This Sunday, May 31, is the Celebrate Israel Parade, the largest annual pro-Israel gathering in the world. On this one day Jews across New York come together and proclaim our support for Israel — fully and proudly.

UJA-Federation of New York is enormously proud to be the largest funder of the event. We hope you will join us in marching and later, after the parade, in dancing at the Celebrate Israel Festival at Pier 94.

Just a few days after the parade, we’ll mark on June 3 the first ever Jewish Unity Day. The events being held that day and the related Jerusalem Unity Prize were born out of last summer’s kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel. I wrote in February about their parents’ desire to harness the unity experienced in the aftermath of the tragedy to inspire others. UJA-Federation is a funder of the project and Board Chair Linda Mirels will represent us at the prize ceremony in Jerusalem. Simultaneous events taking place both in New York and around the country will bring Jews of all ages and affiliations together to affirm their connection with each other.

On the subject of unity, while Shavuot may have been last week, there are still critical lessons to be gleaned from the events at Mount Sinai. In the moment before the people of Israel are to receive the Ten Commandments, there is an abrupt grammatical switch in the Bible: the people of Israel are suddenly referred to in the singular — not the plural, as they had been before. Explaining this shift, Rashi famously says that we stood at Mount Sinai, “Keish Echad B’Lev Echad.” We stood like one person with one heart. Absolute unity.

Absolute unity may well be unattainable today. But sometimes standing with one heart is as simple as showing up on Fifth Avenue and waving a flag. Make this day count for Israel — and stand with us, united.

Shabbat shalom