Over three thousand demonstrators recently converged on Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn to show support of Israel and her terror-beleaguered citizens. Rep. Anthony Weiner, Curtis Sliwa of WABC (770 AM), State. Sen. Carl Kruger, City Councilman Mike Nelson and Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz joined the marchers and offered words of support.
FREE sponsored the event in order to “make it clear to the citizens and government of Israel, and to the American media, that Russian Jews, who suffered terribly under Soviet oppression, are ardently opposed to any compromise in the security of the Jewish homeland,” said Rabbi Hershel Okunov, Vice-President of FREE.
“The Russian-speaking community has grown more and more politically active as it has matured,” said Leonard Glickman, President of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). “They are no longer content to stay on the sidelines.” Galina Gurov, an immigrant from Minsk, Belarus, also addressed the crowd regarding her brother Arkady, 38, father of four, who was killed in the Purim terrorist shooting in Jerusalem. “The turnout is great,” said Eli Reznikov, 30, a computer programmer born in St. Petersburg and now living in Brooklyn. “We need more demonstrations like this.”
The march began at the permanent public menorah display on Brighton Beach Avenue, and continued to the FREE Center of Brighton Beach. Based on the Talmudic dictum that the donning of tefillin strikes fear in the hearts of Jew-haters, yeshiva student volunteers made a special effort to wrap tefillin with as many participants as possible. Further, in line with the Chasidic philosophy that the spiritual deeds of Jews in one place aid and strengthen Jews elsewhere, participants were encouraged to recite Shema and observe as many mitzvos as possible.
