Along their long-distance bike route, Mark Weis and his daughter, Adina, met up with a pro-Israel “angel” outside the White House.
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August 4, 2009
A couple of weeks early and a few states short of their original goal, Mark Weis and his daughter, Adina, called it quits on their marathon bike ride — but in doing so, they achieved something quite unforeseen.
The two set out from the family’s home in Hillside on July 2, with the aim of publicizing the plight of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit along a cycle route to Florida. In Buxton, NC, on Wednesday, July 22, they reluctantly decided that they had covered enough territory.
They had completed about 600 miles, a huge achievement for two people who had never so much as done a bike marathon before.
Though it wasn’t always easy to get people to listen, Mark Weis said, in various Jewish communities they were able to share their concern for Shalit. But it was on their way home that they got to share his story at greatest length, and to discuss their Jewish values with a Christian minister, a man who had never talked with Orthodox Jews before.
After getting home, Weis said the main factor in their decision to head home was the upcoming nine days leading to Tisha B’Av — which this year fell on July 30 — a mourning period with a variety of restrictions. Also, he wrote in an e-mail to NJ Jewish News, “our ride did involve some danger, and I felt that we had been very fortunate so far not to have any major problems or injuries and I didn’t want to push it.”
But getting home wasn’t so easy. He had originally planned to drive home in a rental car, but in Buxton, they found themselves nowhere near any rental chain outlets. So Weis then decided to buy a cheap old clunker with a trunk that could hold their bikes, drive it back to New Jersey, and then resell it — but there were no car dealers in sight. At last, they spotted a car for sale at the side of the road — but it turned out to be a little too ramshackle to cover the distance home. Even the seller agreed with that.
Weis said he sensed that the car owner was a man of honor. “It turned out that he was the pastor at a local church,” he said. “I offered him $500 to drive us home in his wife’s minivan, and he agreed.” They set out after the minister finished his sermon that evening, drove all through the night, and arrived in Hillside at 9 the next morning.
Along the way, the father and daughter talked to the pastor about their values and beliefs. “He asked question after question,” Weis said. “I showed him tefillin and tallis and explained what it is. He loved it and felt blessed that God sent him here; he then asked me to bless him in Hebrew before his ride home, which I did.”
Adina, who had never bicycled more than six miles before — and that when she was about five — said the ride was “an amazing, amazing experience. My relationship with my dad really grew.”
She was particularly appreciative of his thoughtfulness. “We were going to get up at 6:30 every morning, but he never wanted to wake me up, and — well, I’m a teenager,” she said. “He’d get up and daven, and then after I woke up, he’d get everything ready on the bikes while I davened. We’d only get going around 8:30.”
She got a big kick out of seeing new parts of the country, especially Washington, DC. Now, she said, she wants to travel more.
One of their favorite moments of the ride took place in front of the White House. Weis said, “There was this young lady dressed in a white costume with angel wings, a boom box, and on a scooter. She was holding an Israeli flag, so naturally we went up to say hi to her and we assumed she was Jewish. She was not, but she told us that she has been to Israel and is a big supporter. She told us that she spends almost every day around the White House holding signs and her flag in support of Israel.”
While they were speaking with her, a tour group of Israelis in their 60s came by, all of the men wearing kipot. “I went over to speak with them,” he said, “and somehow we started singing songs like “Am Yisrael Chai,” and made a huge circle and began dancing around in front of the White House gate until the police asked us to move to a different place.” Adina videotaped the whole scene, including the “angel” running around, pretending to fly.
As for Gilad Shalit, Weis said he can only hope that the discussions he had with people along the way created greater awareness of the young soldier’s suffering. He found his own concern growing deeper and deeper. “I can’t daven without davening for him now,” he said. “I really feel prayer is powerful, and I’m hoping to get more and more people to pray for him.”
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