo: Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Celebrities in attendance at the\u00a0historic pro-Israel rally<\/a>\u00a0in Washington, DC, on Tuesday urged the crowd of nearly 300,000 people to remain steadfast, resilient, and even \u201cdisruptive\u201d in their support for the Jewish state, as it continues to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip and seeks to rescue the hostages taken from Israel by the terrorist organization on Oct. 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cMarch for Israel<\/a>\u201d rally in the US capital \u2014 which made history for being both the largest ever pro-Israel gathering and the largest Jewish gathering in US history \u2014 was organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America. Organizers said over 290,000 people attended and 250,000 others tuned in via livestream. The event was meant to showcase the American people\u2019s support for Israel and the return of the hostages taken by Hamas, as well as their condemnation of rising antisemitism in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jewish actress and former\u00a0Will & Grace<\/em>\u00a0star Debra Messing was one of the celebrities in attendance who\u00a0addressed<\/a>\u00a0the crowd. She began by saying, \u201cI know you are in pain. I know you are afraid. I know you feel alone and abandoned by people you thought were your friends. I know you feel misunderstood and maligned. I know because I do, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking out at all of us today, also know that we are not alone because we have each other,\u201d she added. Messing talked about the \u201ctsunami of hate\u201d and\u00a0rise in antisemitism<\/a>\u00a0that has impacted Jews around the world since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, as well as the \u201cdeafening silence\u201d from much of the international community in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre attacks, in which Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 240 others as hostages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe see clearly now. We see naked, virulent Jew-hatred being disguised as a noble call for liberation. And we reject it,\u201d Messing said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does Israel\u2019s defense in response to a terrorist attack have to do with an elderly Jewish man in California killed for holding an Israeli flag?\u201d she asked, referring to the\u00a0death of 69-year-old Paul Kessler<\/a>\u00a0at a rally near Los Angeles earlier this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is madness. This is terrorism,\u201d Messing noted. \u201cBut we will win. We always have. We are strong, resilient, and devoted. And we will not lose ourselves. We will worry for our global Jewish family and also hurt for the innocent Palestinians used as human shields by Hamas. We will work to eviscerate Hamas and also pray for a free and flourishing Gaza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Messing\u2019s speech focused largely on the 240 hostages taken by Hamas terrorists and she held a moment of silence for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will remember and work for the release of the 240 hostages as well as for the safety of the 2.2 million Gazans also held hostage by Hamas,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will pray for the success of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] in a war Israel did not start and did not want, but a war Israel will win because we must. Those who hate us deny our humanity and right to exist. No matter. We know who we are. We know that even in \u2014 especially in \u2013 darkness, we stand united, proud, resolute \u2026 we too will prevail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Messing noted that children and elderly were among the hostages in Gaza. \u201cWe cannot allow the world to move on,\u201d she said. \u201cWe must not rest until these families are made whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cMarch for Israel\u201d \u00a0event also featured performances by Israeli singers Omer Adam and Ishay Ribo, Jewish reggae singer and rapper Matisyahu, and the Maccabeats acapella group.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sporting two necklaces with the Star of David, Jewish actor Michael Rapaport briefly addressed the crowd and told the young people in the audience to \u201c\u2018stay strong, sane, and disruptive\u201d before he introduced two college students who discussed the rise of antisemitism taking place on their college campuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rapaport also called for the immediate return of the hostages taken by Hamas and said \u201cthere cannot be a ceasefire until the hostages are home.\u201d He declared, \u201cI have never felt this prideful to be Jewish in my life. It\u2019s been a crazy time but Jewish people around the world, we have seen it all. We have heard it all. Israel is not going anywhere. Jewish people are not going anywhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Broadway star Tova Feldshuh talked to the crowd about not wanting to change her Hebrew name to a more Western one in order to advance her career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand here in the tens of thousands, and usually even if you have 10 Jews you have 10,000 opinions. But today, we stand in the thousands to say\u00a0Am Yisrael chai<\/em>, \u2018the people of Israel live,’\u201d said the Israel Peace Medal recipient, who played former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the play\u00a0Golda\u2019s Balcony.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe stand here firm against global antisemitism. We stand firm in confrontation with antisemitism here in these United States. We stand here to say, \u2018Enough.\u2019 We are now engaged in a battle reaching beyond any Arab-Israeli conflict. We are engaged in a battle fighting for a civilized world. We stand here knowing that the halls of our universities should be havens of enlightenment and moral clarity, and not places where Jewish students, Jewish faculty, or any minority feels outcast and afraid of being physically abused.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Feldshuh said that although she is short, she stands \u201ctall for the almost 200 innocent citizens, almost 200 Israeli children of Israel who are now orphaned, for the 240 innocent citizens of Israel still held in captivity by Hamas, for the kidnapped babies, and the Holocaust survivors abducted and hidden somewhere in Gaza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She also told college and university presidents that remaining silent as antisemitic incidents take place on their campuses is equal to complicity. She quoted Jewish physicist Albert Einstein who said, \u201cThe world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them and do nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Others who spoke at the rally included Natan Sharansky, CNN host Van Jones, US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), US Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), American actor and comedian Brett Clifford Gelman, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yasmine Pahlavi, who is married to Reza Pahlavi \u2014 the exiled crown prince of Iran and son of Iran\u2019s last Shah \u2014 also attended the rally,\u00a0carrying an Israeli flag<\/a>\u00a0and the previous national flag of Iran \u2014 which was changed after the 1979 Islamic revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2018Israel and the Jewish People Are Not Going Anywhere\u2019: Celebrities Show Support at Historic DC Rally Shiryn Ghermezian Debra Messing speaking at the \u201cMarch for Israel\u201d rally in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 2023. Photo: Screenshot Celebrities in attendance at the\u00a0historic pro-Israel rally\u00a0in Washington, DC, on Tuesday urged the crowd of nearly 300,000 people to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108631,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108605\/revisions\/108631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}