‘Can't be silent anymore': Hundreds march in Aventura to combat surge in antisemitism

Miami Herald

4 hours ago

American and Israeli colors lined the streets of Aventura, where a crowd of more than 500 people embarked Sunday on a three-mile march — escorted by police — to raise awareness for rising antisemitism at home and abroad.
The rally, co-organized by Run for Their Lives and the South Florida-based Loving Moms United movement, comes nearly two years after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. The trauma of that day continued to reverberate in Jewish communities across the globe, recently reignited by a violent terror attack at a sister rally in Boulder, Colorado.
The June 1 attack in Boulder — carried out on one of Run for Their Lives' sister marches — left 16 injured, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. The assailant, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, reportedly in the U.S. illegally, used homemade Molotov cocktails and a flamethrower-like device to target peaceful marchers.
Authorities say Soliman had plotted the assault for more than a year and told police he intended to 'kill all Zionist people.' He now faces over 100 felony charges, including attempted murder and hate crimes.
The Boulder march, like in Aventura, was part of a global effort to raise awareness for the more than 50 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The juxtaposition between the peaceful intentions of such rallies and the violence in Boulder weighed heavily on Sunday's participants in South Florida. Among the marchers was Jason Wasser, an Aventura native now living in Hollywood, whose childhood friend was among the Boulder victims.
'You would never think that in 2025 this would be the state of our country,' he said. 'Things seem ideal until they're not. Historically, it's always been the Jews who are first.'
Israel has been locked in a devastating war with Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 people hostage. The ensuing Israeli counteroffensive has resulted in the deaths of nearly 55,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Hamas is still holding 55 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Some of the marchers in Aventura on Sunday wore signs of the remaining hostages on their shirts to raise awareness.
Cecile Mankes, a Jewish resident of Northwest Miami-Dade whose mother survived the Holocaust, walked wrapped around Country Club Drive in an Israeli flag and a blue, jewel-studded hat decorated with American and Israeli pins.
'Antisemitism has gotten to the point where we can't be silent anymore,' she said. 'I'm an American Jew first, not a Jewish American — there's a difference. I believe in this country more than anything in the world, I just don't know if it's safe for all of us anymore.'
'I am an American Jew first, not a Jewish American — there's a difference,' Mankes said. 'I believe in America. I am Jewish because I am. It's what I believe in.'
Pearl Levitt, whose parents survived the Holocaust and once lived along the route of Sunday's march, shared an even more personal reflection.
'I'm glad they're not alive now,' Levitt said. 'They lost their parents. They were so sick from the camps. To have to look at this on the news and see it happening again — it would kill them.'
Still, she walked proudly with hundreds of others.
'They think they can threaten us and kick us, but they'll never beat us down,' Levitt said. 'We're not going to let it happen again. And as upsetting as it is every day, we're just fighters, and we're going to fight for our rights.'
Security for the Aventura march was tight. Aventura Chief of Police Michael Bentolila said 30 marked police cars escorted the rally, including an armored BearCat vehicle. Officers from the sheriff's office and North Miami Beach PD provided additional support.
Vice Mayor Rachel Saltzman Friedland was also at the march, and told the Miami Herald that Aventura, home to many synagogues and a large Jewish population, had proactively implemented a zero-tolerance policy toward antisemitism before the war in Gaza escalated.
'We're on high alert at all times,' she said. 'We stand with Israel. We stand with the Jewish community. We stand with all communities — ending Jew hatred and ending antisemitism.'
For Jaime and Janette Garmizo, who draped themselves in Israeli flags featuring yellow ribbons, the march was both personal and political. The flags were brought back from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv during a recent humanitarian aid trip. The yellow ribbons, interwoven into the Star of David on each flag, are meant to symbolize 'the unity Israel has to bring their hostages home, dead or alive,' Jaime said.
Janette, through tears, added, 'Us Jews never lose faith. I wake up every day praying for good news.'
The Garmizos' also wore dogtags bearing Hebrew inscriptions that read 'Bring them home.' Jaime wears his every day.
Nathaly Haratz Kaswan, head of Loving Moms United, led the march wearing an Israeli-flag arm sleeve. She's become a key figure in hostage advocacy, even attending the State of the Union with Senator Rick Scott earlier this year.
'We are not ending this until they are all released,' she said. 'This is not over until then.'
As the marchers reconvened at the Aventura Mall parking lot, they closed the march with recitals of the American and Israeli anthems. As attendees chanted 'Am Yisrael Chai,' the Hebrew saying meaning 'the people of Israel live,' Rabbi Yisroel Brusowankin of Chabad at Waterways told the Miami Herald that 'the only way forward is to continue living Jewishly — visibly, proudly and faithfully.'
'I think the haters are going to hate; antisemitism is the oldest hate in the world,' Brusowankin said. 'We're still here as a people because of our sacred mission, and nothing will stop that.'