“Holy Mission” for Israeli Athlete

Frum Bobsledder Hopes to Make History at Upcoming Winter Olympics

By Steve Lipman

ovember is an important month for A.J. Edelman. That’s when Edelman, a day school graduate from Boston who made aliyah five years ago and competed for Israel in the skeleton event during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, begins a round of international qualification races for the 2022 Games in his new sport, bobsledding.

And that’s when he gets to continue his annual, symbolic Chanukah candle-lighting tradition, which he began in 2016 in the German Alps near Adolf Hitler’s wartime winter resort, Berchtesgaden.

If Edelman, the pilot on his four-man bobsled team, qualifies for next year’s Olympics in Beijing, it will mark Israel’s first appearance in that sliding event. And, if the qualifications go the way that he envisions, his team will make history in another way – the three pushers, who get the fiberglass sled off to a fast start then jump into the cramped vehicle’s trip down a nearly mile-long icy, brain-rattling, banked, twisting track at speeds approaching 80 mph, will be all Sabras; bobsled competitors for countries like Israel, whose tropical climates do not feature snowfall, typically come from more-temperate areas that include cold temperatures part of the year.

One of Edelman’s anticipated teammates will be an Israeli Druze. Ward Fawarsy, Edelman says, will be, as far as he knows, the first Arab athlete to compete for Israel in a Winter Olympics. Another pusher, who served in the Israeli Army, is, like Edelman, shomer Shabbat – making them the first pair of Olympic competitors who will represent Israel at a Winter Olympics.

The eclectic nature of Edelman’s bobsled team reflects his mission to show a more positive, more inclusive image of Israel than the Jewish state often receives abroad.

“It’s the role of an Israeli athlete…. I’m on a holy mission,” he says. “I’m an agent of the state, an ambassador…a walking billboard for Israel. The responsibility is heavy.”

As a “30 and single” Modern Orthodox Jew (he always wears a kippa, a blue or grey knitted one) in an Olympic sport, albeit a minor one to most sports fans, Edelman is a one-man stereotype breaker – showing people by his presence, and his limited success so far, a side of Jews, and of Israel, which they rarely see.

People who meet him, or hear his frequent public speeches, automatically make the connection with Jamacia’s storied bobsled team, whose unexpected, first appearance at the 1988 Winter Games at Calgary caught the fancy of fans – and non-sports-fans -- and became the subject of a popular 1993 movie. How do you say “Cool Runnings” in Hebrew? (Answer: Ritsot Magnivot.)

The Jamaicans finished off the podium in 1988 – and in subsequent years that they qualified for the Games.

Likewise, a medal is not a realistic goal for Edelman’s team in the Beijing Games, which begin on February 4, but may be a real possibility if he continues to compete, and qualify for, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, he says from his temporary base on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Though he lives, when in Israel, in Netanya, he travels internationally during most of the year to train and compete at the dozen or so bobsled/skeleton/luge tracks in North America, Europe and Asia – a few weeks or months in one venue, then more in another. In his “nomadic” life, he and his teammates live in rented houses or RVs.

He spent several recent months in the Greater New York area preparing for the 2022 Games, by sprinting and weightlifting, and by fund-raising for his team’s six-figure “shoestring” budget. His quixotic quest receives no financial support from Israel’s Olympic committee. Much of the team’s money, Edelman (bobteamisrael.com, Fb.com/bobteamisrael, GoFundMe.com/israelbobsled, adam.edelman@olympian. org) says, comes from “my pocket.”

Edelman has brought a religious dimension to his athletic career. He began his candle-lighting tradition in 2015, outside of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest resort, lighting his menorah while wearing the skintight, aerodynamic bobsled uniform that he designed. It features a Star of

David and the word “Israel” visible from any angle. He calls his visible holiday act a sign of Jewish survival, in a venue where the architect of the Final Solution had vacationed.

“It’s those kinds of little things that remind you who you represent,” he says.

Edelman will be in the U.S. this year for Chanukah, which starts on November 28. He will light the candles near his training site and send “a shaliach” (a messenger) to light the candles for him at Berchtesgaden.

Israel has sent athletes to the Winter Games since 1994; Israeli athletes, who have won 13 medals in the Summer Games, have won none in the Winter Olympics.

Understandably, winter sports have a small following in Mediterranean Israel, and athletes in them have little opportunity to train in frigid climes unless, like Edelman, they spend much of their time overseas.

Yaniv Ashkenazi, who heads the winter sports program at Israel’s Wingate Institute, says the country may send up to a dozen competitors, Israel’s largest-ever delegation at the Winter Games, to Beijing, including athletes in skiing, ice-dancing, and short track speed skating.

