Ukrainian cities will join the memorial event for the victims of the October 7, 2023 attack — RUN 7.10. The All-Ukrainian Association of Maccabi Organizations announced runs and walking routes in various cities of Ukraine and opened registration for everyone interested. The organizers’ wording here says more than a usual sports announcement: “We run and walk together with Israel”.
This is not a competition for seconds, places, and medals. “Maccabi-Ukraine” calls RUN 7.10 a decentralized and completely voluntary civil memory project, aimed at creating a shared moment of memory, unity, and hope through movement. The material for NANews was prepared by Stas Shifer, and this story has an Israeli part, without which the very name RUN 7.10 can be understood too literally — just as the date of another event.
RUN 7.10 is already being prepared in Israel itself
In Israel, on October 7, 2026, there is an initiative with almost the same name — רצים 7.10, “Running 7.10”. The idea is not built around a single central start: in different parts of the country, people gather in local groups to remember the deceased, walk or run the route, and do it simultaneously with others.
This format does not have the usual structure of a large commercial race with timing and competition for results. The distance has symbolic significance — 7.10 kilometers, meaning the date itself, October 7, is turned into a route.
The Ukrainian announcement is built very similarly: the same decentralized principle, voluntary participation, and almost literal connection of memory, unity, and hope. At the same time, there is no confirmation in open sources that the Ukrainian RUN 7.10 is formally a subdivision or official continuation of a specific Israeli organizational team. Therefore, merging the two initiatives into one project would be incorrect. But the cultural and symbolic connection is obvious here, especially since “Maccabi-Ukraine” itself writes: “We run and walk together with Israel”.
Why exactly 7.10 kilometers
For Israel, the distance of 7.10 km did not appear yesterday. After the attack by Hamas and other armed groups on October 7, 2023, running communities began dedicating this distance to the deceased, hostages, and affected settlements in the south of the country.
One of the formats involved runs specifically through kibbutzim, moshavim, and cities that were attacked. People ran 7.10 kilometers not so much as a sports distance but as a memorial route. The date ceased to be just a calendar entry and gained a physical dimension: seven kilometers and one hundred meters that a person covers themselves.
Therefore, 7.10 in the name of the current Ukrainian event is not just a beautiful number next to the word RUN. In Israeli practice in recent years, it has already become a separate symbol of memory.
From the Maccabiah in Israel to RUN 7.10 in Ukraine
There is another line, without which the current announcement looks much narrower than it is. Just a few months ago, the Ukrainian team participated in the XXII World Maccabiah in Israel.
Ukraine was represented by 50 athletes from 11 cities, competing in 13 sports. The delegation included participants from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Chernivtsi, Lviv, and Khmelnytskyi.
NANews has already reported on the “Maccabi-Ukraine” delegation at the XXII World Maccabiah and the participation of Ukrainian athletes in Israeli competitions.
It turns out to be a fairly short time chain. In the summer, Ukrainian athletes come to Israel for the main international event of the Maccabi movement, and in September, the same Ukrainian organization announces a memorial event on October 7 within the country.
And for NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, this connection makes the story more than just a sports announcement: here, the connection between Ukraine and Israel is manifested not through another diplomatic protocol, but through a public organization and people who are simply invited to go out, walk or run the route.
What is “Maccabi-Ukraine”
“Maccabi-Ukraine” is the Ukrainian part of the large international Jewish sports movement Maccabi. The All-Ukrainian Association of Maccabi Organizations has been officially operating in Ukraine since the 1990s, but the history of Jewish sports societies “Maccabi” on the territory of present-day Ukraine is much older.
Such organizations existed as early as the beginning of the 20th century, including in Odesa and Bukovina. The modern international movement unites sports and public structures in dozens of countries, and the World Maccabiah in Israel remains its largest event.
After October 7, the memory of the deceased and affected became a separate part of the work of the global movement. Therefore, the Ukrainian initiative is in a context understandable for “Maccabi”: sports are used not instead of memory, but as one of the ways to preserve it.
What happened on October 7
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas and other armed formations from the Gaza Strip attacked southern Israel. Militants infiltrated Israeli settlements, military bases, and the territory of the Nova music festival.
As a result of the attack, about 1,200 people were killed, and 251 people were captured and taken to the Gaza Strip. For Israel, October 7 became not only the beginning of the ensuing war but also a separate national trauma, around which memorials, archives of testimonies, public ceremonies, sports events, and local memory initiatives appeared in subsequent years.
Therefore, for the Israeli reader, the phrase RUN 7.10 is perceived somewhat differently than just the name of a race. The numbers here already carry their own meaning.
Explanation for Israeli readers
The Ukrainian RUN 7.10 is not a state day of remembrance in Ukraine and does not replace official Israeli ceremonies. It is a public initiative of “Maccabi-Ukraine”, which invites people in different Ukrainian cities to simultaneously join the memorial action.
At the same time, the organizers appeal not only to members of Jewish communities and not only to athletes. The original announcement mentions everyone interested, and the format itself provides the opportunity not only to run but also to walk.
This is significant: a person does not need a sports rank, club affiliation, or participation in a Jewish organization. The meaning is in the very presence.
At the time of publication, the full list of Ukrainian cities, starting points, and local schedules have not yet been listed in the public announcement. Those wishing to join are invited by the organizers to fill out the RUN 7.10 registration form.
Ukraine and Israel — one date, different cities
On October 7, people in Israel will once again take to the memorial routes. Now a similar gesture is being prepared in Ukraine — a country that itself lives within a great war, with casualties, destroyed cities, air raids, and its own experience of loss.
There is no need to compare the two wars here, and the organizers do not do so. The meaning of RUN 7.10 is much simpler: on a day that for Israel is associated with killings, abductions, and destroyed families, there will also be people in Ukrainian cities who will take to the streets.
And the formula “Maccabi-Ukraine” in this case explains the event better than any long slogan: “We run and walk together with Israel”.