On Sunday mornings for the better part of the past 20 months, a group of Twin Cities Jews have been walking while holding signs of hostages who are held in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
The June 8 walk, which is part of the global Run For Their Lives hostage awareness effort, was the first since 15 people were injured in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., and drew more people to Bde Maka Ska than usual.
“What happened in Colorado, it makes people angry,” said Hadassah Dukes, one of the local organizers.
Said Beth El Synagogue Rabbi Alexander Davis: “After Boulder, it was important to be here.”
The walk was uneventful, but it doesn’t mean organizers are taking chances. The plan going forward is that the location will change each week and will be disclosed within a WhatsApp group for the Minneapolis chapter and not made public.
“It’s all new, right?” Dukes said. “We’ve thought about [moving locations] before, but it just seemed like more of like a hassle to get people to keep up and know when to come. That’s expecting a lot of people to be on top of it.”
The group slowly and quietly walked for about 20 minutes, stopping briefly to go gather as a group to read the names of the 55 hostages – an estimated 20 of who are still alive – who are still being held in Gaza.
Before the walk, Dukes read from a short script that outlined the expectations of those who were walking.
“With a spotlight on us. It is more important than ever that we model exactly who we are,” she said. “Our walks are always peaceful. If someone is heckling you, please do not engage.”
The group walking on June 8 during the Run For Their Lives hostage awareness walk. (Lonny Goldsmith/TC Jewfolk)
None of the other walkers and riders on the path heckled the walkers, and several of the cars that drove on Bde Maka Ska Parkway honked in support of the walkers; Danielle Cherrill said that more vehicles acknowledged the group than ever before.
Cherrill said it was important to continue to show up to counter the narrative that she’s seeing on social media.
“These hostages are innocent victims that were taken from their homes [and] from the Nova party,” she said. “They could have been anybody’s son, anybody’s father, anybody’s friend, and they were taken away. They’re not prisoners, like they like to say of the hostages; they were kidnapped from their homes, and it’s not talked about enough.”
Cherrill, who grew up in Israel and has been in the Twin Cities for 14 years, said that people are wrong when they conflate opposition to Netanyahu with antisemitism.
“You can disagree with the government and with its policies, but this was a justifiable war,” she said. “Anything I can do on my part to give the other side of the story, because it’s so biased against Israel.
“And you can also feel bad that those innocent people and kids [in Gaza] and you can all also support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.”
