Rally for Israeli Democracy, Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, Sept. 22, 2023

My heart is in Kaplan Street, but I am at the ends of the West.

My name is Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove. My community, Park Avenue Synagogue, is the largest Conservative synagogue in New York. Day and night I labor to create a vibrant, passion-filled, committed Jewish community, a Jewish community with Israel at its center. To learn about Israel, to support Israel, to travel to Israel, and most importantly, to love Israel – this is not just at the heart of my synagogue; this is at the heart of who I am as a rabbi and as a Jew.

Why am I standing here, at this time, at this place, in front of this crowd? Why?

Because:

If not now, then when?

If not here, then where?

And if not me, then who?

If not now, then when?

Fifty years ago, on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s fate hung in the balance, the country surrounded by external foes. Today, 50 years later, Israel once again stands at a tipping point, its internal divisions threatening to tear it apart. It is precisely at this moment, when the Prime Minister of Israel stands before the community of nations, that we need to publicly affirm what it is that Israel fought for, fights for, and will continue to fight for: a Jewish and democratic state.

If not here, then where?

We are here because, as stated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, on November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. We are here because of our commitment to an Israel, as stated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel … and faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations. We are here to remind and affirm to the world the principles upon which Israel is founded: A Jewish and democratic state.

If not me, then who?

I am here because I love Israel. With all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my might. I am here because. “All of Israel is responsible one for the other.” To my brothers and sisters fighting for democracy in Israel: You are not alone, we stand with you! I am here to remind my American brothers and sisters that to love Israel is to stand by it, to defend it, to shape it, and to help it realize the principles upon which it was founded. I am here because I want my children to know that when the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state was hanging in the balance, their father took a stand.

For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent.

For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still. (Isaiah 62:1)

For the sake of a Jewish and democratic state, we are all here today.

Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove is Senior Rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue.