Shliach Gears up for Marathon

Jewish Ledger

Adam Haston may be the first-ever Chabad rabbi to run in the New York City Marathon.

The director of program and community development of Chabad of Orange/Woodbridge threw out the idea to a neighbor last October, and promptly forgot about it. “I said I thought I could do some good by running and raising money for a cause,” Haston says.

A few months later, the neighbor reminded Haston about the proposition and mentioned a cousin who serves on the board of The Blue Card, an organization that provides financial assistance to needy Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution. The non-profit is offered a few slots in the New York City Marathon every year, and its runners raise money for the cause. Haston met with the man and decided to jump in.

A native of El Paso, Texas, Haston says his parents taught him and his three siblings to do what’s right, “no matter what society says about it.” His father did PR work for NAACP in New York. As a child, Haston marched with his family in Washington, D.C. to support civil rights.

So it’s not a great leap that he’ll now be running for a cause, the arduous training regimen notwithstanding. “Whenever I mention that I’m running the marathon, people say, ‘I didn’t know you were a runner,’ and I have to say, ‘I’m not,'” Haston says. “I wouldn’t identify myself as a runner per se; like a lot of people, I’ve jogged for exercise in the past, maybe a mile or so, but nothing major.”

“What’s kind of painful to me is that The Blue Card isn’t well known,” says Haston of the 76-year-old endeavor. “Blue Card has a singular service: to support destitute Holocaust survivors. I wanted to help because it’s just a matter of justice, the right thing to do. People should not have gone through the horrors they went through to survive and have more pain and suffering. Your heart breaks.” While one or two Chabad rabbis have run in other marathons, Haston is the first to register for the New York City event.

Haston sees in the marathon both symbolic and pragmatic ways to help the Jewish community.

“On a simple level, a marathon is a metaphor for the last 3,322 years we’ve been a nation,” he says. “It’s a really long distance and we must continue. On a broader level, we are using it as a very practical way to give everyone the opportunity to partner with us to give, and to support this noble cause. Charity in Hebrew is ‘tzedakah,’ more accurately translated as ‘justice.’ This is to inform us on how to view the way we approach tzedakah: it’s not optional, just as justice isn’t optional, but it’s something that must be done.”

Haston isn’t sure yet whether he’ll wear anything special to bring attention to his cause during the marathon. But his kippah and tzitzis will be visible, of course, and he hopes to raise funds and awareness between now and the Nov. 7 event.