Israel Day in New York: festival, parade, concert and Empire State Building

Sunday, May 31, in New York will be held under the flag of solidarity with Israel. On this day there will be a parade, a festival on the pier, and a concert in the park. And in the evening, the Empire State Building will also declare its solidarity with Israel - the building will be illuminated in the colors of the Israeli flag.

The parade - Celebrate Israel Parade - has been held regularly in New York since 1964. This march is the 51st in a row. And the 45th parade was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest event of solidarity with Israel. This record has not been broken since then.

Traditionally, the parade goes along Fifth Avenue: it starts on 11 in the morning on 57 Street and ends at 4 in the afternoon on 74.

This year, for the first time, the parade will open with a race. In the previous few years, the race was significantly longer and took place through the alleys of Central Park in the early morning of the parade day. This year it was decided to combine both of these events. To participate in the race - Celebrate Israel Fun Run - you must register and purchase ticket.

The organizing committee of the parade, created by the Council of Jewish Organizations of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, believes that on this day, Fifth Avenue will host 40,000 - 45,000 people (about 40% of them are schoolchildren). Just a week before the parade above 250, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations registered their participation in the upcoming event. Organizers are reporting that they are preparing to take 800 buses, which will deliver parade participants from neighboring states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

In addition to actually marching, the parade usually attracts a lot of spectators: according to police estimates, they are at least 100,000 people. The order will be provided by the police of the city.

And for the third year in a row, Russian-speaking policemen dressed in full dress uniform escorted a convoy of Russian-speaking demonstrators.

About three dozen brightly decorated floats will represent major Jewish organizations, including the UJA Federations, the American Jewish Committee, and businesses that have provided financial support for the parade. 15 orchestras will march along Fifth Avenue that day, including Scottish bagpipers, Korean drummers, various school musical groups, and African-American dance groups. Russian-speaking Jewish communities also prepared musical numbers: Bukhara, Mountain, Ashkenazi.

Of course, in addition to ordinary demonstrators, celebrities also take part in the parade: athletes, musicians and politicians. This year it will be the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song - Israeli-born American violinist Miri Ben-Ari, basketball players from Maccabi Tel Aviv - Derrick Sharp and David Blue, Minister of Science and Technology and Israeli space Dani Danon and Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, as well as Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

A column of the Russian-speaking community gathers on 55 Street (East 55^th street) between Fifth and Sixth Avenue in 1: 45 pm COJECO (Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations) - one of the leading organizations in New York, coordinating the activities of Russian-speaking Jewish organizations. All those who wish to pass in this column must come to the indicated place at the appointed hour, receive a ball / box / flower, and join the parade. Pre-registration is not required.

The ninth channel of the New York television will be broadcast live parade from 12 to 2 hours of the day.

The Big Concert will begin before the end of the parade on the Central Park summer stage, located on Rumsey Playfield (entrance from Fifth Avenue at 72 Street), at 2: 30 pm The organizers are confident that the concert will take place in any weather and will end at 7: 30 pm

Everyone is welcome for free.

The concert will be attended by renowned musicians and performers from Israel and the USA: Gad Elbaz, Alex Claire, Tal Vaknin, Shloyme Dakhs, Mati Shriqui, Abraham Rosenblum, accompanied by Ruby Harris, Easy Kaifer, Hashi R & Sam Ramras, and Shlomi Aharoni , Broadway Youth Ensemble, Steve Lucas, Haim Kiss, Israel Alliel, Arie Pollack.

The performances of the artists will be followed by the speeches of politicians, and the concert will end with Israeli and American anthems performed by Jerry Markowitz.

At about the same time, from 2: 00 pm to 7: 00 pm in another part of Manhattan - on the 94-m pier (711 12th Ave, New York) will take place Israeli culture festival. 10.000 guests are expected here.

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The festival program includes performances by leading Israeli jazz musicians performing in New York - Nadav Remez, Mika Hari, Yotam Silberstein and Dida Peled, as well as the legendary Israeli pop singer Rita and children's favorite Rinata Gabay.

Those who have never been to Israel will be able to put a note in the improvised Wailing Wall: the festival organizers promise to deliver all these messages to Jerusalem.

The famous Jerusalem bazaar - Shuk Makhane Yehuda will also unfold here. Artists from Israel and local merchants will offer a wide variety of goods, from jewels and Judaic objects to statuettes, paintings and various handicrafts.

There is also a technology pavilion with a presentation of various Israeli innovations, as well as a sports section - basketball players from the Israeli “Makabi” will teach how to score goals and take pictures with their fans.

The famous sculpture “Ahab” (Love) from the Israel Museum will be recreated on the pier's territory - those who wish can take pictures of it and take part in the creation of the wall cloth: the artist Tomer Perez from Los Angeles will paint the wall before everyone’s eyes and invite anyone to co-create who is ready to take up the brush.

Here you can enjoy traditional kosher Israeli food.