But it turns out, it wasn’t enough for Deni.

Over the past two years, his talent and production have exploded. What began in Washington, D.C. as the eighth overall pick in the NBA draft has evolved into something much bigger.

Even if you don’t follow basketball or can’t confidently explain the difference between a triple-double and a three-pointer, it’s a big deal when an Israeli is part of the conversation about the league’s best players.

Even LeBron (yes, that LeBron) praised Deni’s game.

“He’s having a hell of a season. He should be an All‑Star…He’s playing great basketball.”1

What an example of game recognizing game. While we’re talking about LeBron, Deni received more All-Star votes from fans than LeBron did. Let that sink in.

If his height didn’t already make him a Jewish mother’s dream, his talent and success take it to the next level.

Origin Story

Deni is the son of Sharon Artzi from Kibbutz Beit Zera and Zufer Avdija, a towering Serbian former professional basketball player. Like father, like son - both stand at 6’8”. Zufer played in Serbia and Israel, and Sharon was an athlete herself, competing in basketball and track and field2.

Deni was the youngest player in history on the Maccabi Tel Aviv senior team at the age of 16 and he won two championships with them. The second of which came with a record for the youngest ever MVP. His rise wasn’t out of nowhere. Still, success in Israel and even on the world stage in Eurobasket doesn’t automatically translate to the NBA. We’ve seen plenty of college stars struggle to make that leap.

Deni did it.

Third Time, Ice Cream

This subtitle comes from a saying in Hebrew - פעם שלישית גלידה / Pom shlee-sheet, glee-duh - which means “third time, ice cream”. If you see someone twice in a day unexpectedly, you say that the third time you’ll get ice cream.

It’s not everyday that an athlete releases his own food product. There’s no shortage of athletes that have their own shoe designs, but food is a different story. Not only is it ice cream, but it’s protein-packed (17 grams), which is unique and targeted to athletes. The brand name comes from Deni’s days on the Wizards when he was nicknamed Turbo for his speedy bursts up and down the court.

Turbo ice cream is currently available in Israel with a possible release in the States on the horizon. It comes in three flavors: chocolate hazelnut, vanilla, and mango.

There’s something delightful about watching him introduce it to his Trail Blazers teammates in the video below.

Speaking the Language

If you’ve ever heard Deni interviewed, you’ve probably noticed how strong his English is. Israelis study English in school, but fluency isn’t a given.

Deni has said that beyond school, his English improved from playing Call of Duty and watching Nickelodeon shows like Drake & Josh and iCarly3. Apparently, kids’ sitcoms are an underrated language immersion tool.

The payoff is enormous. He communicates smoothly with teammates, coaches, and media. It makes him accessible and you feel like you know him.

Contrast that with teammates who rely on translators. There’s inevitably a barrier. Language opens doors not only in sports, but in business, culture, and relationships. Watching Deni navigate the NBA so naturally is a reminder of how critical that language skill is.

Not in Anyone’s Shadow

Whenever someone follows a trailblazer - in this case, Omri Casspi - there’s a quiet question: Does the pioneer want the record to stand forever, or do they want to be surpassed?

Omri Casspi, most certainly a class act, told Deni that he’s rooting for him to be the best.

“I will be angry with you if you’re not better than me. I also want you to be better and think you have the potential to be better…Go with your truth, that’s something good. Push yourself to be the best you can be.4”

It feels Israeli to me that Omri would wish him success and want him to be better than him. Omri sees Deni as a representative of Israel and he’s proud of him. There doesn’t seem to be a hint of jealousy and it serves as a great example of humility and freudenfreude, the opposite of schadenfreude, or feeling happy for someone else’s success.

Repping the Blue and White

I was stunned to learn that Deni briefly considered playing for Serbia in EuroBasket when he was first eligible. He ultimately chose Israel, saying it would be more of a challenge.

I can’t imagine him in another uniform.

This year’s team had high hopes this past fall, but they ended up coming up short. Deni played masterfully and averaged 24 points a game, but it ultimately wasn’t enough when going up against Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo and Team Greece. Team Israel made it to the final 16, but that was the end of the road.

Watching Eurobasket is a somewhat humbling/eye-opening experience to the fact that there are so many talented players around the world who aren’t in the NBA. This is also seen in the Olympics when every once in a while a team without so many NBA stars gives Team USA a fight.

