NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, best known as Shaq, recently shared a sweet message with children currently attending Timberlane Camp in Haliburton, Canada, among whom are both survivors of the October 7 attack and family members of those killed on that terrible day. And the message is just melting our hearts.
In a video filmed inside a car, the iconic basketball player shared a heartfelt shoutout and “I love you” to the “amazing children from the OneFamily,” referring to the Israeli organization that partnered with the camp to host Israeli youth who were directly affected by terror and war. He told the children, who he knew “came from far, far away,” that he hopes they’re “having a good time, we love you so very much, thank you for coming and we’ll talk to you soon.”
He then let out a quick barrage of Hebrew expressions, including “shalom,” or hello, “baruch Hashem,” which means blessed is God, or God bless, “l’shanah tovah,” which is a wish for a good Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah is on October 2 this year, so Shaq is a bit early with that) and “Shabbat shalom,” a good (peaceful) Shabbat.
🏀 @SHAQ sends words of comfort to Camp Timberlane, which is hosting young Israelis who survived the October 7 massacre (or have relatives who were murdered).
Thank you, Shaq, for your words of comfort and for showing off your Hebrew. pic.twitter.com/nuQ7Xkd5iG
— Creative Community for Peace (@CCFPeace) August 19, 2024
Speaking of the Jewish High Holidays, back in 2021, Shaq shared that his favorite Jewish holiday is a surprising one: Sukkot. Because we all spend our time in shacks, get it?! (Shaq is also a master of the Jewish dad joke, it seems!)
Former @NBA Champion Shaquille O'Neal, known commonly as "Shaq" @shaqtin sends the Jewish community a message for the holiday of #Sukkot. pic.twitter.com/wjDa1oltzZ
— Creative Community for Peace (@CCFPeace) September 21, 2021
The video came about from a FaceTime between O’Neal and Chen Kraunik, who works for OneFamily. Kraunik, himself a professional basketball player who played for Maccabi Ramat Gan, is the son of Arik Kraunik, the military security coordinator of Kibbutz Be’eri and the first Israeli victim of the October 7 attack. Arik was a player for Hapoel Be’eri.
Shaq, the revered former NBA center and current sports analyst, widely considered one of the best basketball players of all time, has always been happy to partake in Jewish tradition, from dancing the hora to learning Hebrew. And it appears that his youngest son, Shaqir, is just as keen about paying tribute to Judaism. In a 2018 episode of “Shaunie’s Home Court,” the VH1 reality show that followed Shaq’s ex-wife and his children, Shaqir, now a basketball player at Texas Southern University, made his family host their own Shabbat dinner because he simply loved the ones he had been to too much. Or as he said, “Shabbat is great, it’s pretty lit.”
Shaunie, wanting to make the experience as authentic for her son as possible, even went to the local kosher grocery store and sampled gefilte fish — which she kind of liked! But ultimately, realizing that one can serve whatever one wants for Shabbat, she decided to make a fish fry for the occasion. As she put it, she would, “Make Shabbat into Sha’Black.” The family did partake in some Jewish traditions that evening, including lighting the Shabbat candles and drinking some Manischewitz wine. Shaqir did his best to pronounce the Hebrew words of the blessing over the candles — and honestly, his mispronunciation was quite adorable, with Shaunie apologizing to any Jewish person who might have been offended at the undertaking. I would say she and Shaqir really understood what the holiday is all about — “family, eating,” and “spending time with each other,” as Shaunie rightly surmised in the episode. At the end, the entire family wished each other a hearty “Shabbat shalom.” Honestly, we’d love to invite Shaq, Shaqir and the entire family to our next Shabbat dinner.
@hamsaclub Very Interesting 🕯✡️ 🍽 #shaq #shaqtinafool #shabbatdinner #jewish #jewishcheck #hamsaclub #kosherfood #realitytv #realitytvclipss #vh1shows #shabbos
@hamsaclub Replying to @….. that mac & cheese 🤤 #s#shaqs#shaqtinafools#shabbatdinnerj#jewishj#jewishcheckh#hamsaclubk#kosherfoodr#realitytvr#realitytvclipssv#vh1showsshabbos
