Tens of thousands raised in community’s marathon efforts
Runners of all ages champion charities including British Emunah, Shaare Zedek UK and Chai Cancer Care
Thousands of pounds have been raised for Jewish communal charities by runners taking on this year’s London Marathon.
Ebony Soltani-James ran for Shaare Zedek UK in memory of her grandfather, raising more than £2k. As a proud Jew with a Muslim father, Ebony was also one of the 59 racers proudly running in honour of a hostage, raising awareness of fallen IDF tracker, 40-year Muhammad Al-Atrash, whose body is still held in Gaza.
Gadi Melcer, Ben Ezekiel, Albie Jackson, Donal Higgins and Brendan Higgins ran for British Emunah, raising more than £10k to support vulnerable children across Israel. The charity paid special tribute to Flora Franks, who has been running marathons for them for an incredible 28 years but was unable to participate this year due to illness.
Jewish Care and Jami’s combined team of twelve runners raised £50,000. Amongst them was JCoSS student Max Bailey, one of the youngest participants in this year’s marathon, having celebrated his 18th birthday only just last week.
He chose to run for Jami because his girlfriend of two years received support from Jami’s Dangoor Children and Young Person’s Service, and it really helped her.
Team mate Sam Steinberg said: “Since my grandpa received a dementia diagnosis, I am doing all I can to bring him joy. Crossing the finish line was one of the best moments of my life! I’m so happy to have completed the challenge, especially in the heat, and also to have reached my target and raise over £6.5K for Jewish Care.”
Other runners included Joe Klein and Alfie Keene, who ran for Jami in memory of his dad, Saul Keene and Rachel Turek, who took on her first marathon for her sister, Talia.
Seven incredible runners proudly represented Kisharon Langdon, raising £34k and awareness for the charity dedicated to supporting individuals with learning disabilities and autistic people in the Jewish community.
The dedicated team included Yomi Cohen, Abe Eckstein, James Gordon, Michael Jaeger, Ronit Sklair, Sam Ucko and Sagi Mado, who travelled from Israel especially to participate, inspired by his sister-in-law Adina Collins who is headteacher at Kisharon Noé School.
Eight runners represented Team Chai Cancer Care, raised more than £45,000. Zoe Sayliss completed the marathon in 5 hours 25 minutes and said: “Just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer. Thanks to the interventions of my incredible medical team I am, according to my latest scans, cancer free. I would not be in the position that I’m in today if it weren’t for the support of Chai.”
Also running for Chai were Jack Lewis, Adam Lisberg, Sebastian Pell, Daryl Isaacs, Zack Cohen, David Levine and Marcus Ardeman.
The United Synagogue‘s head of safeguarding and welfare, Claudia Kitsberg ran the ran the marathon in 4 hours 21 minutes, raising more than £21k.
Norwood’s 26 marathon runners raised almost £100k to support for children with neurodiversity and their families and people with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Jacob Steinberg, whose sister Ella lives in the charity’s adult accommodation, raised more than £7k in his first ever marathon. Also running for a personal cause was James Goodman, who raised almost £14k and said: “I’m running for my Aunt Pippa. She’s lived most of her adult life at Norwood’s Ravenswood Village, and Norwood has been our family’s rock. Pippa has severe disabilities and needs round-the-clock care.”
Describing the day as “incredible and one I’ll never forget”, he added: “There were moments where my body was screaming at me to stop. Moments where I could have easily paused, walked or given up. What kept me going? The reason I was doing it. Very sore knees, but a full heart this morning.”
Also running for the community charity were Saul Rudolph, Lottie Nilsen, Molly Goldsmith, Rebecca Jackson, Adrain Treverton and Mark Martel.
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