Local Hoosiers are banding together each week to walk for the more than 100 innocent people who are still being held hostage by Hamas, after being taken on Oct. 7.

After the Israeli attacks, Iris Goldberg felt helpless and wanted to do something. Her family in Baltimore was involved in a walk for the hostages, which sparked her desire to join one locally. She couldn’t find one, and connected with Run for Their Lives, an international organization that helps groups around the world start weekly walks for the hostages. Now, there are 200 Run for Their Lives groups around the world.

“People want to come together and do something,” she said. “It’s good to go out weekly and show our support and do something as a community.”

The walking group started as word of mouth and spread from there. She also started a WhatsApp group to determine a walking location each week. Goldberg says about 50 people join the walk each week. Walkers consist of Jews and Non-Jews of all ages, including kids and college students. People bring their dogs, hold up signs with photos of hostages, and waive an Israeli flag.

Goldberg says the walk is not a protest or a political statement.

“This is about humanity and not war,” she said. “It’s a global initiative to increase awareness about the hostages being held.”

Each week, the walking group gets a lot of people cheering and honking in support for what they are doing. While the group has been lucky to not have any physical altercations, they have experienced some negative comments from passersby, Goldberg said.

Goldberg says the local group will continue to walk each week until all the hostages are released.

Visit https://run4lives.org/ to learn more about the international initiative. Email info@jfgi.org to join the local WhatsApp group to participate in the weekly walks.