After Colorado attack, no backing down at Plainview march for hostages held by Hamas

For 85 consecutive Sundays, through sweltering heat and frigid temperatures, Shira Weiss has led a nearly mile-long march through Plainview to bring awareness to the hostages still held in captivity in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

On Sunday morning, Weiss and other members of the Syosset chapter of the group Run for Their Lives marched yet again, this time with a heavy heart but intensified fortitude after an Egyptian national attacked a chapter of their organization in Colorado one week earlier, injuring a dozen people.

Canceling their weekly march and backing down in the face of terror, Weiss said, was not an option.

"We're going to keep marching until every single hostage comes home," said Weiss, 48, of Syosset.

Sunday's march attracted more than 150 participants, compared with their typical crowd of between 20 and 30.

Young and old, the marchers arrived early Sunday with strollers and puppies. Others carried Israeli or American flags.

Some wore dog tags bearing Hebrew letters or T-shirts with the now-familiar face of Plainview native Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier abducted and killed by Hamas during the attacks. His body has yet to be returned.

Don Schwartzburt, 65, of Oyster Bay, has been participating in the weekly march down Old Country Road and up Manetto Hill Road to the Mid Island Y JCC for more than 18 months.

"I'm compelled to do this," Schwartzburt said. "The hostages are over there, and we have to get them out. And this is a way to let the world know that they're not going to be forgotten."

Sunday's march held a special significance, coming a week after a suspect, identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, attacked participants at a Run for Their Lives event in Boulder, Colorado, with a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring a dozen people including an elderly Holocaust survivor. Soliman faces more than 118 state and federal charges in connection with the attack.

The Long Island marchers insisted the Boulder attack would not deter them from their mission. Nonetheless, a large contingent of Nassau police officers kept watch on the crowd and helped with traffic control.

"I'm hoping nothing happens," said Fern Rickman, 66, of Bayville. Rickman carried a fire suppression blanket in her bag.

"But I worry that what happened in Boulder is going to happen again," she said before the event, which had no disruptions and was peaceful.

Weiss said her group is apolitical and steers clear of the larger war between Israel and Hamas. The 2023 attack launched on Israel by Hamas killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Hamas and its affiliates also took about 250 people hostage. Israel launched a counterattack and more than 55,000 people in Gaza, among them children, have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.

The march Sunday included non-Jews such as Debbie Adams-Kade, 69, of Huntington Station.

"This is not about Judaism or Israel," said Adams-Kade, who is Christian. "All of the hostages are not Jewish. And they're not all Israelis. This is just the right thing to do. These were innocent bystanders."

At the end of Sunday's march, Rabbi Joel Levenson of the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, led the crowd in prayer while the names of the 55 hostages still held in Gaza — 20 of whom are still thought to be alive — were read aloud.

"We can affirm, as we have throughout our history, that we will not cower," Levenson said. "We will not run away. We will continue to run for their lives."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.