I left for Washington DC at 6 AM on the morning of the March For Israel, unaware of what the day was going to bring, and left feeling so connected and moved by what I witnessed. After 5 hours, I arrived in Washington DC. Even 8 blocks away from the National Mall, we saw huge groups of people getting off of buses and walking around sporting Israel in the form of huge banners, flags on their backs, blue and white clothing, makeup, and signs as we walked to BBYO’s DC headquarters. This is where we picked up t-shirts, buttons, flags, signs, and pins and then started making our way to the National Mall, following the sea of blue and white to Capitol Hill.

Once we got there, we were met with thousands of people from all walks of life, which was astonishing. As we walked through the enormous crowd, I began to talk to Jews from Washington, Michigan, New York, Boston, Ohio, Missouri, Canada, Israel, and many more places. They all held up signs, said chants, passed out missing person flyers, and all stood and walked together. It was truly astonishing being around that many Jewish people from different backgrounds. Many of the people I talked to flew here, came here on ten-hour bus rides, and arrived at 7 am to get there, which was very moving and cool as the entire March was planned in a couple of days. 

Everyone being there was so powerful, especially when, for many, all we see is negative media content. There were so many people we looked up to disappointing us, which can make our people feel alone, which is clearly not true after seeing the amount of people at the March. We then started to hear from so many speakers: family members of hostages Tahl Ben-Yehuda, Alana Zeitchik, and Rachel Goldberg; the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog; the senate majority speaker Chuck Schumer; the senate special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, actors Debra Messing and Brett Gelman, college students, singers and so many more. All the speakers were incredible, sharing their own experiences with the war and ways to help even in the slightest. There were also many singers, which was amazing when the estimated crowd of 300,000 started singing along with singers Ishay Ribo, Omer Adam, Matisyahu, and The Maccabeats to the Hatikvah and other songs many Jewish people grew up to like "One Day” with fitting lyrics “I've been prayin' for, for the people to say that we don't wanna fight no more there'll be no more wars, and our children will play.”

Altogether, the day was truly inspiring as it was the first time I've been surrounded by 300,000 Jewish people since I was 4 years old in Israel, and I hope it’s not the last because I want to return to our homeland one day. I can attest to everyone there that seeing people all around the world in support of the country so many of us call home, even if we’ve never been there, was so moving, and no matter what, we will all continue to be hopeful for the future of Israel.