Dor Hadash members complete spiritual, charitable cross-country trek
A group of senior cyclists rode from Oregon to New Jersey, raising funds for an immigrant family and for Torah repairs
A group of senior cyclists from Congregation Dor Hadash took on their biggest challenge yet this spring with a cross-country trek from Oregon to New Jersey.
Ranging in age from 61 to 79, they pedaled with a purpose, raising $10,000 for an Afghan family newly resettled in Pittsburgh and $7,000 for their congregation’s Torah repairs.
“There are many reasons to do a trip like this,” said Nancy Levine, 69, a retired physician who lives in Highland Park. “The physical commitment is a huge thing, and the camaraderie is amazing, but raising money for a cause that is consistent with Jewish values played a very big role in our getting up every day and putting one pedal in front of the other.”
Levine was joined on the seven-week journey through 11 states by organizer Mark Rubenstein, 72, of Swisshelm Park, and Harry Levinson, of Squirrel Hill, who turned 70 during the trip.
Others, including Rubenstein’s wife, Claudia Davidson, 72, and Dr. Robert Kraftowitz, 74, signed on for portions of the ride, while Daniel Mosse, 62, intended to go the distance but had to bail in Idaho because of an Achilles tendon problem.
While Dor Hadash congregants have biked to benefit refugees for the past four years, this spring’s 3300-mile ride, which ran from the second day of Passover to Shavuot, was, by far, the most ambitious.
The group started in Florence, Oregon, with a ceremonial dipping of their back tires in the Pacific Ocean and ended when they wet their front wheels in the surf at Ventner, New Jersey.
They were welcomed by Rabbi Cheryl Klein, Dor Hadash cantor emerita, who served them dinner at her summer home in neighboring Margate.
“They looked amazing, fantastic, with this wonderful glow, having made a successful journey,” said Klein, who called their mission “a mitzvah”
“We spent the entire evening with them, hearing about their wonderful trip and the fascinating things they encountered. It was the most memorable erev Shavout of my lifetime.”
Although Rubenstein, an attorney, has organized more than 100 cycling adventures as founder of Pittsburgh Youth Leadership, a group for at-risk teens, the Dor Hadash journey was unique in that it included a spiritual element.
“It coincided with the counting of the Omer,” said Rubenstein in reference to the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot that encourages inner growth with the recitation of nightly blessings. “Daniel Mosse would lead us in study, sometimes by Zoom, and we’d discuss some attribute of Judaism, like kindness.”
“We’d try to incorporate these virtues as we cycled, as we strove to become better people.”
For Levine it was akin to “praying with one’s feet,” which Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously described as he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1965. “I think about that on rides like this,” Levine said. “I prayed as I pedaled.”
The money the cyclists raised came from fellow congregants, family and friends.
Dor Hadash has a history of welcoming the stranger — a core tenet of Judaism — not only with financial aid but by taking newcomers under their wing, helping them surmount language and cultural barriers.
The 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, which was motivated in part by the gunman’s hatred of Dor Hadash’s affiliation with HIAS (a refugee aid organization), impelled the congregation to “double down” in its mission, Levine said. “We would not be cowed by this horrible, tragic event.”
Dor Hadash member Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, one of the 11 killed, was an avid cyclist.
Past rides averaged 400 miles. Following last year’s particularly grueling trek on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina, Rubenstein deemed the group “hardy enough to go cross country.”
An itinerary that maximized sightseeing made the journey as meaningful as the goal.
“Oregon was absolutely beautiful because it was the height of snow melt season and the rivers were just roaring,” Rubenstein said. “We climbed 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, with three feet of snow on the side of road and saw the Geographic Center of the United States monument in Kansas.”
In Wizard of Oz-themed Wamego, Kansas, they walked the yellow brick road, ate at Toto’s TacOz, and toured the OZ Museum. “We were like little kids,” Rubenstein said.
Crossing 8800 feet on the Rocky’s Teton Pass is one of Levine’s more vivid memories. “I looked out over Jackson Hole and saw two people on skis,” she said. “That moment was pretty life-affirming.”
The group experienced a range of weather from a whiteout in Wyoming to tornado-driven rain, hail and high winds near St. Louis. “That was the most significant weather event,” Levine said. “We were having lunch on the Katy Trail. I immediately ran into a bathroom made of concrete block, but my fellow cyclists stayed in the pavilion. The whole thing lasted about an hour and then we biked on.”
For Mosse, the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, a geologic wonderland in Idaho, was particularly fascinating.
Lodgings included motels, short-term housing rentals, a bunkhouse and “an old school resort that was pretty funky,” Rubenstein said, noting that meals also ran the gamut from peanut butter sandwiches to restaurants. “Where to eat was a big deal. You can imagine, with a bunch of old, retired, professional Jews ‘googling’ restaurants for reviews.”
Cycling through tiny towns in America’s heartland was, he said, both “a blast and a learning experience.”
The group evoked curiosity among locals, especially when they saw the support van covered with stickers from all over the U.S., its rooftop rack loaded with bikes, Levine said. “We’d tell them we were raising money for a charitable organization and knew each other from the same congregation.”
“There’s enough antisemitism in America we were a little cautious, but we did not hide anything, either. Most people did not ask for details, but we’d answer those who did, and they rarely said anything more. Immigration is a big political thing right now. But no one was hostile.”
Mosse, a native of Brazil and a professor of computer science at the University of Pittsburgh, said he encountered “zero animosity” and, on the whole, people were “super welcoming.”
The trip was an inspiration, he said, with kudos for his fellow cyclists.
“It was beautiful to see the strength in these septuagenarians. I was the second-youngest person in the group and I’m the one who had to leave with an Achilles tendon problem, while the 70-plus crowd was still going strong.”
“I’m thinking when I grow up I want to be like these guys. I can’t help but smile remembering.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
comments