JTA — The annual Israel Day on Fifth Parade is almost upon us, as are the annual arguments about it.

This year, many Jews are furious that Mayor Mamdani will likely skip the event, despite having marched in other groups’ parades. Others are waiting, anxious, to see which extremist Israeli ministers will show up to mug for the cameras. Protesters are presumably planning disruptions, and the police are preparing to prevent any such disruptions.

But these concerns miss the real problem with the Israel Day Parade: It has become a litmus test, pressuring Jews essentially to sign on to the Israeli government’s agenda in order to participate in mainstream communal Jewish life, while also reducing New York Jews to a single aspect of Jewish identity, namely, a connection to another country. Rather than unite New York Jews, it doubles down on the most politicized and contentious issue dividing Jewish communities.

The Israel parade began in 1964 as a demonstration of support for the young, and still seemingly fragile, country. I can understand why New York Jewish leaders have held fast to this tradition. Other major ethnic groups in New York — Italians, Greeks, Irish, Dominicans, Koreans and more — all get parades tied in part to their country of origin. It might make sense that the Jewish parade, too, should celebrate a state. At a moment when many Jewish New Yorkers are worried about the safety of family and friends in Israel, and in a moment of increased antisemitic violence and anti-Israel sentiment, Jewish organizations may feel the need to double down.

But a parade focused solely on Israel doesn’t even begin to represent the breadth of Jewish life in New York.

What if, instead, we organized a Jewish heritage parade that showed off the full vibrancy and diversity of New York Jewish communities? There would be bands performing in Hebrew, Yiddish, Bukharian, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino,........

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