Why we've decided to help

This story begins six months back, here, at the Bet Shean Half Marathon, which was also the Israeli national championships in that event. Three of us, Steven (Rafi) Rosenbaum, Judith Sambol, and Daniel Feldman competed in the event, as did an extremely fast new Israeli pro runner, Berihun Webee. Berihun won the race in a blistering 1:05:55.

Not bad, but nothing compared to what we subsequently learned. Rafi, one of the early finishers, too (only fifteen minutes after the winner), did a cool down with Berihun and started chatting with him. After the awards ceremony the three of us joined the winner in the deliciously cool pools at Sakhne, where we got to meet Berihun more personally. We were all struck by how gracious he was, taking time to ask each of us with absolutely no pretension about our results and experience when he had just won the race! Even more amazingly, no one was there to meet Berihun and he had no one to drive him home or serve as his entourage. He didn't mention it, but he had also just won the national 10K championships the same month. We later learned, by contacting his coach, that Berihun's family is extremely poor and he supports almost his entire family, two underemployed parents and six of his younger siblings, with his running and coaching work.

Berihun was working three jobs to put food on the table for his family, and his impressive commitment to family and enormous obligations to them were holding him back from developing his full potential, even as he just started running professionally only last year.

After getting to know Berihun a bit better and learning more about his exemplary personality and prodigious talent, we decided to do everything we could to help this true Jewish, Israeli champion realize his goal: running for Israel as a marathoner at the 2012 London Olympics. The help to a deserving and appreciative, religious Ethiopian Jewish family warrants the cause in its own right, but by working together, we can achieve something remarkable: Berihun is the best face of Israel and we hope to help him run as far he can. All he needs is our help.