Alef: The NEXT Conversation

An Athlete for Israel

by Bradley Chalupski

Every Jewish household is different.  The anchor of my Jewish household as a child was the love of my Jewish mother to my Catholic father (a love for which I am forever grateful). It’s not surprising then that Judaism, religiously or communally, did not play a large role in my life growing up. We celebrated the Seder on Passover; We had a tree on Christmas. Holiday’s to me, Jewish or Catholic, were “family times”. I always considered myself “Jewish” but had never given any serious thought to what that meant. As for what it meant to me? If that thought crossed my mind even once in the first 25 years of my life it would be one more time than I even remember.

It was against this background that in February of 2010 I was asked a question by a fellow Skeleton racer that would change my life forever, “Have you spoken with Andy Teig, the President of the Israeli Bobsled and Skeleton Federation?”

Before I continue, it must be noted that I just made Andy’s whole year by writing that sentence for public consumption. Seriously. He probably just graved a trench in his monitor from reading it so many times, in the 3 seconds it just took you to read this next sentence. Just had to say that.

By that February I had climbed the ranks of the United States Skeleton Development program for 4 seasons. The US Skeleton Eastern Regional Championship (which is no longer held) in March would qualify three people from the Lake Placid development program for US Team Trials the following winter. Ultimately, I would finish fourth by .2sec (yes, two-tenths of a second) over four miles (yes, over four miles) of racing. That was good enough to be the first person NOT to be invited to the Team Trials for the next season. At that point, I thought my Skeleton career was over. I was already selling my equipment.

Let’s get back to Andy though. He was looking for Jewish Skeleton racers to compete for Israel. My first reaction when I heard about it was to say, “I’m American. Why would I compete for Israel?” That was my base feeling. I certainly thought I had more to give to the sport, and I wanted to continue with it – did I want to continue it like this though? Competing for another country?

It’s called “switching flags” in the business. It happens all the time and I had always believed it to be an intensely personal decision transcendent of the “right/wrong” moniker so many people attach to it without ever having been in that position. The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of the sporting universe. Even Kobe Bryant, multimillionaire superstar athlete, said he “had goosebumps” when he got his Team USA Basketball jersey. Any serious athlete who says they are indifferent to the prospect of competing in them is lying to you.

I went to speak with Andy on the day before I intended to leave Lake Placid forever. Andy does not do subtle. He made two things abundantly clear: 1) If I thought this was the easy route to the Olympic games – I should leave; 2) If I was not serious about representing Israel – I should leave. If I understood these two things and was still interested, we could talk.

But did I want to talk? I wasn’t really sure. I knew I had more to give to Skeleton; I didn’t think it would be easy. Could I do it for Israel though? A place I had never been? A people I knew I was a part of but wasn’t really sure if I belonged to?

For the first time in my life, as I left Andy to go home to New Jersey for the summer, I was asking myself:

What does it mean to be Jewish???

It would be several months though before I realized that the answer to THAT question is intrinsic to the question itself.

Next Time: I ask everyone I know about what I should do. What does it mean to be Jewish? To represent Israel? Can I say “yes?” Or an even more interesting thought…do I HAVE to say yes?

Read Bradley’s first column here.  Photo provided by the author.

Posted by Emily.Comisar@birthrightisraelnext.org, Wednesday, January 4th, 2012, 11:52 am, Sports.