Merle Kalishman is already working on her third rally for Israel since she took up her post as chair of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ in June. “I haven’t had a chance to catch my breath,” she told NJ Jewish News in a phone interview.

“We have gotten the word out to everyone on our CRC mailing list, federation list, and to all the [local] synagogues,” Kalishman said about the Wednesday, Sept. 20, noon gathering at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across the street from the United Nations in Manhattan. The program — organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with the national United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs — will coincide with the opening of the new session of the General Assembly. The timing, Kalishman said, is “so there will be a lot of attention…because there will be world leaders here. It will be making a statement of support for Israel, which is very important at this time.

“The UN is supposed to be the agency that helps the world achieve peace,” said Kalishman, a resident of Livingston. “Maybe through the meeting of leaders we can come to the realization that…human life is worth something.”

The rally is part of national UJC’s Ten Days of Solidarity, which began Sept. 10, and is particularly relevant with the approach of the High Holy Days. “Hopefully this is a time when we think in terms of peace, in terms of the time of the year for us as Jews,” Kalishman said.

She participated in rallies in July at the Syrian Mission to the UN; for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped in June by Hamas; and at the UN in August at the height of Israel’s conflict with Hizbullah.

Talking about this and a protest against genocide in Darfur planned for Sunday, Sept. 17, Kalishman said she hopes “that people will find the time to stand up for those things that are important to them.”

“I don’t know what has to be done to awaken the world, and that’s a concern that I have and I think a lot of people do,” Kalishman said. She became emotional as she contemplated the world her young grandchildren, ages four and seven, will inherit.

“I don’t know that I worried as much when my kids were that age,” she said. “It was a whole different set of circumstances.”

For further information about the Sept. 20 rally for Israel, contact the at 212-318-6111.