When Batman Runs

…the antisemites make chase

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When Batman Runs

…the antisemites make chase

Screenshot from Instagram @thejewishfitnesscoach

In case you haven’t heard about him, this man — Yoel Levy from Manchester UK — deserves your attention.

Known on Instagram as The Jewish Fitness Coach, following October 7th he used his popular account to advocate for the Israeli hostages who were brutally taken from their homes and from the Nova party on that dreadful day.

Like many others, he shared Batman images in support of the Bibas family, for the little boys whose faces no one will ever forget as they were taken cruelly in their mother’s arms and later murdered in captivity. Ariel loved Batman and many of the photos shared online following the boys’ and their parents’ abduction showed them wearing Batman costumes, pyjamas, or daywear.

Following the devastating moments in February 2025 of receiving the coffins containing the remains of Ariel, Kfir and Shiri back into Israel, Levy made a decision: he would run the Jerusalem Marathon wearing a Batman costume in memory of the boys. More of a weight-training gym boy than a long-distance runner, it was a challenge to himself, but he persisted and finished the race with pride.

After his achievement in Jerusalem, he then decided to take on the next marathon on the agenda — the London Marathon. And from then until now, he hasn’t stopped running marathons around the world. In his Batman costume. All for the Bibas boys.

Yoel Levy’s mission to run a marathon in a Batman costume became more than just a one-off event, and more than just a run. For him it’s a deeply personal mission, to honour their memories and to stand proud as a Jew who loves and honours life.

Screenshot from @thejewishfitnesscoach

No political messaging — just a proud, loving and open celebration of children whose innocence is encapsulated in the Batman costume, yet whom were cruelly stolen from their loved ones for the entire world to see.

And yet, the world saw but pretended it didn’t. All the while the ever-pervasive antizionist noise claims to care about the lives of children, claims to stand for the protection of children, yet refused to ever acknowledge that these two tiny Jewish boys counted.

Screenshot from @thejewishfitnesscoach

But worse, as Yoel Levy discovered, it is not merely a blind eye that has been turned to the horrific fate of these boys. That, on reflection, would probably have been better than what actually revealed itself.

He knew he would face hate. As he said in an interview published in The Jewish Chronicle following the completion of that first Jerusalem marathon, he knew he would face anti-Jewish sentiments. But at the time, he assumed it would be mostly confined to being on the streets where the running took place. “In Jerusalem, it was the hills and the heat that were the challenge. Here, it’s the safety,” were his words.

What came has been far more frightening.

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I have followed Yoel Levy’s journey over the past 2.5 years and it has been inspiring and uplifting. The fact that he did keep political commentary out of his content and merely created an incredibly positive space, despite the difficult circumstances surrounding it, was refreshing and a huge relief during these troubled times.

He is not calling for war. He is not advocating violence. He is not debating borders, settlements, or Israeli elections. He is engaging in an act of remembrance through sport and symbolism. The image is almost painfully innocent: Batman running for two murdered little boys.

However, a couple of days ago I saw him pass through my feed, sharing news of his latest completed marathon — the Cape Town Marathon — and, along with his triumph, the absolute horrors he is experiencing. What Levy has experienced has been terrifying.

“Last week I received threats, videos, posters of protests against me for being a Jew, running for two boys. I’ve never been more nervous in a run… The last few days I’ve not slept once. It’s been terrifying seeing the threats online against me,” he says in the Instagram reel posted above.

He thought he was doing something loving, kind, caring, and most importantly kept his messaging devoid of any political commentary. But the truth is that no matter what Jews do, especially when we act in support of other Jews, the antizionists will turn everything political. Not only that, by doing so, they then justify turning you into a target for hate and violence.

In some ways it shouldn’t be at all surprising to learn of the hate that is being thrown his way. And yet, it is still shocking that someone who has not said a bad word about anyone while raising awareness of Jewish child victims being tortured and killed in this horrible endless conflict should be targeted with an onslaught of death threats.

Yet again, the Jew-hate is revealing its true nature. And yet again, the perpetrators are the very same people the so-called humanitarians who wave their BDS banners and keffiyehs while claiming they “don’t oppose Jews, only Zionists” are linking arms with. Because, you know, Zionism = Nazism.

In targeting Levy, it’s not clear whether his solidarity with two suspected tiny red-headed “Zio-Nazis” is the problem, or if showing solidarity with these innocent little boys who were brutally murdered by Hamas is what makes Levy a “Zio-Nazi”. Whichever it is, it’s brimming with the usual hypocrisy.

The movement demands mourning “the children”, and yet when grief for Jewish children enters the arena, it results in death threats. Jewish mourning is branded with a political labelling that no other mourning in the world has ever been stamped with.

When we call this out we are met with the same old gaslighting, told that it’s merely criticism of the Israeli government and that our grief is perpetuating the Jewish victim card that is constantly waved by the state. But, in my best British voice, it’s bollocks.

The issue is not criticism of Israel itself. Criticising governments, armies, or ideologies is legitimate in any democracy. The issue is the tendency to treat Jewish expressions of pain, solidarity, or identity as inherently ideological and therefore illegitimate.

One has to ask in earnest: why should mourning murdered Jewish children provoke outrage?

We all know the script now: Wear any Jewish symbol, they claim you have made yourself into a target for violence. Apparently that also includes wearing a Batman costume.

Call the conflict in Gaza a “war” rather than a “genocide” and you’ve identified yourself as the enemy. Criticise Hamas for oppressing their own people, they’ll call you a genocide supporter. Mention the gender apartheid or the treatment of gays in Palestinian society and you’re called a baby killer.

For Levy, the very act of publicly mourning Israeli Jewish child victims became treated by the anti-Israel brigade as a political provocation, accused of inflaming hatred merely by wearing a Batman costume. It becomes the excuse to invoke the “Zionist” blood libels of the modern era.

The political framework consumes the human one. Because it’s simply not about humanity.

The Bibas children were not politicians. They were not military leaders. Ariel Bibas was four years old; Kfir Bibas was an infant when kidnapped. Their deaths horrified people across the political spectrum. Yet among sections of activist culture, even symbolic empathy for them became suspect because they were Israeli Jews.

A man in a Batman costume is the ultimate way to illustrate just how warped these claims are. There is nothing political about a Batman costume — it is the picture of pure innocence.

A child loved Batman. A man honours that child by becoming Batman. There is something universally relatable about it. Something universally beautiful.

And that’s clearly what infuriates the Jew-haters so much. The fact that the two little Jewish boys with their flame-coloured hair, their sweet delight in life, and their love of something so innocent and pure speaks to the world in ways the watermelon emojis and antizionist genocidal slogans keep failing to.

And it was precisely this innocence, purity, and universality that drew death threats to Batman’s door.

Yoel Levy is a genuine hero dressed in the costume of a fictional superhero. He embodies the strength, kindness and resilience the Watermelon Cult members could only dream of.

Well, Batman, you make us proud! Jewish and proud!

In memory of the Bibas family whose short lives encapsulated the love of the entire Jewish people.

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