NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire has been visiting Israel this summer together with his trainer. He is in search of his roots in Judaism and, by Joshua Mitnick’s moving (to me) account in the Wall Street Journal, finding them. Mitnick includes some of Stoudemire’s tweets from Israel in a sidebar to the story (follow Stoudemire on Twitter here). This one is from Sunday:
I’m here in Tel Aviv. This city reminds me of Miami. The restaurants are great an[d] so are the people. Thanks fans for following me. Laila tov
(“Laila tov” means “good night” in Hebrew.) I reported from the boardwalk in Tel Aviv here in 2007, and I had the same reaction to the city as Stoudemire.
I’m grateful for anyone who publicly identifies with the Jewish people in this time of enmity and peril. Mitnick’s story suggests that Stoudemire fears others might think that he is nuts, and they might. He’s on his way home, but he says (I think) that he “can[‘t] wait to visit again.”
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