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Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax

JL;DR SUMMARY Israeli NBA player Deni Avdija's recent on-court success has sparked discussions paralleling those around Sandy Koufax in the context of Jewish identity and Israel-related politics. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish IdentityZionismJewish AthleteAnti Israel SentimentNbaIsraeli AthleteBasketballSandy KoufaxSports And PoliticsDeni Avdija

Places mentioned

Portland, Oregon, United States
"Deni Avdija, the 25-year-old forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, had just scored 41 points and the game-winning basket in a winner-takes-all game, carrying his team to its first playoff appearance in five years."
Herzeliya, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Avdija, who did not attend college, says Herzeliya, Israel."
San Antonio, Texas, United States
"After last Tuesdays masterpiece, he poured in 30 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a loss to the heavily favored San Antonio Spurs; in Game 2, Avdija used his signature deceleration move to set up the game-winning alley-oop dunk."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"He is based in Los Angeles."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 80850
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-04-25 05:32:30 UTC
Curated 2026-04-25 08:30:43 UTC