HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Advocates, synagogue members and local agencies gathered at the Weinstein JCC on Sunday afternoon for the second annual RVA Walk for Israel.
The family-friendly community effort celebrated Israel's 78th Independence Day and served as a demonstration of solidarity. The walk started and ended at the Weinstein JCC building, with participants carrying Israeli and American flags while playing Israeli music.
Ephraim Seidman, volunteer chair of the Israel Engagement Committee at the Weinstein JCC, explained why the event is crucial for the local Jewish community.
"It's difficult for a Jew in the diaspora that lives outside of Israel to connect with the holidays as they happen in Israel, but we do our best to try to celebrate and honor those holidays," Seidman said. "So this is a way for the Jewish community to come together and do that."
Pinina Morgan, the Weinstein JCC's Jewish Life and Israel Engagement manager, noted the importance of the gathering amid a rise in antisemitism.
"In a time where increasingly people are scared to show who they are and what matters to them, and walk around with pieces of themselves on the outside because of the rise in anti-Semitism, I think it's even more important for us to be out and proud," Morgan said.
Rabbi Sherry Grinsteiner with Congregation Or Atid, who has family living in Israel, said raising the Israeli flag currently requires courage, pointing to the police presence required at the event.
"What I'm hoping for us is that we have a peaceful march," Grinsteiner said. "That we have a safe march and that we show our courage for our own people as well as for anybody and everybody else that is watching us walking... to express our solidarity with Israel, our solidarity with our common values."
Morgan added that Seidman recently returned from volunteering in Israel for a second time during the current conflict. She emphasized that the walk was also about standing in solidarity for freedom.
"Freedom from bombs, freedom from terrorist acts and an opportunity to be strong and proud and live in peace," Morgan said.
Organizers invited anyone interested in learning more to reach out to local synagogues or the JCC to have a conversation.
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