WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — Every Sunday morning, the ‘Run for Their Lives’ group marches down Main Street in Williamsville.
Lisa Benson and Rachel Weiss have led the Buffalo chapter of Run for Their Lives for more than a year.
“There are still 58 hostages in Gaza, and they are suffering,” Weiss said. “Our goal is to walk until every hostage is home.”
On Sunday, this local team watched their group make headlines as members in Boulder, Colorado, were attacked at a pedestrian mall by a man with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, according to authorities.
“We always knew that we were potentially going to be targets by people who hate us just for being Jewish,” Benson said. “Automobiles have stopped and yelled obscenities at us, we’ve had people pull up in their cars and accuse us of being murderers.”
Despite both harassment locally and this weekend’s attack in Colorado, these women tell me they will not be scared off their mission to free the hostages.
“Makes us even more determined to spread awareness of the hostages’ plight,” Weiss said.
“This is a completely apolitical organization whose goal is only to bring awareness of the plight of the hostages and advocate for their release,” Benson said.
Benson and Weiss told me this group is neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine; their only mission is to free hostages in Gaza.
Benson and Weiss told me all are welcome to join in their Sunday morning march down Main Street. The group meets at 10 a.m. at the parking lot next door to the Amherst Library.
When it comes to safety, Amherst Police told me they are aware of the group and its plans to continue to meet every Sunday moving forward.
