Standing with Jewish community: Valley residents join 300,000 at March for Israel in D.C.
NORTHAMPTON — Andrea Olkin, an educator at Lander-Grinspoon Academy in Northampton, wants her youngest students to take pride in their identity as Jews and to not have to live in fear or face the rising levels of antisemitism seen across the country and the world since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“As a Jewish American, I feel like we really need to have a voice, yet a lot of places it’s not safe to show love for Israel,” Olkin says. “We don’t expect to have kids on college campuses not feel safe because they’re Jewish.”
Olkin, a Springfield resident, was among those joining the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts on Tuesday’s bus trip to Washington, D.C. for the March for Israel.