May God protect your coming home and going out, now and always.

May God protect those we love, and everyone, in these frightening times!

I’m training for the London Marathon, trying to build the physical and mental stamina to manage those 26+ miles. I’ll be running for Israel Guide Dogs and for TreeAid.

It’s an impossible choice. I wish I could also run for World Jewish Relief, with its amazing support for Ukraine; for The New Israel Fund, with its hope-oriented work for a peaceful shared future; for Crisis, which cares deeply for the homeless, for Camp Simcha which offers respite to unwell children and their families, for some of those amazing NGOs across the world which give medical help, support refugees, provide havens for abused people, rescue hurt and terrified animals, restore rainforests and save plants and birds from extinction.

I wish I could do something for all those so-called ‘ordinary’ special people, in Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Ukraine, everywhere, who just want to get on with caring for their family, helping their friends, having a life. I wish we could stop those terrible wars and find better ways into the future. But I can’t. So this is the tiny bit I can do.

And this is why I’ve chosen these two organisations. Israel Guide Dogs is because I love humans and dogs, and care about my people. The Israel Guide Dog Centre offers dogs to everyone, whatever their faith. They train the amazing dogs who bring confidence and independence to people who’ve lost, or never had, their sight. They upskill trauma and PTSD support dogs, and companion dogs for children. These wonderful animals have a capacity for faithfulness, love, attentiveness and affection we humans cannot match. They don’t bear grudges, argue back, or let you down. They’re there whenever, with their loving hearts. When people have been through hell, when torment pursues them in nightmares, and doesn’t go away when the dawn comes, that wag of a tail, nudge of a head, tap with paw, lick on the ear, means everything.

I’m running for TreeAid, because I love people and trees and all the life and hope they bring. TreeAid works across Africa: ‘We believe people and trees are deeply connected. Trees are a lifeline, vital for survival, resilience and opportunity.’ Shea trees produce nuts from which butter is made, enabling women to have an income, their children to go to school, the soil to retain water and regain fertility, the birds to come back. TreeAid is part of the vast project of planting a twenty-kilometre-wide belt of forest across Africa to hold back the Sahara from expanding its creeping desolation. This is essential for people, children, climate, insects, animals, the very liveability of the planet. Ultimately, it’s about the future of us all.

God willing, I’ll be doing the London Marathon MyWay. It’s definitely a better name than the previous ‘Virtual Marathon’ which suggested sitting at home watching others toil. MyWay means you choose your own route, so long as you run on the correct date, 26 April, and use the official tracker which measures your distance. It’s a wonderful app, talking to you every half mile with just the right amount of encouragement: ‘David’s running for cancer research; listen why;’ ‘You’re tired, but you’re halfway; think of everyone cheering you on;’ ‘Mile 18 is dedicated to fighting racism.’

Meanwhile, alongside training, I’m gathering examples for A Million Acts of Hope week, (https://millionactsofhope.org/) a nationwide, all-faiths-and-communities plan to change the narrative of this country and show that the vast majority of people are not about hate, but friendship, neighbourliness and caring.

I feel so helpless and useless in this world at war. But that’s not going to stop me from doing the little that I can.

Shabbat Shalom, and Happy Eid to all my Muslim friends and colleagues

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg

Please support my 2026 London Marathon fundraising at Israel Guide Dog Centre UK and Tree Aid

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