Meet The Israeli Star Of The NBA Draft — He’ s Not Quite Jewish

Image by getty

By Ari Feldman June 21, 2017

He may not be Jewish, and he may not live in Israel, but we’ll take it: tomorrow T.J. Leaf will become the second Israeli-born player drafted to the NBA, the only one since Omri Casspi 2009. Leaf is expected to go in the middle of the first round of the draft, which is being held in Brooklyn.

T.J. Leaf is the son of Brad Leaf, a basketball player from Indiana who somehow got Israeli citizenship when he went to play for a kibbutz basketball team in the 1980s. What kind of Jewish name is Leaf, you ask? It’s not — Brad, a onetime Israeli MVP, has no Jewish ancestry.

So what does that make T.J., the 6-foot-10 power forward who was born in Tel Aviv? Legally Jewish?

The younger Leaf has spent time in Israel since his family moved to San Diego 1999, playing in the under-18 national team in Europe’s 2015 division B tournament. His success there turned into a spot on the UCLA basketball team, where Leaf averaged 16 points and 8 rebounds a game in his freshman season. He is expected to be picked by either Atlanta, Utah, Indiana, Portland, Denver or Miami.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO