Everyone is complaining that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani boycotted the Israel Day Parade. The problem, however, is that Mamdani did exactly what 95 percent of Jews in the New York Metropolitan Area did: stayed away from the parade! How many Jews living in Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, Far Rockaway, Flatbush, Lakewood, and Passaic attended the parade? Actually, there’s no need to even go to those neighborhoods. How many people from what are known as the Zionistic towns went to the parade? Outside of the parents who went to see their kids marching, how many Jews went to Fifth Avenue from Kew Gardens Hills, the Five Towns, New Rochelle, West Hempstead, Teaneck, and Englewood? Why do we insist on pointing the finger at Mamdani when Goldberg, Cohen, Shamilov, Sharabi, and Dweck stayed away?
Let me make this perfectly clear: If you are expecting love to come from Ugandan-born Zohran Mamdani, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of failure. Include on that list former President Barack Obama, actor Mel Gibson, political commentator Tucker Carlson, rapper Kanye West, and the entire Black Lives Matter movement. They are not to blame! They are non-factors – not important at all, and nothing more than a piece of dust on the world stage. Do not pay any attention to them. Pay attention only to yourselves and how you feel about the State of Israel.
Does your shul say the prayer for the State of Israel on Shabbos? Please don’t embarrass yourself by telling me that your shul prays for the IDF soldiers – of course they do! How can one not pray when a Jew’s life is in danger? I am not asking that. I am asking whether your shul prays for the growth and success of Medinat Yisrael. Fewer than ten percent of all shuls in the New York/New Jersey area say this prayer.
Did you celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim? A dear friend of mine from Lawrence told me that the shuls in the Five Towns held a community event in honor of Yom Yerushalayim. He went and was one of 50 people in attendance, and the average age of those 50 people was 70 years old. Where were the 30- and 40-year-olds? I guarantee you that if it had been “A Night to Taste Whiskey,” the place would have been packed, but “A Night to Honor Yom Yerushalayim”? A couple of old guys with nothing better to do.
Dearest friends: Stop blaming people whom history will forget less than 30 seconds after they are gone. Trust me that Mamdani is not the problem, and Michael Bloomberg is not the solution. The answer lies in what you see as the Jewish dream. Is the modern State of Israel – with all its limitations – the beginning of the Redemption or an accident that has nothing to do with Hashem? Make sure you answer that question correctly, and then get MAD: Make A Difference in building, settling, and fighting for Eretz Yisrael – and start voting for the next mayor of Netanya, or Ra’anana, or Beit Shemesh, and not New York!
Am Yisrael Chai!
Shmuel Sackett is a 100% product of Queens. He was born in Middle Village and moved to KGH shortly before his bar-mitzvah. He graduated from YCQ (1975) and YHSQ (1979). He was Havurat Yisrael’s first Youth Director (4 years) and started the first 2 NCSY chapters in Queens. Shmuel made aliyah in 1990 and co-founded Manhigut Yehudit, together with Moshe Feiglin. His website is www.JewishIsrael.org Sackett is married with 6 children and 4 grandchildren. He lives in Herziliya Pituach.