I remember watching the Olympics as a kid and thinking how cool it was to see NBA players playing on national teams outside of US, whether that was France, Australia, or Spain. It’s a special feeling to see an NBA star in the blue and white.

Heavy Non-Diva Vibes

Deni signed a four-year, $55 million contract, in 2023, which is objectively a massive sum, yet below market value for a player of his caliber.

When asked if he regretted it, he said:

“Do I regret the contract? No. It gave me a lot of calmness because I know I’m secure. That was my goal. I told my agent, and he was like, ‘I think you should sign for less years,’ but I was like, ‘If I outplay my contract, I outplay my contract. We will deal with that later5.”

In an era of dramatic contract disputes and oversized egos, that answer stands out. Deni lets his game do the talking.

In any post-game interview, you get the sense that he genuinely loves playing. He talks about his teammates first, gives credit easily, and rarely lingers on his own stat line. There’s no hogging the spotlight - just a steady respect for the game and the people around him. He’s thoughtful at the mic, measured but not bland.

Contrary to other NBA stars, I can’t really picture him pulling up in a Lamborghini. I can, however, picture him playing Call of Duty with friends, reaching for Bamba or Bissli between rounds, and carrying that quiet awareness of exactly where he comes from.

He has a whole country behind him.

And he gives us a lot of nachas.

Song of the Week

מדאם / Madame

This power ballad comes to us from Noam Bettan, this year’s Israeli representative to Eurovision. I have been a fan of Noam from before he was on Kochav Haba (Rising Star), or the singing competition that determines who will represent Israel at Eurovision. He was my favorite from the start with his golden vocals.

I’ve been reading up on Eurovision lately and it means a lot to Israelis. Akiva Novick of Yediot Achronot has written extensively about it. Eurovision gives Israelis a sense of belonging amongst the nations of the world. It is a welcome change from our usual place as pariah or outcast. We’ve also done very well in the last 3 years - coming in the Top 5. You can watch the magic yourself May 12-16.

Slang of the Week

פליז

Please

I’ve only recently started to hear this in Israeli TV shows. It’s very much used as it is in English with a bit more umph. It is yet another addition to the list of English words that are making their way into the Hebrew lexicon.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It has been a while since I’ve written standalone posts and it feels great to be back. I hope to be posting more regularly with explanations of unique features of Israeli culture and society.

I’m offering a talk on Israeli music after October 7, tracing the emotional journey of the Israeli people since the beginning of the war - shock, mourning, anger, and the movement toward healing - through the songs and music created in real time. Music has been a powerful mirror of resilience, hope, and collective memory, and this session explores how it reflects the lived experience on the ground.

The talk works well in person for groups in Israel and over Zoom for synagogues and communities abroad. It includes storytelling, music videos, and discussion of key songs, providing a meaningful window into the country’s emotional landscape.

If your community might be interested in hosting this session, or if you know other groups who could benefit, please reach out. You can also learn more here.

Communities already booked include:

• Chicago

• Columbus

• Detroit

• Los Angeles

• Melbourne

• New York City

The conversation moves between the personal and the collective - how individual stories of trauma, memory, and identity intersect with Israel’s broader social reality, and how the process of filming itself can foster healing, insight, and transformation.

This episode looks beyond documentary as art or journalism and asks what it means for film to actively participate in care, resilience, and meaning-making in Israeli society.

As mentioned in the intro to the episode, Yonatan is also the host of DocuNation, an organization that distributes Israeli documentaries for the world to see. You can learn more about DocuNation here.

What began as improvised roadside setups has become a defining feature of Israeli public life: espresso machines on wheels at the edge of highways, outside moshavim, near bases, in industrial zones, and at the margins of cities. They serve soldiers, commuters, farmers, freelancers, families, and early-morning regulars who plan their routes around a specific cart.

In this episode, I’m joined by Michal Sapir, founder of Coffee Trail, to trace how coffee carts moved from informal side projects to everyday institutions. We talk about what makes the cart format work in Israel: speed over ceremony, consistency over branding, and community without commitment. We examine why carts thrive where cafés often struggle, how regulation follows culture rather than leads it, and what these spaces reveal about Israeli social habits after years of disruption and change.

This conversation uses coffee as a lens to understand something larger: how Israelis gather, pause, and connect in public without pretense. The cart is not about artisanal beans or aesthetics. It is about movement, access, and trust.

An episode about coffee, yes, but more accurately, about how a society builds shared space on the fly.

