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Jared Armstrong, basketball player who fought for Israeli citizenship, is now working to promote Black-Jewish relations
(JTA) — Basketball player Jared Armstrong made headlines last year for his months-long effort to obtain Israeli citizenship. Armstrong, who was raised Jewish and completed a Conservative conversion to help his citizenship bid, was rejected multiple times before being granted temporary residence last May. The case drew attention from prominent Jewish leaders and drew accusations of racism.
It also cost him a spot on Hapoel Haifa, a team in Israel’s top basketball league, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The team voided his contract because he didn’t receive citizenship in time.
But this weekend, before returning to play hoops in Israel’s second-tier league, Armstrong is putting the drama aside to focus on something else he is passionate about: strengthening the relationship between the Jewish and Black communities.
On Sunday, Armstrong is running a free basketball clinic for sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Philadelphia. If all goes well, he hopes to start a two-week summer camp next year to continue this work.
“With a rich history of Black and Jewish relations, and kind of where we’re at in society, it’s only right that we come closer together,” Armstrong said. “I thought it would be great to do that starting from the youngest age and up.”
The controversies and accusations of antisemitism surrounding rapper Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving last year led to increased calls for collaboration between the Black and Jewish communities, from members of Congress to other prominent sports leaders like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Armstrong said 28 kids have signed up for his clinic, including both Jewish and Black athletes, with some attendees coming in from as far as Connecticut. His goal is to use sports as a vehicle for combating antisemitism and racism, and he hopes that as many as 80 sign up for a camp next year.
“I think at a young age, most kids have a passion for something they love,” Armstrong said. “Sports are normally the first thing they fall in love with, and it’s a great way to build community, build lifelong relationships and learn a lot of life lessons.”
This weekend’s participants will hear from Eric Rubin, a veteran financial executive who is involved in several Jewish organizations aimed at using sports to combat hate.
Rubin is the managing director of Project Max, a collaboration between the Maccabi World Union sports umbrella and the Israeli AI company Sighteer. Its mission is to “fight racism, antisemitism, and intolerance through sports.” Armstrong sits on the group’s advisory board. Rubin is also a board member of Athletes for Israel, the organization that has organized Israel trips for a number of top U.S. collegiate basketball teams.
Armstrong said Rubin will speak to the participants about “the importance of community and being able to work with people that are different from you.” Attendees will also meet American former professional basketball player Bilal Benn, who has played in Israel.
Growing up in Severn, Maryland before moving to Philadelphia during middle school, Armstrong was raised Jewish by a mother whose conversion is not recognized by any of the major Jewish denominations. His own conversion was overseen by Rabbi Michael Beals, a Conservative rabbi in Delaware known for his close relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden. Beals has said that Israel’s rejection of Armstrong’s citizenship application was an “insult to the Conservative movement,” whose rabbis have struggled for recognition in a state where religious affairs are dominated by Orthodox rabbis.
At the same time Armstrong’s case was denied by Israel’s Interior Ministry last year, Portuguese soccer player Miguel Vitor was granted citizenship to play soccer in Israel. Israeli media questioned why Vitor received preferential treatment while Armstrong saw his case drag on with no resolution.
At the end of the month, Armstrong, who played Division II basketball at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, is headed back to Israel to join Elitzur Ironi Ashkelon, a team in Liga Leumit, or National League, Israel’s second tier of professional basketball. Last year, he ultimately played for Maccabi Rishon LeZion, which is also in Liga Leumit. The season begins in October.
“I have lifelong friends that I’ve made in Israel, not only through my case, but outside of my case and through playing basketball,” Armstrong said. “I love the country as a whole. I love being there. I love the experience. It’s my second home.”
Armstrong said he hasn’t faced any racism in Israel, but rather what he called ignorance from those who question his Jewishness based on the color of his skin.
“I think there’s just a lack of information that I see not only Israel, [but] in the American community as well,” Armstrong said. “That needs to change.”
Beals told JTA that he and Armstrong are still in touch throughout the year, especially when Armstrong is in the U.S.
“I only have great things to say about Jared Armstrong — his persistence, his vision, his ability to turn lemonade from lemons,” Beals said.
Beals praised Armstrong for staying the course through his citizenship fight. “Other people would’ve given up, but he had a bigger picture of what he wanted to achieve,” Beals said.
“He really personifies everything I would hope for in a human being,” Beals added.
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The post Jared Armstrong, basketball player who fought for Israeli citizenship, is now working to promote Black-Jewish relations appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘Child Killers’: Jewish Activists Doused With Red Paint in Germany While Hanging Up Hostage Posters
i24 News – Masked attackers doused with red paint and shoved German Jewish activists hanging up posters of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza in Frankfurt on Friday. The assailants shouted “child killers” and “free Palestine.”
Sacha Stawski, a German-Jewish activist who heads the media watchdog NGO Honestly Concerned, who’s spent decades combating antisemitism, spoke to local media about the incident.
“We attached posters with photos of the 50 hostages still in Hamas’s captivity to a fence in the Frankfurt Grüneburgpark,” Stawski told the Bild outlet. “We were branded ‘child killers,’ and I constantly heard ‘Free Palestine,’ and ‘genocide’ calls.”
The paint also poured over my glasses, making it difficult for me to identify the perpetrator,” he added.
Germany’s ambassador to Israel condemned the incident.
The small pro-hostage rally took place near an anarchist encampment housing several anti-Israel organizations. Stawski said this was announced to the camp organizers.
Meanwhile a German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin currently has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state because that would undermine any efforts to reach a negotiated solution with Israel.
