Large numbers of Haredi Jews from across the New York area are expected to attend a pro-Israel rally in Washington, D.C., this Tuesday — despite their history of non-Zionism and reluctance to participate in public Jewish events that are not exclusively Orthodox.

The rally is intended to support Israel and raise awareness of hostages taken by Hamas during their Oct. 7 surprise attack. In aiming to attract as many participants as possible, the two main organizations behind the event — the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — cast a wide net.

Two large Haredi organizations, Agudath Israel of America and the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, are encouraging people to attend the event. Even the Boro Park Jewish Community Council is sending a contingent, according to a rally organizer who spoke to Shtetl. Their participation comes as a surprise, as Haredim usually avoid joining public Jewish events that are not exclusively Orthodox-organized. In 2020, for example, Haredi Jewish organizations did not join a large rally against antisemitism in the wake of antisemitic attacks against Haredi Jews.

This Tuesday’s event is expected to have greater Haredi representation. In addition to the Agudah, the Beth Din of Crown Heights, a rabbinical court serving the local Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community, encouraged attendance.

“While we have not received the complete outline of the program, assurances have been made to us that there will be a general commitment to halachic standards, including but not limited to respecting our sense of modesty,” rabbis from the Beth Din said, according to COLlive, a news site covering Chabad.

A PDF resource circulating online from the Haredi Living Lchaim YouTube channel urged participants to recite a chapter of Tehillim — or Psalms — at the rally, as is standard practice at Haredi public gatherings. “This will not work without prayers,” the circular noted. The PDF also included Agudath Israel’s logo and listed it as a sponsor.

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, helped organize the rally and explained how organizers hope to accommodate Haredi protesters, including by segregating private school students by gender. “There’s going to be a section for Bais Yaakovs. Yeshiva boys will be separate,” he told Shtetl.

Hoenlein said that while nobody was given instructions about what to wear or not wear, he hopes that since it is a cold time of year, protesters will dress in a way that won’t offend Haredi Jews. “Obviously, we can’t monitor what everybody wears,” he said.

Haredi communities have complicated relationships with the State of Israel. Some Haredim oppose Zionism because of the Israeli government’s secular orientation and because they believe that the Jewish people should wait for the arrival of the Messiah before establishing a Jewish state.

Even so, Dr. Shayna Weiss, an Israel studies scholar at Brandeis University, said that many Haredi Americans have emotional ties to people in Israel, if not to the state itself. “The Haredi community in America has really strong affective ties with Israel,” Weiss told Shtetl last month. Hoenlein said much the same. Haredim “are Zionists without declaring it,” he said. “They relate to Israel, their kids go to Israel, they go to Israel, many of them own homes in Israel.”

Agudah sent a message to its supporters in which it called on these affective ties, according to the Yeshiva World News. “In light of the ongoing life-threatening danger confronting Israeli soldiers and all of our dear brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel, and with great concern about the extremely volatile political climate here in the United States, we feel it is important, midarchei ha’shtadlonus, that there be a large turnout at this event,” the message said, using a Hebrew phrase that refers to making an effort even though God runs the world.

As of Thursday, hundreds of people had already signed up to travel to the rally from Crown Heights, and by Monday morning, free buses traveling to D.C. from Borough Park were full. In Lakewood, New Jersey, community leader Kasriel Roberts offered to sponsor buses going to the rally, according to a local news site serving Lakewood. Buses from Monsey will be traveling to D.C, too, Hoenlein said.

Still, some Haredim are avoiding the rally, including influential Lakewood rabbi Yitzchok Sorotzkin. “These demonstrations are anti-productive,” he said on Thursday, suggesting that studying Torah was a better use of Jewish people’s time. The protest is “going to antagonize all of the colleges, all of the goyim, all of the Muslims, everybody,” said Sorotzkin, who is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, a board of rabbis that advise Agudah.