Amar'e Stoudemire
Meet Amar’e Stoudemire
Or maybe you know him as Yehoshafat ben Avraham (Yehoshafat son of Avraham), one of the Jewish nation’s newest (and talented) members, who happens to be a famous NBA basketball star. Today, Stoudemire lives in Israel and plays for Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team.
Amar’e’s story
Amar’e grew up in America to a Baptist family in Florida, but always knew the story of his mother’s heritage as a Jew. He began playing basketball in high school and went on to play professionally for many big-time major-league teams, including the New York Knicks.
In 2010, Amar’e came to our beautiful country to connect to his roots as a Hebrew Israelite, a group of African Americans who connect their ancestry to the biblical Israelites.
Unsurprisingly, he fell in love with Israel continued his journey in exploring Judaism.
Watch Amar'e discuss his relationship with religion.
Fun facts!
Stoudemire co-owns Israel’s Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team and played with them for many years. Only two years ago, he began his conversion process to Judaism, and officially made Aliyah to Israel in 2019!
Today, although he still plays basketball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, he can be seen looking a bit different than we remember him, walking through the streets of Israel - with a kippah on!