Check out the Coffee Trail website here.

Reserve duty is a major aspect of Israeli culture. This episode won’t get into the war that much itself, but it will focus on how the families of reservists are impacted when their spouse or parent is away for an average of 70 days, but possibly far longer - hundreds of days. Often back and forth for Shabbat or holidays here and there but many large periods of time away.

Rachel and her organization, Haogen, have done some incredible work - helping out 35,000 reservist families. with all sorts of help that she will tell you about.

Why did I choose Rachel for this episode?

She and her organization Haogen are very much the address for help for miluim families and she provides their story in an informative way. She also has been a member of Knesset, on the Jerusalem city council, and the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, so she understands how the government can help, as well as what is lacking. That hole is what is filled by HaOgen.

Your support helps us do more than produce weekly episodes. With contributions, we can:

• Develop new educational materials for camps, schools, and community groups.

• Create new talks, including the upcoming sessions on Israeli music after October 7th, “Soundtrack of Resilience”.

• Build partnerships to bring programming about Israeli culture to wider audiences.

Stay tuned for our next episodes, where we dive into an especially wide range of topics. Coming up this month are episodes on:

• Documentaries

• Miluim (reserve duty) - with a focus on the impact on the families

• Coffee Carts

• Mentalism

If you’ve been enjoying Sababoosh, I’d love your help keeping it going. Every contribution, big or small, makes a real difference and allows us to keep exploring Israeli culture, sharing stories, and connecting listeners from all over the world.

You can contribute to our work here.

Next week will be a shorter, solo episode. Two guests cancelled, so I’m doing five things in Israeli culture that are worth your attention right now.

Back to regular interviews the following week.

I’d love to hear from you. What music, sound, or tradition feels most like celebration to you? Leave a comment or share a memory that comes to mind.

A taste of celebrating a wedding with Rabotai:

Asaf takes us behind the scenes of how these shows capture the intensity of human emotions - from the highs and lows of relationships to the drama and joy of welcoming new life. He explains why Israeli audiences connect so deeply with these stories and how reality TV has become more than entertainment: it’s a mirror reflecting love, family, and society itself.

Through heartfelt anecdotes and the stories of the couples at the center of his shows, Asaf reveals how reality television in Israel isn’t just watched - it’s felt, discussed, and remembered, shaping cultural moments and collective experiences along the way.

My guest this week, Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, embodies so much of that mix of tradition and change. She’s the first Druze woman to anchor the news in both Hebrew and Arabic, the first Druze woman in the Knesset, and later, the first non-Jewish Israeli to serve as a senior emissary for the Jewish Agency. Her story is about breaking barriers — but also about staying rooted.

We talked about what loyalty means to a community that doesn’t seek its own homeland, how Druze identity and Israeli identity intertwine, and how women in her society are finding new ways to lead. Gadeer also shared how she’s using her voice now — especially after October 7th — to rebuild trust, speak to audiences in Arabic and English around the world, and show the many faces of what it means to be Israeli.

This episode isn’t just about one remarkable woman; it’s about a people who see faith as quiet strength, and belonging as an act of choice.

Next time, I’m sitting down with Assaf Gil, the mind behind Hatunami and MasterChef, to talk about how reality TV became one of Israel’s favorite mirrors — and what it says about who we are off-screen.

For more than a century, the kibbutz has stood as one of Israel’s most iconic — and idealistic — experiments. Born from socialist and Zionist dreams in the early 20th century, the kibbutz movement sought to build not just a place to live, but a new kind of society — one built on equality, community, and shared purpose.

In its early days, life on the kibbutz meant shared meals, collective work, and a vision of remaking the Jewish people through labor and cooperation. Over the years, that vision has evolved — shaped by war, economic change, and generational shifts — but the questions it raises about community, identity, and meaning still echo in Israeli life today.

Our guest today, Muki Tzur, has spent a lifetime exploring those questions. A historian, writer, and one of the foremost thinkers on the kibbutz movement, Muki is himself a longtime member of Kibbutz Ein Gev, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He’s written and edited dozens of works on Zionist thought, pioneering life, and the moral and spiritual vision behind the kibbutz ideal.

Few people have both lived and studied this story as deeply as he has.
In our conversation, we’ll talk about how the kibbutz began, how it changed, and what its legacy means for Israel today.

