East Bay bikers join eco-ride across Israel

jerusalem |  It wasn’t exactly the Tour de France, but a recent bike trip across Israel proved a major lifecycle event for two Jewish riders from the East Bay.

Susan Jaffe of Walnut Creek and Sarah Liron of Orinda, both members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek and both bicycling fanatics, traveled to Israel earlier this month for the Arava Institute’s Hazon Israel Environmental Bike Ride, a six-day, 300-mile pedal from Jerusalem to Eilat.

The Arava Institute is a multicultural organization dedicated to improving and protecting the natural environment of the Middle East.

Before arriving in Israel, every rider had to line up at least $3,600 in pledges. “I had no problem getting sponsors,” recalls Liron. “People were very supportive.”

For some participants, like Jaffe, this was a first trip to Israel; for others, like Liron (who went to high school in Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces), it was a chance to get reacquainted with the country, up close and personal.

The itinerary took riders through Jerusalem’s Old City, to Ein Karem, across the Negev Desert through Beersheva, winding up in Eilat. In between, riders had a 1,001 adventures.

“For me the highlight was combining cycling with Judaism,” notes Jaffe. “The landscape was very stark and hilly, and one day going through the desert we had a sandstorm and headwinds. It was like we were lost in Sinai.”

One student on the trip, Abdelraouf Darwish, a Jordanian government engineer based in Aqaba, chose to attend the Arava Institute over an offer from a school in London.

“I believe in the common destiny of all peoples in the region,” Darwish said. “The environment is not confined by borders so why should I be?”

Hadil, an Israeli Arab from Akko who completed her bachelor’s degree at Haifa University, said the institute was the only genuinely tolerant educational establishment she had encountered in Israel.

“We talk about everything here,” she said. “We might not agree, but at the end of the day we hug and are family.”

The bicycle ride is one of a series of Jewish environmental bike rides established by Nigel Savage, an English-born investment banker who became a Jewish social entrepreneur.

Savage started his group, Hazon—which means “vision” in Hebrew—four years ago. He had been studying Judaism at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem and was thinking about what kind of contribution he could make to the broader Jewish community.

On the fourth night, after the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team won the Euroleague championship, Savage gathered the group and announced that the following morning there would be a prayer service at the Ramon Crater.

But with a Freudian slip of the tongue, Savage said the group would “gather beside the Creator to daven shacharit,” or say morning prayers.

When, the following morning, the prayers commenced, hail rained down from the heavens and lightning lit up the sky.

Pulling their tallitot over their heads, the group broke into song: The Creator had shown up at the crater.

“I felt so happy and lucky seeing Israel from the seat of a bicycle,” says Jaffe. “You really get close to the land.”




Dan Pine is a j. staff writer. Susan Kennedy writes for jta.