So maybe it was a little wet (though the heaviest rain came and went during the first half hour of the parade), but thousands of people marched up New York City’s Fifth Avenue anyway in the 2016 Celebrate Israel Parade on June 5, which this year coincided with Yom Yerushalayim — the 49th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. Many more thousands of Israel’s most passionate supporters lined Fifth Avenue to watch them. American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center was well-represented, both on our float and to listeners around the world who were able to see and hear the sights and sounds of the parade on the Nachum Segal Network. American Committee was the presenting sponsor of live coverage of the parade, anchored from start to finish by Nachum Segal, the internationally-known host of Jewish radio program JM in the AM, and Miriam L. Wallach, general manager of The Nachum Segal Network. American Committee CEO Rachel Wolf joined them in the broadcast booth at Fifth Avenue and 65th Street, near the entrance to the Central Park Zoo, for more than an hour, early in the parade.

Other guests on the program included the inspiring Racheli Frenkel, mother of one of three Israeli teens whose disappearance brought Israelis and Jews all around the world together in shared worry, then grief two summers ago (listen to her appearance here); as well as many notable political and Jewish communal leaders. Enjoy a full gallery of photos from Fifth Avenue here.