Camels on fifth Avenue

Lori Yoffe and Henry Levy

The Israel Day Parade

Pt 1: Camels on Fifth Celebrate Israel Parade 2025

Literally, camels were joined by nearly 50,000 marchers, 35 floats, over 15 billboard and LED trucks, 10 marching bands and over 200 marching groups as they participated in the annual Israel Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, besides those spectating and watching on television and livestream world wide. This year’s parade theme was Hatikvah (hope).

The parade was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council that did a masterful job coordinating the largest group of marchers in memory, while working with the NYPD to keep everyone safe.

There were many banners and posters to bring the hostages home including participants from hostage families. Tens of thousands of exuberant marchers from Jewish day schools, synagogues, youth groups, first responders, community organizations, political leaders and magnificent non-Jewish supporters of Israel were waving flags, smiling, singing, dancing and having a great time.

Quaker City String Band of Philly Mummers Association

One of the many groups remembering those still held hostage.

Chai Riders

Pt 2: Greater Safety or More Spectators?

By Henry Levy

According to estimates, a record number of people marching, paraded up Fifth Avenue, from 62nd to 74th Streets to what appeared to be one of the smallest group of spectators in many years, on Sunday, May 18, 2025 for the Celebrate Israel Parade, now known as Israel Day on Fifth.

This was done by design.

“Safety First” was the main concern of the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council), the parade organizers, some of the marching organizations, and especially the NYPD. With so many recent anti-Israel protests, verbal and physical assaults against Jewish New Yorkers, and continued incidents on college campuses targeting Jews, those concerns were well founded. In addition, the ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents reported a 360% increase in such incidents in the 3 months following October 7, 2023 and further increases in since then.

So, this year metal detectors were used to screen all attendees along with drones, cameras, canine units, counter-terrorism specialists, and officers on horseback, on the streets and at the parade. There were no incidents reported and some who wished to protest were kept far from the parade area. That was the good news.

One side of Fifth Avenue allowed no spectators, except for the Reviewing Stand. Access to the parade was through only 5 entry points on Madison Avenue. There was no access from Central Park. Police barricades were much closer together drastically reducing the space where spectators could stand. The parade route had been shortened these last years, so that 9 blocks worth of people lining up to see the marchers were eliminated (it used to be from 57th to 79th Streets). It was a grueling and slow process to pass through the metal detectors with people backed up for long periods. Instead of huge crowds of attendees, which boasted 100,000 to 750,000 for a number of years, estimates for this parade was in the tens of thousands with those actually at the parade saying it was far less than that. That was the bad news.

The Salute to Israel Parade is the day when Israel can and must shine. It is a day to control the narrative about Israel and showcase Israel’s humanity, its scientific and life-saving medical achievements and so much more. It is a five-hour commercial promoting the country and its values.

A huge number of people that could have seen this were denied the opportunity.

Bring them home!

Ambassador Ofir Akunis, Consul General of Israel in New York float

Start of parade with Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon and parade organizers, Mark Treyger, President of the JCRC with the support of Eric Goldstein, President of UJA-Federation and others.

Shrinking the attendance of parade spectators can very easily be viewed as a show of weakness and fear at a time when Israel’s enemies must see strength and courage.

The parade was not promoted as much as it could have been in the general media, as well as in some Jewish media, which likely resulted in it having a lower profile than usual and in keeping the crowds lower than they could have been.

Endless groups of marchers supporting Israel

Dragons for Israel

Gilad Erdan leading the American Friends of Magen David Adom contingent

Was the trade-off of safety for less spectators worth it?

Was it, and is it, the right way to go for this event and for all future Jewish and Israeli events?

Was this an instance of letting Israel haters win?

Or, was opting for greater security the key to making certain that people had the best and most meaningful celebratory event possible?

What do you think?

By the way, will Macy’s and the NYPD shrink the Thanksgiving Day Parade to ensure greater safety at the expense of denying people the pleasure of celebrating a joyous occasion in person?