Throughout my career, I’ve been very involved in charitable work through basketball. In 2018, Ruth Guggenheim, reached out to me about doing a basketball clinic for underprivileged kids in Jerusalem with former NBA star, Michael Redd. The clinic was a slam dunk and I began to learn more about World Emunah and the amazing work they are doing in residential homes for children throughout Israel.

Ruth and I continued to talk after the clinic and we decided to make a collaboration between World Emunah and Hoops for Kids which runs after school basketball programs and mentorship for disadvantaged kids and kids at-risk. Together with the help of some generous donors, we successfully launched Hoops for Kids programming at World Emuna residential homes in Israel.

The first program we launched was at Neve Landy in southern Israel. Ruth and I traveled down there to see the programming first hand. I was literally blown away by the dedicated team, the kids and their stories. I knew we could do something great there to help these kids.

The program began with much success. Each child received their own ball, team shirt, and professional coaching. Interestingly, once the pandemic hit almost all basketball and sports activities around the country were halted, but Neve Landy was the exception because it was a completely closed campus. That allowed us to not only to continue with the programming, but to add practices and even extend the season through the summer, which was so beneficial to the kids during these challenging times. 

Just prior to the pandemic, we were about to launch another program at a residential home in Afula. However, once we were told that basketball activities were not allowed, we began to consider alternative solutions. Knowing that the kids were desperately going to need a physical outlet during lockdown, we quickly pivoted and built them a gym filled with exercise equipment - which was permitted - enabling the kids to work out on site.

I’m in constant contact with Ruth about expanding our programming to benefit as many World Emunah athletes as possible. In the meantime, in light of the pandemic, we have also added a section in our guidebook about the critical importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness. 

World Emunah gives us a tremendous platform to teach each child that they are a unique piece of a grand puzzle, and without their contribution to the world, the puzzle is simply incomplete.