On October 18, Martin
Franklin, 39, of New Jersey, took part in an Iron Man Triathlon
Championship Meet in Hawaii. The race pitted champions from across
North America against each other. Franklin, a successful businessman,
spent 8 months training for this meet, but during that time, felt
that he needed to make his race more meaningful for himself, as
well as for others.
He approached 200 of
his friends and associates and convinced them to help him raise
money to benefit terror victims in Israel. On November 12, Martin
Franklin brought his wife Julie and their children; business associate
Peter Hochfelder, his wife Stacy and their children; and Rabbis
Yitz Greenman and Yaakov Bienenfeld to Israel to meet victims
and lend their support.
The race raised over
$400,000, which was distributed through OneFamily. OneFamily Executive
Vice Chairman Chantal Belzberg commented that “the effort
and initiative shown by Martin, and the wonderful support of those
around him show that there are people all around the world who
care about the victims of terrorism, and who want to devote their
activities to helping them recover.”
The group visited victims
in Jerusalem, Hadera, Tel Hashomer hospital and Ra’anana.
The meeting in Ra’anana, held at the home of OneFamily volunteers
Debbie and Eliot Tannenbaum, was attended by Ra’anana Mayor
Zeev Bielski. In welcoming the visitors, Bielski said that the
victims of terrorism in Israel are victims of the war that has
been waged against the Jews around the world for centuries. “But
these people are here because this is our land, and they have
been hurt because our enemies still don’t realize that we
are not leaving.
“It pleases me
to see that there are Jews all around the world who understand
this. People care, like our guests this week, and to such people
as you we must express our deepest appreciation.”
In describing what
drove him to dedicate his training and his race to the victims
of terror in Israel, Martin Franklin said that, “After the
events of September 11, people in the US were able to identify
more clearly with what is going on in Israel. I was already training
for this race, and I decided to use it as an opportunity to get
more people to do things they weren’t doing enough of. All
the people I spoke to care about Israel and what is going on here,
but when they found out that I was collecting support for them,
they were more than glad to help out.
“Now that I have
met so many of the victims of terrorism, I find myself re-energized
to return to the US and continue to do more work and raise more
awareness and support on their behalf.”
