The player nicknamed STAT (Standing Tall And Talented) should now begin calling himself Standing Tall And Jewish. Yes people, believe it, basketball fans have just discovered that Amare Stoudemire is part of the “Jew Crew”. After recently amplifying his interest towards the religion, Amare is now in pursuit of learning more about his cultural and religious roots. He plans to do so by traveling to the Holy Land.

This morning Stoudemire boarded a plane straight to Israel. The NBA superstar will be staying for two months and will be learning the Hebrew language and more about his cultural background. This includes visiting the sacred city of Jerusalem. His Jewish roots became exposed through his avid “tweeting” and it became known that Amare is part of the ‘Chosen People’.

By saying Hebrew phrases like: “Boker Tov”(Good morning), “Shalom”-(Hello) and “ze ha ha’lom sheli”-(This is my dream) Amare has provoked his thousands of followers on Twitter to be extremely curious about his Jewish background. Amare has been conscious of his religion from youth as he always knew his mother Carrie was Jewish. In fact, months ago in Phoenix when the Suns supported the protest of new Latino immigration law and became the “Los Suns” to honour the Latino-American culture, Amare was a huge advocate due to the Jewish significance of Spanish ancestry. He further tweeted…

““We support the Latin community. They are apart of the 12 tribes of Israel. It 1 Nation under YAH (god). Let’s come together. Shalom !! 1love”

Stoudemire also has a series of Hebrew letters written on his neck and according to Sacramento Kings Israeli star Omri Casspi, he also recently tattooed the Star of David or “Magen David” on his arm (he also has a “Black Jesus” tattoo but in good taste we will disregard its existence).

Hopefully Amare’s new-found interest in his faith will bring some fresh hope to the Knicks, who haven’t won an NBA championship in 37 years.

The only question is……….when is the circumcision?

I think the Rabbi is going to have to find a bigger pair of scissors

Mazel Tov

-CC