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Hegseth Fires Head of Intel Agency Whose Assessment of Damage from Iran Strikes Angered Trump
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump’s budget request for the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
i24 News – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes sparked the ire of President Donald Trump.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, US media reported, citing sources speaking on condition of anonymity.
The sacking is the latest upheaval in military leadership and in the country’s intelligence agencies, and comes a few months after details of the preliminary assessment leaked to the media.
The assessment found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months by the bombings, contradicting assertions from Trump and from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Republican president, who had pronounced the Iranian program “completely and fully obliterated,” rejected the report.
n June, Israel launched a devastating bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, missile production and military leadership, saying the operation was necessary to prevent the mullah regime from realizing its oft-stated plan to annihilate the Jewish state.
During the ensuing 12-day war, the US joined in, striking key Iranian nuclear sites.
Following the June strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Hegseth lambasted the press for focusing on the preliminary assessment but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of the facilities.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was a historically successful attack,” Hegseth said at a news conference at the time.
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Amid Rising Antisemitism, American Jews Make Aliyah to Israel Seeking Safety, Community, Impact
Olim gather at JFK Airport in New York, preparing to board Nefesh B’Nefesh’s 65th charter flight to Israel. Photo: The Algemeiner
NEW YORK/TEL AVIV — Confronted with rising antisemitism and unease in the United States, a growing number of American Jews are choosing to make aliyah, embracing the risks of war in the Middle East for the chance to build new lives and foster meaningful communities.
On Wednesday, 225 new olim arrived in Tel Aviv on the first charter aliyah flight since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Aliyah refers to the process of Jews immigrating to Israel, and olim refers to those who make this journey.
Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN) — a nonprofit that promotes and facilitates aliyah from the US and Canada — brought its 65th charter flight from New York, which The Algemeiner joined.
Founded in 2002, NBN helps olim become fully integrated members of Israeli society, simplifying the aliyah process and providing essential resources and guidance.
In partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth, and the Jewish National Fund, NBN has helped nearly 100,000 olim build thriving new lives in Israel.
Shawn Fink is one of the 225 people who embarked on the life-changing journey earlier this week, leaving Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, Liz, and their son.
For Fink and his family, making aliyah was driven not only by their love for Israel and desire to build a new community, but also by the escalating threats and uncertainties facing Jewish communities abroad since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
“Mostly, we were frustrated with the direction the United States is taking, and the rise in antisemitism was a major concern for us,” Fink told The Algemeiner.
Like many countries around the world, the US has seen an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Oct. 7 atrocities.
According to the latest data issued by the FBI, hate crimes perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the federal agency’s counting them.
A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, who constitute just 2 percent of the US population, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.
Fink explained that the increasing costs of living a Jewish life in the US — from education to kosher food — weighed heavily on his family’s decision to make the move to Israel.
While they first considered making aliyah five years ago, Fink and his family had to put the plans on hold for personal reasons — returning to the idea only in the past few months when the timing finally worked in their favor.
“We started planning it seriously in November and began the entire process with Nefesh B’Nefesh,” Fink told The Algemeiner. “It’s been a nonstop whirlwind ever since.”
For them, the current war did not stop their plans, but it did influence the cities they explored for their new home.
“The war really reinforced for us the importance of supporting Israel and our community,” Fink said. “By making aliyah, we felt we could do even more to help.”
Even though it is difficult to leave behind family and close friends, they look forward to reconnecting with friends in Israel, making new connections, and building a vibrant new community.
“Making aliyah in less than six months has been a whirlwind. I’d encourage anyone considering it to give themselves at least twice as much time, double the budget, and be prepared for plenty of unexpected starts and stops along the way,” Fink told The Algemeiner.
Nefesh B’Nefesh provides assistance to families throughout their entire aliyah journey, offering guidance before relocating and continued support once in Israel.
The Israeli government also complements these efforts with resources and financial incentives to help newcomers settle and ease their transition into their new lives.
“Once the ticket is finally in your hand and you’re waiting to board the plane, you realize that all the challenges and obstacles along the way were worth it,” Fink said.
Veronica Zaragovia was also one of the 225 olim who joined the flight earlier this week.
Similarly to Fink and his family, Zaragovia decided to make aliyah, driven not just by her love for Israel, but also by the increasing challenges of being Jewish abroad and the hope of making a meaningful impact by serving her community.
From Florida, she embarked on the journey alone, excited for all the new opportunities and possibilities that awaited her in her new home.
“I want to take pride in being Jewish and in Israel — that’s why I’m making aliyah,” she told The Algemeiner, reflecting on the move she has been planning for the past two years.
“It’s a huge concern for me that in some places in the US, I can’t — or maybe shouldn’t — wear my Star of David necklace,” she said. “I don’t feel that Jews can be fully safe anywhere in the country. The rise in antisemitism has been truly shocking and deeply concerning.”
Zaragovia, who worked as a journalist in the US, said her love for storytelling and uncovering the truth played a key role in her decision to make this move.
“After Oct. 7, I felt that the way my colleagues and other journalists were covering Israel was wrong and unfair,” she said.
“As someone whose career is built on facts and truth, I didn’t see that reflected in their reporting. That’s why I decided to make a difference by being there myself,” she continued.
Rather than deterring her decision to make a change, Zaragovia explained that the current war only reinforced it.
“It became clear that I needed to go, be there with my people, and make a difference through my work,” she said. “I couldn’t have done this without Nefesh B’Nefesh. They’ve been incredible, guiding me every step of the way from start to finish.”