Jerusalem Day: Israeli Flags and Parade

Thousands of people are marching down 5th Avenue  in New York City

for the annual Israel Day Parade #TogetherOnFifth,

after months of intense organization and planning.

On Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, we also had a parade.

DSC_5248b  large Israeli flags

Overnight all the yellow and white Vatican flags were gone,

DSC_5430b Streets with flags for Jerusalem day celebrations

replaced with blue & white Israeli and Jerusalem flags.

image flag day on Jerusalem streets

The streets were crowded with tens of thousands of people,

carrying thousands of flags,

image Jerusalem DAy

for the annual Rikudegalim, Dance with the Flags

or Flag Parade.

Streets that were closed for the Pope were shut down again.

wheel chairs image

 But this time people did not stay away,

Aleh students came in their wheelchairs.

DSC_5289b  Jerusalem Day girls dancing

Thousand of  girls with Israeli flags

image crowd of girls

had their own place to sing and dance.

DSC_5281b Jerusalem Day

And these two guys were trying awfully hard to see them.

DSC_5330b Israeli flags on Jerusalem Day on King George Street

In the crowd it was hard to see, so sitting on shoulders provided a better view.

DSC_5399b King George Street blocked  to traffic

The buses blocked traffic so the parade could pass,

as the streets were filled with people long before the official start time.

image Jerusalem Day

The hotel balcony gave people a great vantage point.

image Jerusalem Day

Outside Heichal Shlomo, men and boys were packed in,

image Jerusalem Day street crowd

ready to march to the Western Wall,

to enter by same gate as the paratroopers did in 1967

when they liberated the Old City from Jordanian control.

With people coming in all directions all afternoon,

this parade may not have been as carefully organized

as the one in New York City,

image Israeli flags at parade

but it was the ultimate blue & white photo-op.

 I heard of girls who needed a police escort out of the Old City,

as glass bottles were thrown at them.

But though Yom Yerushalayim is not yet a national holiday,

image family with flags on Jerusalem day

people  from all over the world came together to celebrate.

And on King George Street where the masses were having fun,

there was no violence, so it did not make the news.

0 thoughts on “Jerusalem Day: Israeli Flags and Parade

Leave a Reply to therealjerusalemstreets Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.