"We stand with Israel!” was the rallying cry at a gathering held July 20 in South Orange’s Grove Park.

Gov. Jon Corzine, speaking to a crowd of about 300, did not mince words in his expression of support for Israel in its battle with Hizbullah fighters in Lebanon.

“You stand with Israel, I stand with Israel, we stand with Israel,” he said.

Corzine endorsed Israel’s right to defend its borders. “Not only do we support the nation but we support their response — the right of self-defense, the right to stand and say no to terrorism, to respond when they are attacked. You have a right to self-defense. Israel does. We do. And we need to make sure that happens.”

Corzine also dismissed those who suggest Israel’s response to the kidnapping of two soldiers and repeated rocket attacks by Hizbullah should have been more measured.

“When I hear discussions about proportionality, it loses track of all sense of what right and wrong is. You have to defend yourself. You have to stand up and you have to defend your borders.” And he added, “Tonight is another time for us to stand together and join hands and say enough is enough, and we need to be strong.”

Organized by Rabbi Francine Roston of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, the rally was sponsored by all four synagogues in the Maplewood/South Orange area: Beth El and Oheb Shalom Congregation, Conservative synagogues in South Orange; Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel, a Reform synagogue in South Orange, and the Orthodox Congregation Beth Ephraim-Maplewood Jewish Center. Also sponsoring the event was the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey.

Nimrod Sapir, a shaliah, or emissary from Israel, working at JCC MetroWest’s Camp Deeny Riback in Flanders, captivated the crowd with his description of the situation in Israel and his expression of gratitude for American support.

“I left a very quiet Israel four weeks ago. I didn’t think it will come to this situation,” he said. “For the past three weeks and especially for the past eight days, the only thing I’ve been doing is trying to watch the news, trying to watch the Internet every two hours.”

Sapir added that he is “thinking of all my friends now engaging in the battle up north, thinking of all my friends up north sitting in bomb shelters for more than eight days.”

He drew a grim image of the families of kidnapped soldiers. “I can’t even try to imagine what feeling it is for a mother to sit and to not know where her son is,” he said.

And in response to criticism of Israeli actions that have killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, Sapir compared the tactics of Hizbullah to those of the Israeli military.

“I am deeply regretful for every civilian loss in Lebanon,” he said. “But what I want to make sure you all know is that Israel is trying the best it can to protect the civilian lives in Lebanon. It gives every time it goes to bomb two, three, four hours’ notice before to the people to evacuate. On the other hand, what Hizbullah has been doing is, for example, two days ago, bombing a hospital up north” in Israel.

Other speakers included: State Sen. Richard J. Codey (D-Dist. 27); Mayor Bill Calabrese of South Orange; Mayor Fred Profeta of Maplewood; Pastor Terry Richardson of the First Baptist Church of South Orange, who delivered a prayer for peace; and Ken Heyman, president of UJC MetroWest.

Also addressing the rally were Leslie Dannin Rosenthal, president of the Women’s Department of UJC MetroWest, and the religious leaders of the sponsoring synagogues: Rabbi Sholom Bogomilsky of Beth Ephraim, Rabbi Mark Cooper of Oheb Shalom, Rabbi Ellie Miller of Sharey Tefilo-Israel, and Roston.

Statements were read on behalf of New Jersey’s United States senators, Frank Lautenberg, a member of Sharey Tefilo-Israel, and Robert Menendez, who were both in Washington.