Rain or shine, they showed up every Sunday morning to make a statement to the world and offer a collective voice for those who could not be heard.
But now, the walk is over.
After nearly two years of coming together as a community and praying, hoping, and demonstrating concern and outrage to the larger world, Baltimore’s weekly walk for the hostages in Gaza came to an end last Sunday morning, Oct. 19.
The Baltimore group is part of the international “Run 4 Their Lives” campaign.
The 1-kilomoter walk — which started in early 2024 — generally attracted approximately 40 walkers each Sunday morning to the campus of Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation, at 7310 Park Heights Avenue in Pikesville.
Police vehicles and other security personnel were frequently visible as walkers marched down Park Heights Avenue to Slade Avenue to Reisterstown Road, turned onto Seven Mile Lane and returned to HSOSC’s parking lot.
Motorists frequently honked at walkers in support and offered thumbs-up gestures.
Last June, approximately 400 walkers turned out at the Baltimore gathering a week after a firebombing attack at a similar pro-Israel gathering in Boulder, Colorado, killed an 82-year-old woman and injured seven others.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national living in Colorado, was charged with a dozen charges of federal hate crimes and 118 state criminal charges.
“The Jewish community is not going to be cowardly and not going to be frightened into silence,” Jay Bernstein, a local pro-Israel activist and co-organizer of Baltimore Walks for the Hostages, told a local media outlet. “I think the events in Boulder, the attack that occurred this week, reinforced the community’s determination to make a statement.”
(Photo by Robyn Stevens Brody)
Last Sunday morning, Bernstein and others thanked the community for their support and dedication. They celebrated the release of the remaining living hostages while praying for the release of the bodies still held by Hamas.
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