from fi nding work in the country.

“My life is in complete standstill,”
Armstrong said before the ministry’s
ruling. “I’m ready for this to be over.”
In his citizenship application, Vitor
underwent an Orthodox conversion
within Israel. In a tweet announcing his
citizenship, Shaked noted another aspect
of his story that may have worked in his
favor: “His wife, by the way, works in
the foreign media and fi ercely defends
Israel.” Armstrong isn’t the only athlete to
have encountered immigration hur-
dles to play in Israel. Pedro Galvan, an
Argentine soccer player who played for
Tel Aviv’s club team for 10 years, was
deported along with his family in 2019
aft er being cut from the team. He also
saw his application for citizenship denied
by the Interior Ministry.

In the aft ermath of the Vitor decision
last week, Boris Klaiman, an Israeli
soccer player who currently plays for a
Greek club team, questioned why the
outcomes for Vitor and Galvan had
been so diff erent. “Why [was] Miguel
Vitor [a] yes and Pedro Galaban and his
four daughters who grew up in Israel
were deported?” Klaiman asked in an
Instagram post.

Armstrong and his supporters also
cited another recent high-profi le citi-
zenship case, that of Russian oligarch
Mikhail Prokhorov, in their public
appeals. Prokhorov, Russia’s 12th-rich-
est man and onetime owner of the
Brooklyn Nets, recently fl ew to Israel
on his private jet, where he applied for
and received citizenship in a manner
of days, based on the ancestry of his
Jewish grandmother. JE
DRIZIN - WEISS REGIONAL POST 215
Est. 1946
Jared Armstrong
basketball team Hapoel Haifa is unclear.

Local rules strictly limit the number of
non-Israeli players that teams can include
on their rosters. So foreign athletes oft en
apply for citizenship — and, because
Israel’s immigration policy demands
proof of Jewish ancestry or a recognized
conversion process for citizenship, many
convert to Judaism as part of the process.

Armstrong’s conversion has not been
recognized by Israeli authorities. As
recently as May 1, the same day Vitor’s
conversion was accepted, Shaked’s offi ce
said, “Armstrong’s conversion does not
meet the criteria in Israel.”
Armstrong was raised Jewish by a
mother whose conversion is not rec-
ognized by any of the major Jewish
denominations, so he underwent a for-
mal conversion as part of his bid to move
to Israel.

In denying his citizenship bid, the
Interior Ministry claimed he was only
trying to convert so that he could play
basketball — a charge that Armstrong
emphatically denied in a JTA op-ed.

“Not for once did I ever think some-
one doubted my identity among the
Jewish people. My mom and community
taught and raised me as a Jew,” he wrote.

“Instead of treating me like a Jew want-
ing to come home, they [the ministry]
regard me as an infi ltrator trying to take
part in something that I have no right to.”
One wrinkle in Armstrong’s conver-
sion was that Beals is affi liated with
the Conservative movement. Israel’s
Supreme Court has ruled that Israel is
required to grant citizenship to non-Or-
Courtesy of Jarad Armstrong
thodox Jewish converts, but the coun-
try’s religious leadership has resisted that
ruling. Israel also challenged the conversion
in part because Armstrong had studied
online during the pandemic.

Beals, who is oft en referred to as “Joe
Biden’s rabbi” because of his close con-
nections to the president, had accused
the Israeli government of being “rac-
ist” in its handling of Armstrong’s case.

Armstrong is Black, and Israel has an
inconsistent history in deciding on citi-
zenship cases involving Black Jews.

Beals questioned why Israel would
want “to reduce a proud young Jewish
African-American man to dependency
through a decision of temporary resi-
dency.” Armstrong used Joey Low — a
well-connected intermediary, American
venture capitalist and major investor in
Israeli startups — to facilitate a Feb. 28
meeting with a member of Shaked’s staff .

Low has also been a fi erce advocate for
African migrants in Israel, speaking out
against the country’s deportations of tens
of thousands of refugees.

In WhatsApp voice messages, that
staff er told Low that a decision would
be made on Armstrong’s application for
citizenship within the month. Instead,
it took more than two months to reach a
temporary resolution.

During that time, Armstrong stayed
in a Tel Aviv hostel under a tourist visa,
kept a regular training regimen in a local
gym and used a GoFundMe to help cover
his expenses, as he was legally prohibited
JEWISH WAR VETERANS
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PLEASE VOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO WORK TOGETHER FOR THE COMMON
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We Recommend ELECTION AND RE-ELECTION
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•for Governor Josh Shapiro (D)
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Mary Gay Scanlon (D)
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Mike Driscoll (D)
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VOTE on TUESDAY MAY 17
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