Other athletes looking to compete for Israel at Beijing include:

Skeleton slider Georgie Cohen, a British-Israeli citizen, whose late grandfather, captain of India’s water polo team in 1936, was barred from taking place in that year’s Summer Olympics in Berlin out of deference to the Nazis’ anti-Jewish policies.

Dave Nicholls, a bobsled pilot from Park City, Utah, a paraplegic since a 2002 skiing accident, who has participated in athletic competition for disabled and able-bodied athletes. He remains in the pilot’s seat at the start, allowed under bobsled regulations. Jared Firestone, a law school graduate from Florida who has competed for Israel two years in the skeleton event. He won a bronze medal at the IBSF (International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation) North American Cup in Park City this year. The bobsled qualification period, with races on this continent and overseas, ends in February. Edelman says the odds are “probably greater than 90 percent” that his sled will qualify for the Beijing games. David Greaves, volunteer president of the Bobsleigh Skeleton Israel Olympic Federation (his fulltime job is executive director of the

He calls his visible holiday act a sign of Jewish National Fund of Canada), says “it is pretty likely” that Jewish survival, in a venue where the architect Edelman will qualify for the Beijing Games – “a real good shot.” Edelman, Greaves says, “has of the Final Solution had vacationed. brought honor to our program.” “I know I can make it,” Edelman says. “We need some resources,” some financial help, he adds. For a sport that gets little publicity in this country, outside of an Olympic year, money is as tight as the space inside a bobsled. To cut down on expenses, Edelman says, sometimes he lives in his car and avoids using hot water. To recruit a four-man bobsled team, Edelman had to think outside the sled; Israel is not a natural source of world-class bobsledders. Athletes from such other sports as track-and-field and rugby traditionally find it easy to transition their strength and speed to bobsledding. So Edelman looked for, and approached, successful Israeli rugby players.

A few Druze athletes, including Amir Fawarsy, and two members of his family who subsequently dropped out for financial reasons, were interested. And Edelman was interested in the symbolism of a multi-ethnic team representing the Jewish state.

Druze, ethnically Arab, are part of a religion that is an off-shoot of Islam. About 140,000 live in Israel, mostly in the northern part of the country.

Fawarsy, like Edelman, is strong and fast and rugged – used to being battered and bruised

During races, Edelman wears gloves that read “Am Yisrael Chai” (the Jewish people live). A graduate of Boston’s Maimonides School, he takes off from the sport on Shabbat, eats lots of kosher yogurt and herring on the road, and recites a Psalm before each race.

He almost gave up the sport a few years ago after a competition in South Korea – until he noticed that someone who had recognized him stuck a yellow Post-It note on one of his suitcases at the airport. The note read: “I saw your game. Your challenge has impressed the people of the world. I want to see you in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.” It was written by a young Korean woman, he says, and motivated him to keep competing.

His unique athletic career has brought invitations to address Jewish organizations like schools and shuls around the country. At a sturdy 5’10”, 183 pounds, average height and weight for an adult Jewish man, he can pass for a familiar teacher or rabbi – which makes his singularity even more intriguing, even more inspirational to young Jews seeking

their (sometimes counter-intuitive) place in the Jewish world. What kind of questions do people ask him at his speeches? From older listeners, usually about politics – whether he encounters anti-Semitism in the bobsled world (“It’s ever-present,” particularly in negative comments about rich Jews). From young people, mostly about his personal life as an Olympic bobsledder – whether he ever gets scared (no, not of injury, but of the possible failure born of lack of confidence). He’s suffered no crippling or debilitating injuries - which is a risk that bobsledders take. “Thank G-d I’m in good health,” Edelman says, despite the bumps and bruises and “a lot of broken bones” that are part of a bobsledder’s life. Edelman -- who spent a gap year at an Israeli yeshiva, earned Edelman is a one-man stereotype breaker an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, before going to work for Oracle as showing people by his presence, and his a product manager, then taking a two-year break from his MBA limited success so far, a side of Jews, studies at Yale to concentrate on bobsled – says he wants an evenand of Israel, which they rarely see. tual career that will combine his sports and business background; he may coach or mentor other Israeli sliding athletes. He says he is unlikely to go to the 2026 Games. That’s long-term. What about short-term? What will he do after February, if he fails to qualify for the Beijing Games? Edelman pauses for a second. He has not considered that possibility – unless he runs out of money. “I’m going,” he says, “to the Olympics.”