Jared Armstrong, 27, has an unusual life story.
Born in Philadelphia, various circumstances brought him to play basketball in the Jewish state, and led to Armstrong becoming an Israeli citizen.
“I always tell people I’m a regular guy who grew up loving the game of basketball,” said Armstrong in his interview with ISRAEL21c. “I was born to a Jewish mom, with nine generations of Jewish roots and heritage.”
After graduating from college, Armstrong applied for Israeli citizenship in 2022. The Interior Ministry initially didn’t recognize his Jewish roots or his subsequent formal conversion to Judaism.
Then-Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked drew ire from prominent US Jewish leaders for allowing her ministry to drag out Armstrong’s case for over eight months.
In 2023, he was finally granted the citizenship request.
“I did it not only for myself, but also for my family; as Jews, we fight for what we believe in,” said Armstrong.
The prolonged citizenship ordeal, however, cost him a spot on Hapoel Haifa, a team in Ligat HaAl, Israel’s top basketball league.
Armstrong, a point guard, eventually signed with Elitzur Ashkelon from the second-tier Liga Leumit (National League).
Located only 21 kilometers (68897.64 feet) (13 miles) from Gaza, Ashkelon experienced the heaviest rocket barrages at the start of the war that followed the October 7 Hamas attacks.
When a rocket fell close to his apartment building, Armstrong thought of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001. His father, a war veteran stationed at the Pentagon at the time, miraculously escaped the attack unharmed.
Once the initial horror of October 7, Armstrong began looking for ways to help Israeli children evacuated from Gaza border communities or otherwise affected by the war.
“I wanted to do something because the kids in the south didn’t have any extracurricular activities; I wanted to give them a sanctuary, an outlet to clear their minds,” he notes.
He enlisted Jared Armstrong Basketball (JAB) CAMP, a nonprofit he had founded in July 2023, for the job.
JAB CAMP has a mission of fighting all forms of hate through sports, including antisemitism and racism, which Armstrong says he experienced at a young age.
It aims to bring together children of different backgrounds through basketball camps and clinics (in-person one-day learning sessions) held in Israel and in the United States.
“Our first clinic was in January, and I was able to have over 70 kids, from age nine to 17, there,” said Armstrong in his explanation.
He renovated a basketball court in Ashkelon for the event with financial help from Five Star Basketball, a legendary American basketball school known for producing stars such as Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and many more.
“As we continue to scale up, we plan on taking it to other places, outside of Ashkelon; both during the summer, and hopefully during the Jewish holidays as well.”
Armstrong has also been engaged in Israel advocacy since the start of the war.
On his social media, Armstrong has been posting images and videos of himself visiting Israeli communities ravaged by Hamas on October 7.
He also posted a congratulatory message for Ariel Zohar on his bar mitzvah. The entire family of the 12-year-old teen was murdered on October 7 in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Ariel survived because he went for a run outside of the kibbutz prior to the attack.
Armstrong admits not everyone is happy with his general involvement in Israel, but “haters are the ones who indicate that you’re doing something right.”
“I shrug it off, and don’t take it personally. Not everyone is going to like what you do.”
This summer, Armstrong has been hosting similar basketball camps and clinics in his native Philadelphia.
He recently finished a week-long camp “where we had 80 participants from all walks of life.”
“We’re trying to build bridges between communities: Jewish, African American, Muslim Christian, etc.,” said Armstrong. “We had a representative from Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who taught a course about antisemitism; we had a financial literacy course and a nutrition course.”
Armstrong says his objective is to stage the week-long, in-depth camps in Israel as well.
“The goal is to have kids make friends with other kids who don’t look like them; to teach them that we have more similarities than differences,” says Armstrong. “The next generation can be taught the right way if they have the right people teaching them.”
Produced in association with ISRAEL21c
