There are moments when a people reveal themselves not through speeches or declarations, but through the simple act of showing up.

This year’s Israel Day Parade in New York was one of them.

For a few hours, Fifth Avenue became a river of blue and white stretching through the heart of Manhattan. Families, students, veterans, rabbis, Israelis, Americans and countless friends of Israel filled the avenue with an energy that was impossible to ignore. There was pride, certainly. Relief too. Above all, there was hope.

After months of war, grief and relentless hostility directed at Israel and Jewish communities around the world, there was something deeply moving about watching thousands of people choose celebration.

The Jewish people have never enjoyed the luxury of forgetting. Our history follows us wherever we go. Expulsions, persecutions, pogroms, camps and wars are not distant chapters locked away in textbooks. They remain part of a collective memory carried from one generation to the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)