The Mideast comes to Manhattan as Israel will celebrate its sixty-sixth birthday with a parade up Fifth Ave. on June 1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, June 1, free, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org
2013 parade slideshow
On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Israel’s existence has been fraught with controversy since the very beginning, but the nation perseveres, and on June 1 its sixty-sixth birthday will be honored with the annual Celebrate Israel Parade. This year’s theme is “50 Reasons to Celebrate Israel,” a tribute to the parade’s golden anniversary, as some thirty thousand marchers are expected to make their way from Fifty-Seventh to Seventy-Fourth St. up Fifth Ave. Among the performers will be Hagit Yaso, Chen Aharoni, Howard Leshaw Klezmer & Yiddish Soul, Donny Baitner & the BaRock Orchestra, DJ Mr. Black, the Ramaz Band, and Sandy Shmuely. The grand marshal is Robert Benrimon, with such special guests as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Ernie Anastos, Becky Griffin, SOULFARM, Ambassadors Ido Aharoni and Sofa Landver, and members of the Israeli Knesset. The day begins with the 4K Celebrate Israel Run through Central Park and concludes with the unaffiliated Israel Day Concert in the Park, a free show in Rumsey Playfield (2:30 – 7:30) featuring Gad Elbaz, Lipa, Edon, Benny Friedman, Ari Lesser, the Shloime Dachs Orchestra, and others participating in what is being billed as “The Concert with a Message” and “The Concert of the Century.”