An image taken in 2017 went viral again during the recent Summer Olympics in France. The picture is of basketball player Shaquille O’Neal and gymnast Simone Biles, highlighting the dramatic difference in height of the two athletes. Shaq is 7' 1" while Simone stands at 4' 8". Shaquille O’Neal has had many connections to the Jewish community. Early in his professional career he realized that he needed help managing the huge salary he was suddenly receiving. After interviewing a number of people who all made wild claims of how they would make him richer, he met financial advisor Lester Knispel, who O’Neal immediately sensed would be honest and fair with him. He went on to call Knispel “one little small beautiful Jewish man” and described him as “straightforward and very smart and not too slick.” Last week O’Neal recorded a video message for children at Camp Timberlane in Haliburton, Canada. The camp runs a program in conjunction with the Israeli organization OneFamily for “Israeli youth who have been directly affected by terror and war.” Shaq’s message said “Camp Timberlane! Hello! Shalom! This is Shaquille O’Neal. I just wanted to give you guys a shoutout and let you know I love you. To all the amazing children from the OneFamily, I know you came from far, far away. Hope you’re having a good time. We love you so very much. Thank you for coming. And we’ll talk to you soon.” And he ended the message with a string of Hebrew greetings, saying, “Alright, Shalom, Baruch Hashem, L’shana tova, Shabbat Shalom.” In 2021, Shaquille O’Neal posted on social media that his favorite Jewish holiday is which one?   

‍ Lipofsky Shaquille O'Neal by Steve Lipofsky Basketballphoto.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

A. Passover, because when O’Neal was at LSU he went with a friend to the Hillel seder and has loved it ever since.

B. Lag B’omer, because Shaq is an amateur archer.

C. Shabbat, because growing up in Newark, New Jersey, he lived near a Jewish family who employed him as their shabbos goy, to turn lights, heat, and a/c on and off over the Sabbath, and they would always give him some challah on Friday night, which he loved.

D. Chanukkah, because the Los Angeles Lakers sponsored a Chanukkah Fans Night ever year, so Shaq learned about latkes and participated in a menorah lighting that took place on the basketball court before the game began.

E. Sukkot, because people live in shacks.

Click here for the answer.

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