When Michal Shoham heard about the attack on Colorado Jews who had been rallying for the release of Israeli hostages, she expected that fellow activists in Los Gatos would stay away from their own weekly vigil.
“But the community said, ‘no way,’” Shoham told J. “So we’re here.”
Despite the safety concerns, Shoham’s group reconvened in Los Gatos on June 8 — one week after the firebombing in Boulder against a Run for Their Lives rally that severely burned six of the 15 victims of the attack. A 45-year-old suspect who authorities say yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack has been charged with 118 counts, including attempted murder.
In Los Gatos, as in Boulder, activists have been holding weekly rallies affiliated with the Bay Area-founded global movement Run for Their Lives. It is a network of activists who hold short “walk/run” events seeking the immediate release of the hostages Hamas has held since Oct. 7, 2023.
Shoham has been leading the weekly Run for Their Lives walks, where the group gathers to hear the latest updates on the condition of the hostages, record a video for social media and walk or run for a symbolic 18 minutes, a number representing “chai,” the Hebrew word for life.
Sunnyvale resident Shany Klein is the Israeli American founder of Run for Their Lives, which she started in October 2023 after Hamas massacred 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages into Gaza. As of Monday, 55 hostages remain with 20 estimated to still be alive.
Since the first Run for Their Lives event, around 230 groups have sprung up worldwide. Northern California alone has 15 groups listed on the website.
Klein wasn’t in town on Sunday to join the Los Gatos group. She had traveled to Boulder, where she spoke to thousands of people gathered for the city’s annual Jewish festival, which was scheduled before the June 1 attack.
“Speaking in front of 15,000 people in Boulder yesterday was incredibly powerful, because of the unity and compassion they represented,” Klein told J. on Monday. “This movement has never been about politics. It has always been about people. About the urgent, human need to bring every hostage home.”
In Los Gatos, over 50 people gathered at the town plaza, wearing T-shirts and holding signs that read “Bring Them Home Now.” Some held custom Israeli flags, displaying a blue Star of David interlaced with a yellow ribbon, a symbol to raise awareness for the hostages.
Campbell resident Susan Rojo Firsty carried a large cardboard cutout of a yellow ribbon she received during a February event at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv that marked 500 days since Oct. 7.
After the Boulder attack, Rojo Firsty told J., the first thought that sprang to her mind was: “It could have been me.”
While she felt scared and nervous during Sunday’s walk, Rojo Firsty said she recognized her personal contribution to the cause.
“They can hate as much as they want, but I can love twice as much,” she said. “I have to be here to represent love and kindness.”
Dennis Wolf has also participated in the Run for Their Lives events in Los Gatos since the beginning. He joins them in a wheelchair that he’s been using for nearly four years due to a rare condition that affects his spinal cord.
The weekly walks have reminded him that “we are a community and that we need to support each other,” Wolf, 71, told J. “My call to action is making sure that whatever I can do for Israel and my family in Israel, that I do it every week, every day.”
Originally from Denver and a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Wolf said that the June 1 attack reflected a “bizarre” side of the city he hadn’t encountered before.
“Boulder was always a very liberal, supportive community for Jews,” he said. “When it happened in Boulder, it means it could happen anywhere.”
Local community leaders from the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area and Jewish Silicon Valley joined Shoham in a press conference prior to the walk.
“We are here to show that the Jewish community will not be silenced, and we will not cower to those that wish us harm,” said Daniel Klein, CEO of the nonprofit Jewish Silicon Valley.
Shoham said Jewish Silicon Valley offered to sponsor a private security team for extra support at Sunday’s walk. Klein didn’t confirm specific security details, though he told J. the nonprofit occasionally works with “partners to add an added layer of security.” Ahead of the event, Klein added, JSV “did what we normally do: reaching out to local law enforcement and other security partners, checking to see federal threat levels.… We worked with them all to make sure that those that came today felt safe and secure.”