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?”

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.