Richard Goldwasser and Anan Abu-Taleb have been running together for years. But this week, the pair have been getting an especially early start — commuting from their homes in the suburbs to Buckingham Fountain, a lakefront landmark here, to pound the pavement in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Goldwasser, an American Jew who grew up in the suburb of Skokie, and Abu-Taleb, a Palestinian-American who grew up in Gaza, have been running together for five years. Introduced by a mutual friend, they discovered that they’re both avid marathoners.
Now, with tensions and protests over Israel and Gaza swirling in and around the Democratic National Convention, they’ve invited others to join them on morning runs every day of the convention that, they hope, will be a small gesture to bring about a ceasefire in the 10-month-old conflict.
At 7:30 on a bright and chilly morning this week, Goldwasser and Abu-Taleb were joined by about a dozen other people wearing gray T-shirts with the slogan “Ceasefire now-Hostage/Prisoner release.” The group runs a four-mile loop between the fountain and McCormick Place, a convention site, to the south.
“We’re both runners, we’re both grandparents,” Goldwasser, 59, said as he warmed up. “I mean, I don’t think we’re going to change people’s minds overnight, but I think if we could introduce the idea of getting to know the other and trying to understand their perspective, I think it’s a start.”
The men also say the run is a small sign of resistance against the divisions that have widened between Jewish and Arab Americans since the launch of the Israel-Hamas war. Chicago has large Jewish and Palestinian communities.
“What we’re doing here today, and what we have been doing for the last few years, is bringing people together, like there’s people here we have never met,” said Abu-Taleb, 65, a former mayor of suburban Oak Park who moved to the United States at age 19. “But our message resonates with them because they understand that when you treat others equally and as human, it’s so much easier to talk to them, to collaborate, and it’s hard to hate them.”
Goldwasser, a lawyer who once clerked for an Israeli Supreme Court justice and sat for years on the board of the liberal Israel lobby J Street, got up just after 5 a.m. to travel from his home in the suburb of Highland Park to the run’s starting point.
Original plan
He and Abu-Taleb had originally planned something much grander: a marathon through the West Bank and Israel. But the COVID-19 pandemic and other logistical hangups got in the way. Then, Abu-Taleb said, Goldwasser proposed a shorter daily run during the Democratic convention. Word has spread through social media, word of mouth and a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Seven people showed up on Monday, and numbers have grown every day since. On Tuesday, one of the participants was Lily Greenberg Call, the former Biden administration staffer who quit to protest US support for Israel. She was in town with IfNotNow, the Jewish group that is harshly critical of Israel.
“He called me last week and he said, ‘Hey, I have an idea that we do this run together during the DNC,” said Abu-Taleb. “We meet every morning, and like, I’m 100% in.”
The running path is about three and a half miles from the United Center, where the convention is taking place, but they’ve come closer than that to the action: On Tuesday they passed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the vice-presidential nominee, who was also jogging.
Ahead of the Wednesday run, Goldwasser tagged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders on social media, and invited them to lace up.
“Not too late to head over to Buckingham Fountain for our 7:30 AM run,” he wrote. “Or join us tomorrow.”