duncan228
07-17-2008, 12:49 PM
No matter what team you root for, it's always nice to see NBA players do stuff like this. Good for him.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/farmar-peace-together-2095201-basketball-jordan
Lakers guard takes his game to Israel to promote peace
Jordan Farmar will conduct clinics for Israeli and Palestinian children.
By Janis Carr
Jordan Farmar has been called white. He's been referred to as black.
He's read the Bible and explored the Torah, and shared meals with basketball players from around the world.
Yet nothing has touched Farmar culturally more than playing basketball with dozens of Palestinians and Israelis teen-agers, who together discovered a common ground on a basketball court.
Two summers ago, the Lakers guard took part in the fifth annual "Play for Peace" clinic at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine.
The annual camp, the brainchild of player agent Arm Tellem, brings together teens from the Middle East to help them understand the value of cooperation through basketball as enemies became teammates.
Now, Farmar wants to spread that goodwill and peace overseas, to the heart of the animosity – Israel.
Next month the former UCLA star will hold basketball clinics for Israeli and Palestinian children in Israel, to help show kids that peace is possible, even if it's just a few minutes at a time.
The teens compete in various sports and discuss the shared problems and challenges in their daily lives, lives normally separated by political and cultural differences but with one common denominator – hatred.
"I want to promote the knowledge that just because you have been taught one way or brought up from birth to think that way doesn't mean it's necessarily right," Farmar said in a telephone interview.
The program is partnered with the Peres Center for Peace, which is a foundation founded in 1996 by Israeli President Shimon Peres to help motivate the Middle East adversaries to work together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and development and personal interaction.
Following the clinics, Farmar will travel the region, stopping in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Farmar believes sports has the ability to "transcend conflict," making it a powerful tool that enables children of all backgrounds to find a common ground.
"Bringing these children together while they are young and impressionable and helping them learn how to play and communicate with one another can build bridges of understanding when they are older," he said.
Jordan knows what it means to meld varying cultures. All he has to do is look in the mirror.
His father, Damon Farmar, is African-American. His mother, Melinda Kolani, is Caucasian. His stepfather, Yehuda Kolani, is an Israeli immigrant.
"So I've heard it all (comments), seen it all from all angles," Farmar said. "I've been exposed to it all my life and learned to deal with it all. That has made me color-blind to things like that (races)."
Farmar said whenever he heard derogatory words and comments growing up, he took them as a challenge and it made him work harder to bridge the gap that exists between races.
"If someone called me 'white-boy' that meant it was negating the African-American side of my family and vice-versa," he said. "…so I've had a little bit of everything and I can't understand why people can't be open and see that it doesn't have to be that way (different)."
If that wasn't hard enough, Farmar's parents divorced when he was young and his mother married Kolani, who raised Farmar in a Jewish home, where suddenly Hanukkah and bar mitzvahs were celebrated.
Although he isn't an observant Jew, Farmar identifies with the Jewish people. He has been to Israel twice and once told a Jewish news publication that he didn't develop any special affinity for the country.
After spending several weeks in Maine two summers ago, that changed.
Farmar joined fellow NBA players LaMarcus Aldridge, Jarron Collins, J.J. Redick, Brian Scalabrine, Etan Thomas and former Chicago Bulls star B.J. Armstrong at the Seeds of Peace basketball clinic in Maine. He said that experience that bridges can be built to connect different cultures.
"These kids, who had grown up hating each other, lived together for weeks," he said. "They ate together, played together, shared their daily lives. They spent all summer with people they were supposed to hate and came out with a different attitude."
Now Jordan is on a mission to cross more of those bridges.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/farmar-peace-together-2095201-basketball-jordan
Lakers guard takes his game to Israel to promote peace
Jordan Farmar will conduct clinics for Israeli and Palestinian children.
By Janis Carr
Jordan Farmar has been called white. He's been referred to as black.
He's read the Bible and explored the Torah, and shared meals with basketball players from around the world.
Yet nothing has touched Farmar culturally more than playing basketball with dozens of Palestinians and Israelis teen-agers, who together discovered a common ground on a basketball court.
Two summers ago, the Lakers guard took part in the fifth annual "Play for Peace" clinic at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine.
The annual camp, the brainchild of player agent Arm Tellem, brings together teens from the Middle East to help them understand the value of cooperation through basketball as enemies became teammates.
Now, Farmar wants to spread that goodwill and peace overseas, to the heart of the animosity – Israel.
Next month the former UCLA star will hold basketball clinics for Israeli and Palestinian children in Israel, to help show kids that peace is possible, even if it's just a few minutes at a time.
The teens compete in various sports and discuss the shared problems and challenges in their daily lives, lives normally separated by political and cultural differences but with one common denominator – hatred.
"I want to promote the knowledge that just because you have been taught one way or brought up from birth to think that way doesn't mean it's necessarily right," Farmar said in a telephone interview.
The program is partnered with the Peres Center for Peace, which is a foundation founded in 1996 by Israeli President Shimon Peres to help motivate the Middle East adversaries to work together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and development and personal interaction.
Following the clinics, Farmar will travel the region, stopping in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Farmar believes sports has the ability to "transcend conflict," making it a powerful tool that enables children of all backgrounds to find a common ground.
"Bringing these children together while they are young and impressionable and helping them learn how to play and communicate with one another can build bridges of understanding when they are older," he said.
Jordan knows what it means to meld varying cultures. All he has to do is look in the mirror.
His father, Damon Farmar, is African-American. His mother, Melinda Kolani, is Caucasian. His stepfather, Yehuda Kolani, is an Israeli immigrant.
"So I've heard it all (comments), seen it all from all angles," Farmar said. "I've been exposed to it all my life and learned to deal with it all. That has made me color-blind to things like that (races)."
Farmar said whenever he heard derogatory words and comments growing up, he took them as a challenge and it made him work harder to bridge the gap that exists between races.
"If someone called me 'white-boy' that meant it was negating the African-American side of my family and vice-versa," he said. "…so I've had a little bit of everything and I can't understand why people can't be open and see that it doesn't have to be that way (different)."
If that wasn't hard enough, Farmar's parents divorced when he was young and his mother married Kolani, who raised Farmar in a Jewish home, where suddenly Hanukkah and bar mitzvahs were celebrated.
Although he isn't an observant Jew, Farmar identifies with the Jewish people. He has been to Israel twice and once told a Jewish news publication that he didn't develop any special affinity for the country.
After spending several weeks in Maine two summers ago, that changed.
Farmar joined fellow NBA players LaMarcus Aldridge, Jarron Collins, J.J. Redick, Brian Scalabrine, Etan Thomas and former Chicago Bulls star B.J. Armstrong at the Seeds of Peace basketball clinic in Maine. He said that experience that bridges can be built to connect different cultures.
"These kids, who had grown up hating each other, lived together for weeks," he said. "They ate together, played together, shared their daily lives. They spent all summer with people they were supposed to hate and came out with a different attitude."
Now Jordan is on a mission to cross more of those bridges.