Lucky for you, what’s waiting isn’t just a pile of work and looming deadlines… it’s a brand new season of your friendly neighborhood Israeli culture podcast, Sababoosh!

This season, I’m especially excited about what’s coming up. We’re diving into fresh corners of Israeli culture - the kind of below-the-surface stories that show the country’s real heartbeat. Instead of the music and food focus of past episodes, you can look forward to episodes about coffee carts, reality TV, the Druze community, and plenty more.

And there’s another exciting update…drumroll please…

🥁🥁🥁 Sababoosh is going weekly!
That means more consistency, more energy, and hopefully a weekly ritual of exploring the wonders (and quirks) of Israeli life together.

A Sneak Peek of Our Guests

What’s New This Season

• Weekly Episodes!

• More Listener Involvement — polls, suggestions, and your questions answered on the show.

• Amped-Up Social Media — weekly Hebrew slang, fun facts, and cultural gems from across Israel.

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Thank you for being part of this journey and for caring about Israeli culture as deeply as I do. I hope Season 4 helps your love for this beautiful, complicated, inspiring country continue to blossom - one episode at a time.

– Jake
(Follow Sababoosh on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube for the latest!)

Today on Sababoosh, we’re diving into one of the most iconic rites of passage in Israeli life: the post-army backpacking trip.

To help us unpack this cultural phenomenon, we’re joined by Professor Chaim Noy. His doctoral research examined the travel narratives of Israeli backpackers. Professor Noy is the Chair of the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University, now in his fifth year in that role. He previously served as Chairperson of the Israeli Communication Association, and before that, spent several years as a tenured associate professor at the University of South Florida.

What makes DJ Raphi so unique is the way he bridges worlds. On one hand, his work is deeply rooted in Jewish identity and Israeli culture. On the other, it’s playful, international, and perfectly tuned to the way people consume music and media today. It’s no wonder that his videos have racked up millions of views, inspiring kids, families, and communities from Jerusalem to Johannesburg, from New York to Sydney.

In this episode, we’ll talk about how Raphi went from experimenting with beats in his bedroom to becoming one of the most recognizable Jewish (and general) performers online. We’ll explore what drives his creativity, how he sees the role of music in connecting people to Jewish and Israeli life, and what it means to bring joy and energy to a world that often feels heavy.

So whether you’ve danced to one of his Purim remixes, watched a holiday music video with your kids, or are just discovering him now, you’re in for a treat.

In just three seasons, Sababoosh has grown beyond anything I imagined with its reaching thousands of listeners in more than 50 countries, exploring Israeli culture through music, food, literature, art, and the people shaping Israel today.

But the mission has always been bigger than a podcast. Sababoosh is about building bridges, creating understanding, and giving a platform to authentic Israeli voices that don’t always make it into the global conversation. It’s also becoming a hub for Israeli culture, with educational resources and a growing community on Substack.

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, I’d love to invite you to be part of this journey. There are so many ways to get involved:

• 🎧 Listen to the podcast and discover new stories of Israeli culture.

• 📣 Share episodes with friends, family, or your community to help these voices reach more people.

• 🤝 Suggest partner organizations or communities that might benefit from connecting with Sababoosh.

• 💙 Support our growth through a tax-deductible donation, helping ensure the podcast continues to expand its reach and impact.

Thank you for being part of this community. Wishing you a sweet new year filled with meaning, connection, and peace.

For more info, check out the website.

In this conversation, we’re diving into the world of tremping — hitchhiking in Israel. It’s more than just a way to get from point A to point B; it’s a cultural phenomenon. Tremping has shaped friendships, inspired stories, and revealed the unique texture of Israeli society — its openness, risks, humor, and deep sense of shared destiny.

So buckle up, or maybe stick out your index finger, as we explore the stories of the Israeli road with Yair Agmon.

As the Executive Director of Hillel Israel and a leading voice in the pluralist movement, Rabbi Brenner Samia sheds light on how Reform Judaism in Israel is growing—creating vibrant, inclusive communities rooted in Jewish values, egalitarianism, and social justice. She also discusses Hillel Israel’s role in empowering college students to explore Jewish life on their own terms, fostering curiosity, community, and a strong sense of belonging.

Together, we examine what it means to live a Jewish life in Israel today, the evolving role of non-Orthodox movements, and why expanding the definition of Jewish identity is vital to the country’s future.

Check out Hillel Israel’s website to learn more here.

Tell us what you think in the listener survey here.