Bright lights, loud noise, many people—those are descriptions of Times Square on a typical night. But on Sunday night, November 1st, every single one of those things was intensified.
The Sunday night kumztiz for Israel in Times Square was led by student Aryeh Tiefenbrunn and the Y-Studs. Jews and non-Jews from around the world danced, sang and prayed while waving Israeli flags and posters with pro-Israel slogans for over two hours. They sang familiar songs such as “One Day,” “Hatikvah,” and “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav.” More than one thousand Jews, students and passerby participated in the event.
“My favorite part was seeing all the types of people who were there and singing ‘Ahavat Yisrael Ba’Neshama’ in the middle of Times Square with my friends, holding my flag proudly,” said Tamar Golubtchik, one of the heads of the YU Israel club. Many other students echoed her words.
“We didn’t all know each other, and we were all from different backgrounds, but we had one thing in common: we love Israel. And it united us,” said Jordan Silver, a freshman at Stern College.
“At such a critical time for Israel, it is imperative to show the world that we support our brethren there and show them that although we are not physically there, we are thinking of them, praying for the, and hoping that this wave of terror ends very soon,” said Shlomo Anapolle, another president of the YU Israel Club. “We hope that students gained a sense of belonging and connection to Israel, our indigenous homeland, by uniting through song and prayer.”
Golubtchik explained the goal of the program as a way to “bring people together to show our support for Israel in an energetic but peaceful way.” She felt that the event was “100% successful.“
In a recent press release, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Vice President for University and Community Life at YU noted the powerful impact of such an event on the entire Jewish community. “Yeshiva University’s greatest asset is our student body, and when they mobilize in so many different ways to support Israel we all realize that we are working with the next generation of our people’s leaders,” he said.
Ilan Swartz-Brownstein, a senior majoring in marketing at Sy Syms School of Business, contributed to this article. Photo credit: Shimon Lindenblatt and Ruthie Klein.