Published June 2025
THE GREATEST CELEBRATION OF ALL
I have marched in the “Celebrate Israel” parades for many years. But this year was the most joyous and exuberant of them all. Perhaps the reason is that so many threats to Jewish survival have arisen recently. I would include the brutal murder of the young couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, although that event occurred chronologically after the parade. When the Jewish people and faith are threatened, far from weakening our will to live, we become more determined than ever to survive. That is what I see happening all around us today.
We kept the faith to the Land of Zion and the Almighty kept the faith. We were tested for over 2000 years as no other people had ever been tested, and we were not found wanting. At the same time, our hopes and our prayers were not disappointed. We lived to see with our own eyes the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948. The State of Israel is true. The Bible is true; and the Jewish people is true.
When the State of Israel was established, the United States of America was among the first nations to recognize her. From that moment on, this country has given material and moral aid to Israel, more so than any other nation on the face of the Earth. There were times when Israel stood alone in the United Nations, and only the United States voted with her. On the other hand, Israel, the smallest, and only true democracy in the Middle East, is the best friend of the United States, the largest and only true democracy in the whole wide world.
We give thanks as religious believers to have witnessed the fulfillment of a prophecy.
We give thanks as Jews that our faith has been vindicated.
We give thanks as Americans who have stood by their friends in need, their friends in deed.
This is a great moment to be alive. The rebirth of Israel is the greatest miracle in the entirety of human history.
Rabbi Alvin Kass
Chief Chaplain of the NYPD