[Sparta45]

[ QUOTE ]
I just found out that The Grinder is Israeli and it got me to thinking about how many other pros out there are fellow Jews that I wasn't aware of.

Help me complete this list. Forgive any misspellings.

Barry Greenstein
Howard Lederer
David Sklansky
Eli Elezera
Michael Mizrachi
Phil Gordon
Mike Matusow
Gabe Kaplan
Cory Zeidman

By the way, I'm refering to the ethnicity, not the religion, as I understand that a lot of these guys are atheists and such.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. I'm not offended by your post because I don't think you meant any malice at all, but if you have no idea what you're talking about, you really should just refrain from making posts like this.

Anyway, Jewish people are not a race. If they are, what "race" do you think they belong to? I suppose the "Jewish" race, right?? First cousin's to the "Christian" race, the "Muslim" race, the "Hindu" race, and the other races.....

Judiasm is a religion. I'm not going to try to "prove" this is correct, but let's just say that if anyone cares, 5 minutes of internet research will prove this.

With that being said, I did not know that the Grinder was Israeli. However, even if he is, it doesn't mean he's Jewish. Many Israeli citizens are not Jewish. Many of them are Christians, many of them are Muslims. Most of them are in fact Jewish, but a good percent of them are not. I don't know what the % breakdown is, but my point is that he may very well not be Jewish....I really don't know.

Anyway, ignoring all that, onto what I think was the point of your post, there are many many Jewish people playing poker professionally and I'm always surprised when I watch television how many Jewish people I *suspect* are Jewish (as a Jew, I think I do this naturally [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

At any rate, I'm nobody's biographer, so I don't really know, but I think it's safe to say that Stu Unger was (although never practiced). I think it's safe to say that Matusow is by the "Chai" necklace he often wears on television. I *suspect* Jeff Schulman is. I *suspect* 2 of the guys on this past week's final WPT table were Jewish, but I'm not sure, they're just guesses based on last names. I *suspect* David Singer is Jewish. I know there are others, but none that come to mind off-hand.

Are you sure about your list? Howard Lederer?? Eli Elezra?? I know Elezra is from Israel, but again, he may very well not be Jewish.