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Photo: AP
Bar mitzvah boy's slam dunk
Stewart Harris could have gone on a shopping spree with his bar mitzvah gift haul, but instead he chose to give back – establishing a basketball team for children of Ethiopian olim
Some would have bought a PlayStation, expensive clothes or anything else their hearts desired. Other would have saved the money for the car of their dreams.
But one bar mitzvah boy from Philadelphia decided to dedicate all the money he received for a completely different purpose: Founding a basketball team for children of Ethiopian olim.
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His name is Stewart Harris, 13, and his father Joshua is a billionaire who owns NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers. Stewart recently celebrated his bar mitzvah and received quite a hefty sum in checks.
Yet instead of going on a spending spree Harris Junior chose to dedicate his money to doing mitzvoth. Stewart contacted the Ein Porat pre-military academy in Kfar Adumim, an institution with close ties to his family.
Academy alumni Ziv Hazan, 19, and Adi Turi, 19 suggested that he use the money to establish a basketball team with members belonging solely to Ethiopian 15-year-old teens who live in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot.
Harris okayed the idea, the money was transferred and on Sunday Stewart and his father arrived to hold the opening game with the newly formed team.
Both father and son took to the basketball court and while their team was beaten, they still had a smile on their faces at the end of the game.
The team includes 35 members and will be trained by none other than an Israeli Basketball Super League Coach, though his name has yet to be disclosed.
Yet that is not all. The 35 lucky teens will get kung fu lessons and after school tutoring – all from Stewart's bar mitzvah fund. Stewart himself expressed his confidence that the team would be a source of pride to everyone and would embody the values of ambition, community, excellence and living by personal example.
