Loch Sheldrake, NY – Running transforms Laykie Donin, clearing the Houston resident’s head and reducing the stress of raising four children and holding a full-time job.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“When I’m physically fit, I’m mentally fit,” said Donin. “When I come home (from exercising), I’m a much better mom.”
Running became a common ground for Donin and more than 50 other Orthodox Jewish women who gathered at SUNY Sullivan for a first-of-its-kind 5 kilometer walk and run.
The race was open to all women, but most who registered for the 3.1-mile race were black-skirted women and girls vacationing at Sullivan County’s bungalow colonies.
“It’s just the start of something so much more,” said Stephen Friedman, JRunner’s co-founder and president of Brooklyn-based JRunners, which sponsored the event.
The 15-month-old JRunners, which held a 140-mile relay race from Brooklyn to Loch Sheldrake last August, expects to lose money. But Friedman considers Wednesday’s race the building block for an even-larger all-women’s run next summer.
It came about through the persistence of Miriam Wielgus, who ran in two JRunner-sponsored 5K races in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
Manhattan resident Judith Sambol ran the race with her mother-in-law, Robin Bodek Rosenbaum, and won with a time of 23:02.
Read full article at Times Herald-Record
Kok hakovod to these women for setting such an outstanding example for the heimeshe community. All of them are “winners” no matter how slow or fast they run. They are role models for other women that exercise and tzinius and other halaachic concerns are not mutually exclusive. I’m sure some ran in long skirts and sleeves and others in more usual running attire but thats the point. Everyone can dress in whatever lvush they are comfortable but the single most important issue is to get out and exercise. All of our mosdos should encourage girls and women to exercise.
Excuse me, but this is NOT tznius! What’s so tzinusdig about this race if Orthodox women are drawing attention by running? They can run around the gym anytime. No matter how they dress while running, this is NOT tzniusdig at all!!!!!!
far cry from “kol kvuda bas melech pnima”
those that constantly cementing on the way our women dress are spending an offal lot of time staring at other peoples wives. is there something wrong with them or do they have to much time on their hands. perhaps you should spend more time at home
The first race this organization had for women was in prospect park ( where there are lot more people watching then Loch Sheldrake) where the women raised money for an organization supported by all the rosh yeshivos and gedolim. i would assume all the tzinus police allowed it then becuase they made money but if they aren’t making money then it’s not kosher. ” VHAKESEF YAANEH ES HAKOL”
Even if a woman is all covered up in tsniusdik clothing, I don’t think running in public is considered tsniusdik. Go ask your rov (not a modern orthodox one, a real frum one)
This is a fantastic development. It is great to see frum people, both men and women take fitness and health seriously. Running is one of the best forms of cardio training and you can see results in as little as two weeks.
I run around the lakewood lake daily and I see more and more frum women both power walking and running.
What kind of name is Laykie? If its for Layah it’s too far removed.
Wife running (away) ? Where do I sign up?
RUN after your own children, RUN and clean your own home, RUN and do a project or fund raising for a worthy tzedakah and you will be running SOMEWHERE!
The talmud says: One should always run for a ‘dvar mitzva’
There is a regular cadre of posters who blame every tragedy on failure of jewish women to observe the laws of tzinius, taharas hasmishpacha or licht benchen (or some combination of the three). At some point, they (and the rabbonim they cite as support for their “sky-is-falling” rants) will tire of spreading such lashon haroh and blaming every bas yisroel for the ills of the world. A jewish woman who gets out and exercises publicly (wearing reasonably conservative attire) will have a much greater zchus than one who sits at home and fails to take cary of physical self.
Number 2 is absolutely right, the rest of you are so chrum!!
it is high time that the women start pushing back,and stop taking all this abuse from these criminaly insane tznius obssesed women hating crazies,who blame all the ills and tragedies of klall yisroel on the women for their lack of tznius.
They should SHOUT BACK,no,no,no,it is not we, who are responsible,but it is you the low life men,they are the REBBES all over the world who have been fighting with their brothers for the last 10 years in secular courts,and causing a CHILLUL HASHEM from one end of the globe to the other end.It is the abusers of children in the schools and yeshivas,it is the MISHMERES HATZNIUS here in n.y and Jerusalem,where their own memmbers have been caught and jailed by the police for all kinds of perversions.it is the hundreds of frum jews sitting in jails all over the world,for all kinds of frauds and white collar crimes.it is THEY who are responsible for all the TZOROS in klall yisroel,and it’s not the women with the see through stockings or tight dresses.
CH.S
I used to run, around 10 years ago. I fell during a run and broke my ankle, which healed poorly and developed into advanced arthritis so that today it is difficult to even walk, much less run. Swimming is a much better exercise, less stress on the joints.
In the alter heim the yiddishe mammas did not need to run. The present craze of woman not eating and exercising to extremes, trying to be as thin as possible, has more to do with copying Holywood than being healthy. The women look at all these silly magazines with the movie stars and feel they have to look like them. That is all. The health issue is just a ruse.
what is this bashing #2 , he’s 100 % right, the reason he’s on the net is because its private & this is a yidish site, but these ladies, do something wrong in public, & its not that were bizi looking at ladies, they are runing in to us, no matter how you wanna slice it, or what logical reason why its important to run etc.,, there is just 1 thing that’s stands in your way, THE TORAH!!!! the torah says “NO”. we as yidden have no demacrocy, free speech, etc. we have a TORAH & we are very proud with that, & as a yidishe women you have certain obligations, & these kind of “pritses” bring all “tsures” to klal yisroel, so I take this oppurtunity to be “moche” on this “chilul shamayim”, & be mispalel ther should no “charon af” on klal yisroel” umen.
Go Houston!
The talmud says: One should always run for a ‘dvar mitzva’
I am a frum tsniudik woman, who exercises in a private gym. I would never run for exercise where someone could look at me and perhaps get improper ideas because of it.
PUH-LEEZ. Running is not against the holy Torah. If anything, it’s a kiddush Hashem that Yiddishe women are doing the right thing and exercising. Remember, we’re supposed to be a light unto the nations.
#29 is 100% right, for every smallest tragedy it happens in klal yisroel, the womans who are to get blamed. Its very esey to say that we are great whatever we do, only the woman and the tziyonem are the faults
as i read these comments i have tears my eyes as ppl just plain dont chap that we yiddishe kinder r diff from the omoin am we dont have to follow in there path, rather in the path of our fathers lets not forget that the macabeas in the times of onteeyoichus ym”sh were fighting for this purpose exactly thats when the gyms and all kind of olympics started, lets not be like the misyavnim but rather like the macabeas who had the real nitzachon until the very end!! may we be zoche to hear the shofar shel moshiach bb”a!!!
I walk daily from April to November, around the neighborhood(weather and schedule permitting) I wear a regular shirt, denim skirt and snood, and as long as my husband feels its tzniusdik, it is. As long as your elbows and knees are covered, and your husband is OK with it, it’s fine. I’m not giving a psak here, but I believe that to call this ‘untzniusdik’ is why so many frum women are fat, have trouble fighting off diabeltes, heart disease, etc, because every exercise is considered ‘untzniusdik”. Rest assured that all the husbands here did not think so, and I myself, had I been in the mountains, would have participated in this activity, with my husband’s full support!. Yosher Koach to these women for keeping healthy, and to their husbands, for supporting that they take care of themselves!