Basketball Star Amar’e Stoudemire ‘Never Felt More at Home’ in Israel
Amar’e Stoudemire Image by Getty Images
By Josefin Dolsten January 16, 2017
(JTA) — Basketball star Amar’e Stoudemire made an unlikely move in August, when he retired from the NBA and signed with an Israeli team.
But the 34-year old former New York Knicks center raves about his “adopted homeland” in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated.
“I’ve never felt more at home,” Stoudemire told the reporter over a Shabbat meal during Hanukkah in his Jerusalem home, featuring chicken, lamb, fish — and dreidel spinning.
Stoudemire isn’t Jewish but identifies with the Hebrew Israelites, African-Americans who believe they are connected to the biblical Israelites. He doesn’t eat pork or shellfish — he has even searched Jerusalem for a kosher butcher selling turkey bacon — but Stoudemire thanks Jesus in blessings before eating.
The 6-foot-10 hoopster lives in a four-story house near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence.
“People say ‘Is it a war zone?’ and I tell them that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Stoudemire said in the article. “Beautiful country. Beaches. Desert. Great restaurants. Great people. On the Sabbath it’s so quiet. Everything shuts down for rest, for family time. How nice is that?”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
