Shocking exactly no one, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not attend the city’s Israel Day parade. If a politician refuses to attend the cultural celebration of a minority group, the normal thing to think is, wow, what a bigot. Here, it’s more complicated, because the thing he didn’t attend is, yes, a major annual Jewish gathering with tens of thousands of attendees, but is neither called that nor solely functioning as one. It is indeed an Israel Day event, complete with Israeli politicians. And it is not pro-Israel in a nuanced, ambivalent, ‘I think the state should exist but hate Netanyahu’ sense, even if that doubtless describes the mindset of some participants. It’s the full deal. Mamdani nevertheless supported, per the AP, “a robust police presence” at the parade, suggesting events of its kind now exist not as joyous festivals to which outsider passersby might be drawn for the fun, and rather as bullseyes.  

Toronto’s UJA Walk With Israel, held June 7 this year, is a similar event. It takes place at the centre of the city’s Jewish community, at quite a remove from downtown, whereas New York’s is on 5th Avenue, the city’s main parade drag. But the most important distinction is that Toronto’s is a proportionally larger communal draw, the biggest in Canada. It is not the only significant Jewish event in Toronto—there’s also the Ashkenaz Festival—but it’s the big, mainstream one. As with virtually all such events, the Walk With Israel is discussed largely in terms of security.  

Some Jews themselves experience some ambivalence over the fact that the Jewish event is an Israel event. I know I do, despite not often being confused for Mayor Mamdani. I think it’s appropriate that Israel play the significant symbolic role it does for so many Jews worldwide. Appropriate both at an abstract level, and when you think about the environments where Jews today, as a practical matter, feel at home. Having already addressed the former, I will now speak to the latter: I have been to Israel Day parades (near-inevitable, as they are very near where I grew up in Manhattan) and Walks With Israel (where I have helped staff The CJN’s booth). I have also been to Roncesvalles Polish Festivals, which are lovely, but which have driven home for me that while my ancestors may hail from that part of the world geographically, and while the potato pancakes sold sure look familiar, Polish I’m not.

But it is weird for something that is ‘the big Jewish event’ to be, above all else, an Israel event. Jewish and Israeli are not interchangeable. Israel is not a mere symbol, ala St. Patrick’s Day, where one cultural artifact........

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