{"id":194215,"date":"2025-10-07T01:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T01:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194215\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T01:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T01:19:12","slug":"walk-brings-winnipegs-jewish-community-together-in-support-of-israeli-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194215\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk brings Winnipeg’s Jewish community together in support of Israeli people"},"content":{"rendered":"

A crowd of people walked together in Winnipeg on Sunday\u00a0to show\u00a0solidarity with Israeli people just ahead of\u00a0the two-year anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks.<\/p>\n

“I’m here today to support my community\u00a0and to let the families of the hostages \u2026 know that we are here supporting them\u00a0and that we want our hostages home\u00a0and that we want peace,” Jakee Werbuk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Werbuk was one of the\u00a0people who gathered at the Asper Jewish Community Campus\u00a0to take part in the Walk for Israel, organized by the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg. An\u00a0estimated 2,000 people took part, federation CEO Jeff Lieberman said.<\/p>\n

On Oct.\u00a07, 2023,\u00a0Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 people in southern Israel\u00a0and took another 250 as hostages.<\/p>\n

Israel retaliated,\u00a0launching a war in which more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 170,000 more wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

\"AAn estimated 1,500 people took part in the Walk for Israel. (Dave Baxter\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals, but 48 are still held in Gaza \u2014 around 20 believed by Israel to be alive.<\/p>\n

Werbuk said while she wants to see peace in the region, her number one concern is to see every hostage, dead or alive, returned to their families.<\/p>\n

She’s\u00a0been feeling more hopeful about that since Monday, when U.S president Donald Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, introduced what a 20-point peace plan\u00a0that, if agreed to by Hamas, could see the release of all remaining hostages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel incredibly optimistic,” she said. “I think the ceasefire deal that is on the table now is something that the Israeli families need, and I think that supporters around the world are in favour of the proposed ceasefire.<\/p>\n

“As much as none of us will get everything that we want, we simply want our hostages home.”<\/p>\n

\"AJewish Federation of Winnipeg CEO Jeff Lieberman said two years after the attacks, the continuing conflict in the region is still top-of-mind for many in Winnipeg\u2019s Jewish community. (Ron Dhaliwal\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Lieberman said two years after the attacks, the continuing conflict in the region is still top-of-mind for many in Winnipeg’s Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s very fresh,” he said. “The war is still going on, Hamas is still in control of Gaza.”<\/p>\n

Lieberman also praised Trump’s 20-point peace plan, calling it “tremendous.”<\/p>\n

“We’re hoping with the peace plan from President Trump that peace will be restored soon, and that Hamas will lay down their arms, the hostages will be released, and that Israelis will be able to live in a safe and secure environment again soon,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m certainly excited that there’s a good opportunity for peace now, and I’m hoping that happens very soon.”<\/p>\n

Lisa Lewis, who took part in Sunday’s walk, also said her primary\u00a0concern is the return of all remaining hostages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’ve been there for two years\u00a0and we’ve seen the way they have been treated and mistreated,” Lewis said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Once the hostages come home, then [we can] look towards the solution for peace long term.”<\/p>\n

Ben Carr, the MP for Winnipeg South Centre and a member of Winnipeg’s Jewish community, said he joined Sunday’s walk to show support, while calling for an end to what he said has been a rise in antisemitism and hate targeted at\u00a0Jews since the conflict began.<\/p>\n

“There has been a very unfortunate conflation of what’s happening overseas in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the Jewish people worldwide,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Jewish Canadians are being held accountable for the actions of a foreign government, and regardless of how you feel about the Israeli response, it is not acceptable and it’s antisemitic to hold Jewish Canadians accountable for things that are taking place thousands of miles away.”<\/p>\n

He added he has been hearing from many Jewish Winnipeggers that they are feeling more on edge about their own safety.<\/p>\n

\"AShiran Dandiker and her daughter Hodaya pose Sunday at the Asper Jewish Community Campus. (Dave Baxter\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Hodaya Dandiker, who attended Sunday’s walk with her mom, said she recently moved to Canada\u00a0but was living in Israel on the morning of the attacks.<\/p>\n

“I was in Israel and it was not fun,” she said. “I woke up on Saturday and I saw my parents, they were so scared.”<\/p>\n

Dandiker said she wants to see nothing more than hostages released and peace in the region after two years of conflict and bloodshed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I want them to come home\u00a0because they need to be with their families, and they would be so happy,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crowd of people walked together in Winnipeg on Sunday\u00a0to show\u00a0solidarity with Israeli people just ahead of\u00a0the two-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-194215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}