WASHINGTON — In what may be the largest gathering ever of American Jews, an estimated 290,000 demonstrators rallied on the National Mall on Tuesday in support of the Jewish state. The rally was meant to push back against the tide of antisemitism and pro-Hamas sentiment spreading across elite American college campuses and in some quarters of Congress.

The chief executive of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, William Daroff, an organizer of the rally, tells the Sun that about 290,000  demonstrators were cleared through metal detectors to attend the event. Attendees of the rally also told the Sun that tens of thousands more demonstrators did not have the blue wristbands required to pass through security, and therefore stood in a large general viewing area farther back from the stage.

Politicians in attendance included ranking Democratic and Republican members of both the House and Senate, an envoy from the Biden administration, and ambassadors from several European and Latin American countries. Senator Rosen, who is Jewish, and Senator Lankford, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, led the crowd in a bipartisan prayer for the safety of the Jewish state and a safe return of Jewish hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.

Other speakers addressing the rally ranged from college students to Hollywood actors describing recent experiences of antisemitism. Rally attendees — including many Christians — said they came to support Israel in its war on Hamas as well as to speak out against the tide of antisemitism in the United States. as well as in Western Europe. 

One attendee, Audra Berg, described her motivation as “standing with like-minded people, Jewish and non-Jewish,” in expressing “that it is not okay what is happening in Israel, with the hostages and the levels of antisemitism that have increased in this country since the October 7 attack.” A recent University of Michigan graduate, Ethan Friedman, said it was “inspiring to see the bipartisan congressional support for Israel as well as the love and gratitude expressed by the crowd towards America.”

“Coming to this march,” he said, “was really important for me in order to stand up to the enormous amount of antisemitic hate and abuse my friends are enduring, in the wake of the October 7 terror attack.” Speakers at the rally described feeling isolated as Jews as public sympathy turned against Israel within weeks of October 7. 

“A lot of friends turned their backs on me this month,” actor and comedian Brett Gelman, who plays Murray Bauman in “Stranger Things” on Netflix, said. “These so-called friends were never really our friends. They were never really there for us.”

“We have traveled 13 hours on a bus to come to express our solidarity with Israel,” a University of Florida student, Rae Weinstein, said. Despite American Jews’ historic liberal tendencies, many speakers and attendees expressed disillusionment with their allies in the so-called progressive movement.

“I used to see support for Democrats over Republicans as a black and white matter,” an attendee, Ze’ev Korn, said. “Seeing the lack of moral clarity from some politicians has made me rethink this.” They fail to see, he added, that “supporting Israel is supporting peace.”

This sentiment was echoed by another attendee, Sara Benson-Konforty of Palo Alto, California. Ms. Benson-Konforty said that Bay Area progressives had turned Israel into a wedge issue: “Many in far-left communities in Berkeley and Oakland are facing real pressure and criticism.”

“There has been a surge in anti-semitism that has led us to live in real fear,”Ms. Benson-Konforty said. The Israel native said she came out to the event because she “no longer wished to hide” and because she wished to “stand in solidarity with Israel. The Jewish people who were more progressive leftists have realized that the attacks did not distinguish between the right and the left. We feel a sense of unity.”

“I sense a shift in my own political viewpoint,” Ms. Benson-Konforty added. “We stood for the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ movement, and various other minority movements.” But now, she added, she “senses that the Jewish community stands alone,” which makes her question her past support of these movements. 

A wide spectrum of Jewish denominations, including Chabad, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform, were in attendance with institutional backing. Many had offered stipends or provided transportation for the attendees. 

When asked about the climate on college campuses, Ms. Weinstein of the University of Florida said that Jews “have been harassed on the street and have had Israeli flags torn down from windows of fraternity houses.”

March attendees held posters with the faces of kidnapped Israelis and were vocal in expressing their support for the speaker’s messages. “The calls for a ceasefire are outrageous,” the newly elected House speaker, Mike Johnson, who addressed the rally, said. “We stand with you on that.” His statement was met with rousing applause from the audience which responded with a chant of “U.S.A.”

The message of Mr. Johnson, a deeply religious Baptist, was echoed by Senator Ernst of Iowa, a Lutheran, who came on behalf of Senate Republicans. “What Iran-backed Hamas perpetrated on October 7th was pure evil and what Hamas deserves is nothing but complete and total destruction,” she told the crowd. “We will not sit quiet as antisemitism is being promulgated on classrooms and campuses throughout the country.”

Also among the speakers were family members of some of the hostages of Hamas. Rachel Goldberg, whose Israeli–American son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, is now being held captive by Hamas,  described the “slow-motion torment” and the “third-degree burns on souls” of those whose family members have been taken hostage. She exhorted the crowd to ask why the world is “accepting that 240 human beings from almost 30 countries have been stolen and buried alive,” referring to the maze of underground tunnels where Hamas is believed to be keeping its hostages.

“These children of god range in age from nine months to 87 years. They are Christian, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindu. … Bring them home now,” she beseeched.