Fifty Skydivers Express Their Solidarity With Israel

People have different ways to express their solidarity with Israel. A colleague of mine now scours supermarket shelves for produce made in Israel: falafel, Jaffa oranges, Israeli feta, Sabra humus, halva, and so on. In early June of 1967, I was in Paris, reading with increasing alarm the news about Nasser’s menacing speeches to delirious Cairene crowds, and about the hundreds of thousands of Egyptian troops massing in the Sinai, and Syria mobilizing its tanks in the Golan Heights, and the governments of Great Britain, France, and the United States suddenly unable to find copies of the guarantees they had made to Israel the decade before, to keep the Red Sea shipping lanes open. The only way I could think of to show my support for the embattled Israelis was to go to Jo Goldenberg’s, a famous kosher restaurant on the Rue des Rosiers in the Marais, for lunch. More comical than impressive, I admit, was my chosen and slightly oblique, even bizarre, way to semaphore to the world — which was not paying me the slightest attention — my support for Israel, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.

Much later, I learned that Jo Goldenberg had been the only member of his family to survive Auschwitz. After the war he had opened his kosher restaurant — he didn’t wait for any handouts from anyone, unlike the economic migrants who have more recently been showing up in France. He worked 18-hour days, and his restaurant became a big success, a place where Holocaust survivors and former Resistance members would meet. In 1982 the Abu Nidal terrorist organization bombed and shot up the place, killing six people. Now the restaurant has closed; Jo Goldenberg has died. End of an era.

Now I’ve just read about an aerial feat by fifty skydivers, only five of them Jewish, who wanted to show their support for Israel and against antisemitism at a time when there is not enough of the former and too much of the latter. They decided to make a statement in the sky. More on their display in the skies over California can be found here: “Skydivers in California Form a Human Star of David in Solidarity With Israel, Against Antisemitism,” by Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, November 21, 2023:

A total of 50 skydivers gathered to form a human Star of David in the sky in solidarity with Israel amid its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Skydivers, with only a three-day notice, gathered at the skydiving center Skydive Perris in Southern California for the jump that took place on Nov. 11, Veterans Day. Most were locals, but others traveled from San Francisco, Arizona, Denver, and Iowa. They managed to create the Star of David in just one jump.

The skydive was organized by world champion skydiver, author, and coach Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, who shared a video from the jump on social media on Monday. Brodsky-Chenfeld has led the USA’s four- and eight-person skydiving teams to multiple world championships, and also set a new world record for the largest freefall formation with a team that he assembled of 300 skydivers.

“Hate has a loud voice. Love needs to be louder,” Brodsky-Chenfeld said of the show of solidarity with Israel. He shared on YouTube last week an extended video from the jump, titled “Skydivers United Against Hate.” The clip shared the message that “skydivers are welcoming & inclusive. We embrace everyone who dreams of human flight. But the haters have a very loud voice. We will not stay quiet. This is us speaking out.”…

“In the past year, there have been numerous instances of antisemitism in the United States against Jews and Israelis. Following the black Saturday on Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza, all the hatred and antisemitism intensified significantly. Everything became much worse, and I wanted to do something about it,” he said….

He told Ynet that out of the 50 skydivers who participated, only five were Jewish but everyone felt “a strong sense of unity and a desire to do something positive.” He said the non-Jewish skydivers who joined in are his “good friends, skydivers of all ages, who love Israel and stand for humanity, against hatred and bigotry.

“Our first jump turned out perfect.”

Yes, Dan Brodsky-Chenfield. Absolutely perfect.