The UA men’s basketball team will visit Israel and the UAE for a 10-day trip in August hosted by the nonprofit Athletes for Israel.
Athletes for Israel looks to combat antisemitism and fight for inclusivity through the voices of professional and college athletes. Daniel Posner, the CEO and founder of Athletes for Israel, said the trips to Israel help educate people about the country.
“Really, the goal of Athletes for Israel is not just to inspire and change the minds of players, of people that come, but it’s really to amplify their experience to hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of others who’ve never experienced Israel or may not ever have an opportunity to go to Israel,” Posner said.
The Tucson Jewish Community Center staff wanted to get involved with the Aug. 9 to Aug. 20 trip when they learned of it, so they contributed as a sponsor. Todd Rockoff, the JCC’s president and CEO, said he hopes to use the Weintraub Israel Center as a resource to help educate the coaches and athletes before they go to Israel.
The Weintraub Israel Center is a joint project between Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona and the JCC to bring some of the culture of Israel to Tucson.
“Our hope is that through the Israel center, we will have an opportunity to interact with both Coach (Tommy) Lloyd and the players before they go to just kind of set the stage alongside what Athletes for Israel will be doing,” Rockoff said.
Abbii Cook, director of the Weintraub Israel Center, said they provide the players and coaches with background so they understand the scheduled activities and places they will visit.
“We want to give the athletes and the coaches a lens to look through the experience through and to have some basic knowledge before they get there, and some tools to be able to kind of think critically about things they’re seeing and hearing,” Cook said.
The Wildcats will travel throughout Israel, visiting the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv and the Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.
Additionally, the team will play a game against Israel’s national team. One of the other highlights of the trip will be flying from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi to visit the United Arab Emirates.
Posner said the trip would be in support of The Abraham Accords, a set of treaties signed in 2020 that normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
“It’s our view that we’d like to help support those efforts and peace in the Middle East,” Posner said.
“It’s fantastic that a number of Arab countries have said, ‘We want to have peace with Israel; we want a relationship with Israel.’ Prior to this, you wouldn’t be able to fly directly from Israel to the UAE. In fact, you couldn’t even make a phone call from Israel to the UAE — and we are flying from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi.”
The team will visit the Grand Mosque and the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Posner said the team will also play two games while in Abu Dhabi, as well as a chance to meet Steve Kerr and the USA men’s basketball team.
Tommy Lloyd, the UA Men’s Basketball head coach, said he was excited for the competition in Israel and Abu Dhabi, but thrilled his team can experience this.
“I’m looking forward, for one, just the life experience for our guys,” Lloyd said in a press conference.
“I don’t know if any of you guys have ever been to Israel, but if you haven’t you have to go — amazing. I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi. I’ve been to Dubai, and I’ve heard great things about Abu Dhabi. It’s an extremely unique place and I think for our guys to go there and get the experience will be something they’ll remember more than the games for the rest of their life.”
Athletes for Israel
www.athletesforisrael.org
