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From: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Basketball, conversions, & Israel
Message-ID: <125@unc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 21:15:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.125
Posted: Tue Apr 30 21:15:14 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 1-May-85 04:40:24 EDT
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lines: 21

Check out this week's Sports Illustrated.  In the "Scorecard" section
on page 9 is an article entitled "Roundball Rabbis."

Below is a (mixed quote/paraphrase) summary of the article:

It seems that a few basketball players who couldn't quite make the grade
in American pro-basketball have been recruited to play pro-basketball
in Israel.  Each of Israel's twelve pro-basketball teams is allowed to recruit
one foreign player per year, but many American players evade the rules
by becoming Israeli citizens.

To avoid the standard waiting period, a gentile can obtain citizenship
by marrying a Jew or by converting to Judaism.

The scandal:  Some players received suspect quickie conversions which
are being challenged by the Israeli government.

In Israel the question of who is a Jew is an intense religous, social
and political issue.  Now it's a sports issue as well.  That's serious!

	Frank Silbermann