Oliver Ferber is a star cross country athlete who is also an observant Jew. In 2021 Ferber made the difficult decision to sit out a high-level championship which was scheduled for Shabbos.
That massive Kiddush Hashem has had incredibly positive repercussions. Now an ESPN short feature, “Running on Faith”, is telling Oliver’s amazing true story.
In November 2021, Ferber, a student of Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (JDS) in Rockville, Maryland, had taken on a far higher level of Shabbos observance than his school and community had taught.
As reported by ESPN: On that November day, “He had chosen to stand on the sidelines of Maryland’s cross country state championship meet. He had chosen to be wearing khakis and a green sweater instead of the track singlet. He had chosen to be on the outside peering in, staring as his team raced down the final stretch toward the finish line because it was, in his heart, what he thought he had to do.”
The story continued: “It was about faith and conviction and belief. It was about the weight that comes with confronting one of the hardest questions a person can face: What do you do when everyone you trust is telling you to do one thing, but you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to do the exact opposite?”
During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Oliver found himself gravitating more and more toward his Judaism. “He began praying more. He began connecting with other Jews who were more observant through youth groups. He began taking a stricter approach to the holiness of Shabbos.”
“None of it felt especially hard to me,” he said. “It’s what I believed in, and I felt like the other things I was doing was hypocrisy. To some extent, I felt I was maybe living a lie.”
Oliver’s story is quite amazing. The ESPN article said: “Oliver had shown interest in being more observant than the rest of the family over the years, his parents said. On the day Oliver’s sister became a Bat Mitzvah, Scott recalled, Oliver insisted he wanted to walk to synagogue — 3.5 miles away — instead of riding in the car.”
Astonishingly, his mother, who was not Shabbos-observant, accommodated his needs. She “prepared Friday meals ahead of time, then used special warmers to heat the food…His friends made weekend plans with him before sundown because he would turn off his phone once Shabbat began. When the family wanted to go to the beach for the weekend in the summer, they had to leave early on Friday afternoons instead of later in the evening, after gridlock subsided, like they always used to do.”
“Once, Oliver and his dad were at the airport on a Friday waiting for a flight to Providence, Rhode Island, so Oliver could visit Brown University. The flight was supposed to land a little after 4 p.m., in plenty of time for the Ferbers to take a taxi to their hotel before sunset at 6 p.m., when Shabbat would begin.
But the flight was delayed. Estimated arrival went to 4:45 p.m. Then 5:10 p.m. Then 5:30 p.m. Scott looked at Oliver and knew. They picked up their suitcases and went home.”
Then in 2021 Oliver decided not to run in the championship race, despite enormous pressure, including from his teammates and his Jewish school.
The article quotes the legendary posek, the Taz. “In the 1600s, the great Polish thinker, Rabbi David Halevi Segal, wrote that while “it is certainly possible to derive pleasure as a result of exercise … it is forbidden because while running, [one] does not enjoy the experience, and it is not permitted on the basis of the pleasure [one] experiences afterwards.”
In other words, as Oliver put it, “The joy and pleasure of winning a state championship wouldn’t change the fact that running hard is difficult and painful.”
Jason Belinkie, the cross country coach at JDS for 15 years, was not happy with Ferber’s decision. He said: “I did not understand where Oliver was coming from. It was difficult because I didn’t want to offend him. But I was also honest with him that he’s a critical part of our team. And that we weren’t sure how we were going to do it if he was not part of our team at the state championship.”
Making things more difficult, his teammates formed a new group chat without him — for the “state racers”. One of his friends told him, “If you’re not going to race, don’t show up. No one wants to see your face.”
Oliver’s mother told him he owed it to his teammates to run; that her family who lived in Israel said it was OK for him to run; that the officials at the JDS school were good with him running.
“I cared because he was letting the team down, the school down, my family down,” she said. “It’s a Jewish school that can win a state championship — I’m like, ‘Do it for the Jewish people. You need to run.’”
According to the article: “Oliver cried, more than once. He changed his mind, more than once. According to Belinkie, even the rabbi Oliver was consulting with indicated at one point that running could potentially be a defensible choice. ‘He had the whole world against him in that situation,’ the coach said.”
Yet Oliver couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew what was right.
“You’re not allowed to do really intense exercise you don’t really enjoy,” he said matter-of-factly. “And when you’re running up the hill, every step requires effort. And it’s hard and it hurts. And if you’re doing that and like, ‘Oh, this is fun,’ then you’re not racing the right way.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to live my values,” he said.
Then Oliver’s coach suggested that he write a letter. While it was a longshot, the hope was they would change the championship date to a Sunday in future years.
Belinkie asked him to write a letter to Greg Dunston, the longtime meet director of the state championship race. The letter said:
Dear Mr. Dunston …
I’d like to tell you about my experience and my team’s experience with states during the 2021 cross country season. …
I could either race at states, which would fall during Shabbat, and violate all of my religious beliefs, or I could observe Shabbat, but potentially deny the opportunity to myself and my teammates of winning a state championship. …
I felt extraordinarily depressed and anxious. Those days were the most stressful ones I’ve experienced in my life. …
This decision was … an incredibly difficult and painful decision to make. …
[For] me, and future runners, it would mean the world to be able to both race and keep Shabbat.
Thank you very much for your time you’ve put into this decision.
Best,
Oliver Ferber
Amazingly, the letter worked. Dunston read the letter and it moved him. He had heard Belinkie asking before about a change but was always able to find a reason to keep the meet on Saturdays.
“It made me push a little harder,” Dunston said. “When he wrote me that letter, it was a matter of looking at it and saying, ‘Well, this boy really wants to run — let me see what I could do.’
“You could tell by his letter that he really wanted to compete and be with his teammates,” Dunston continued. “And this was going to be the last time he would get to do it.”
In mid-June of 2022, Oliver and his teammates got word: That fall, the state championship race would be on a Sunday, and they were elated.
In his senior season, Oliver was finally able to participate — and his team won the state championship. But more importantly, he stayed true to himself and his Jewish faith. “I choose my own path,” he said.
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