The Mayor Who Stayed Away |
As so many in the Jewish community and beyond have asked: Is it acceptable for the mayor of the largest Jewish city outside Israel to boycott the Israel Day Parade?
For more than six decades, New York City mayors, regardless of party affiliation, ideology, or personal views about Israeli politics, understood the significance of attending this event. Their participation was not merely ceremonial; it was a public affirmation that the Jewish community constituted an indispensable part of the city’s civic, cultural, and political fabric.
The issue, however, is not whether a mayor possesses the legal or political right to decline an invitation. Of course he does. The more consequential question is what message he conveys when the elected leader of New York City, the home to more Jews than any other city in the world outside Israel, chooses to absent himself from the Jewish community’s most important annual public celebration.
Politics is conducted as much through symbols as through legislation. Public officials communicate priorities not only by what they say, but........