Amar'e Stoudemire - hooked on basketball and Torah

Amar'e Stoudemire, the former NBA star-turned Orthodox-convert to Judaism and the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team co-owner, has been in the news a lot lately. Currently, he is an assistant player development coach for the Brooklyn Nets, and he is very happy that he doesn't have to work on Shabbat, which he observes.

In December he spoke at a Zoom discussion event sponsored by the UJA Federation New York, titled "Amar'e Stoudemire: His Practice On and Off the Court." Stoudemire was introduced to the UJA Zoom event by Ido Aharoni (Aronoff), Israel's long-time consul-general in New York. Aharoni first met Stoudemire many years ago when he attended a New York Knicks game with Israel basketball legend Tal Brody.

The two became dear friends and Aharoni introduced Stoudemire to the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The Zoom crowd shared Aharoni's positive feelings about Stoudemire. Aharoni described Stoudemire's many professional, educational and charitable accomplishments in the U.S. and Israel.

Howard Blas wrote in the International Jerusalem Post ("Amar'e unplugged," Dec. 25-31, 2020), that "Stoudemire is also a proud Jew, deeply committed to combating antisemitism, and works to strengthen relationships between the Jewish and African-American communities."

Raised Baptist, through his mother, he associated with the Black Hebrew Israelites. His mother taught him from a young age "to keep the laws of Moses because they were from the tribe of Israel."

Stoudemire is a six-time NBA All-Star, 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year with the Phoenix Suns, 2003, a 2004 bronze medalist with the USA Olympic basketball team, and was the playoff MVP for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2020 Israeli championship.

What people may not know about Stoudemire is that he was born in Lake Wales, Florida. Because his mother was a migrant worker, they traveled between Florida and New York.

Stoudemire had a rocky start to his future basketball career. During his high school years, when he started playing organized basketball, he transferred between five different schools. He attended Lake Wales High School during his freshman season, but was cut from the team due to academic ineligibility. Then he transferred to Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C., and played for coach Joel Hopkins. Midway through the year, Hopkins founded Emmanuel Christian Academy and took the Mount Zion basketball team to serve as his student body. The school folded before they played even one game. Stoudemire returned to Florida where he attended summer school at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando. Transferring to West Orange High School in Winter Garden, he sat out the year because of academic ineligibility. His final move was to Cypress Creek High School in Orlando where he averaged 29.1 points, 15 rebounds, 6/1 blocked shots, and 2/1 steals per game. He graduated in 2002. Due to all the transfers, he missed his entire junior year of basketball and only played two full seasons, however, because of his high school honors, Stoudemire was selected to play in the 2002 McDonald's All-American Game at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where he played with two future New York Knicks teammates, Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton. He was also named Florida's Mr. Basketball, the Orlando Sentinel's Florida High School Player of the Year, and to USA Today's All-USA Basketball First Team.

In the Zoom discussion, he shared about his intriguing journey to Judaism and Israel with the event attendees.

It was during high school that Stoudemire started davening to the Torah. He continued his Bible studies through high school and continued his studies when selected ninth overall in the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns at the age of 18. He was the only high school player taken that year in the first round. When he was 24, Blas wrote, "he began gravitating to Judaism. 'This is what I was searching for, but I was doing it on my own. Judaism gave me structure.'"

Stoudemire first visited Israel in 2010 to get a better understanding of his heritage.

"I came to learn Torah and discover my Hebrew roots, to see what I was reading."

While in Israel, he met with Israeli president Shimon Peres, who urged him to join the Israel national basketball team.

Stoudemire was always intrigued by the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

"I loved how they carried themselves and how they were righteous and wondered, 'How do I get to that level?' It was over for me. I was hooked," he told the Zoom attendees in the discussion.

Stoudemire and family moved to Israel in 2015. Coming to Israel meant a drastic lifestyle change.

"It was a truly humbling experience. I went from traveling on an NBA private jet to using buses. I was an A-list celebrity who went to fashion shows, the Met Gala, Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman. I was living the dream!"

Stoudemire feels the move to the Middle East was worth it.

"I made the decision for the sake of Torah."

Stoudemire signed a two-year deal with Hapoel Jerusalem in 2016 and helped the club win the Israeli Basketball League Cup that year. In June 2017, he helped the team win the 2016/17 Israeli Basketball Super League. He retired briefly in 2017, considered a return to the NBA in 2018, only to return again to Hapoel Jerusalem for the 2018/19 campaign, when he had a standout season. In April 2018, he reportedly began converting to Judaism. In January 2019, he was granted residency in Israel. In March 2019, he received Israeli citizenship, and adopted the name Jehoshaphat. In January 2020, Stoudemire was back in Israel, and signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv with whom he won the championship. He formally converted to Judaism with a Rabbinical court on Aug. 26, 2020.

Stoudemire recently returned to the United States and was hired in October 2020 by Steve Nash, his former Suns teammate and the new head coach of the Nets.

Back in America, Stoudemire continues to be a proud, committed Jew and lover of Israel, and he is involved in combating antisemitism.

He is founder of Diversity U, "an organization and educational platform I started based on eradicating antisemitism. It teaches the attributes of Torah."

Before the start of the NBA season, he was living in Miami, where he is pursuing a master of business administration degree at the University of Miami. He combines his academic studies with his study of Mishna and daven at the Miami Beach Kollel.

Now in Brooklyn, he said he has "a couple of chavrusos [learning partners] in Flatbush, and I study Mishna online."

In addition, he speaks fondly of his Zoom learning partners in Israel.

"They are hard-core – they stay up til 4 a.m. [Israel time] to learn with me."

Stoudemire recently had the opportunity to see his old friend and teammate, Deni Avdija when the Nets and Washington Wizards faced each other at a Dec. 13 NBA pre-season game. Israeli Avdija was recently drafted by the Washington Wizards in the ninth overall pick.

"My guy, Deni – we were both ninth picks – we share that. And we played together last year on the Maccabi Tel Aviv championship team. We have been close friends since then!"

Avdija is fond of Stoudemire as well.

"Amar'e was a big part of me, a big part of my game. The amount of experience and knowledge he gave me is [through] the roof," said Avdija.

Stoudemire is 38, old enough to be 19-year-old Avdija's father.

"He was a professional. He always came first to the gym," Avdija said. "We were always talking about things. I was always asking about the NBA and he always answered me, no matter what the time or no matter how tired he was or angry he was, he always sat with me and answered my questions."

Even though Stoudemire lives in the United States again, he never forgets his Israeli citizenship and Jewish faith. Everywhere he travels, he brings along his antique golden menorah.

"I always pack my antique gold menorah. I bought it in Jerusalem, and it's kind of a small, travel-sized one. ... It started when I played in the NBA. I always had the menorah inside of my locker with a few books that I would read before I start the game.

"It's traveled with me to multiple countries and is always on display, wherever I am staying, to remind me of the strength that can be found in struggle. This helps me endure anything.

"It shows up as a dark spot on the x-ray at the airport, but it's not sharp, like a weapon - it has round edges. [TSA agents] will ask, "Are you traveling with jewelry?" and I'm, like, "No, just my menorah."

Excerpts were taken from the "Amar'e unplugged," International Jerusalem Post article by Howard Blas.