Auburn basketball's 'Peace Camp' with local children highlights first full day in Israel

Auburn basketball arrived in Israel on Sunday and has hit the ground running.

On Sunday evening and into Monday, the team visited the walls overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, toured the Old City, and took part in Tamir Goodman’s Peace Camp.

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The Tigers also practiced for the first time in Israel, preparing for their game against the U-20 national team. That game will take place on Tuesday at Noon CT (8 p.m. local time in Israel). Admission to the game will be free, and the game will be televised on the SEC Network with analysts Jay Bilas and Roxy Bernstein.

The camp was a special experience for the Auburn players and coaches.

“I want to thank everyone at the YMCA and I want to thank my new friend Tamir Goodman,” Bruce Pearl told the people in attendance according to Joshua Halickman of The Sports Rabbi. Halickman is based in Jerusalem and reporting on the happenings from the ground in Israel.

“This is a historic visit and the first time a Power Five conference basketball program has been here. Our goal is to try and bring two to four teams every August, and our media partners will come alongside of us, and Complete Sports Management under the leadership of Lea Miller who is the best at putting these kinds of trips and tournaments together. Next year it could be Duke, Florida, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech. Lots of different clubs are interested, and when our kids come back and they have experienced this incredible culture and love that we are feeling here, I think this will be a place that a lot of college programs will want to come to.”

Halickman spoke with Auburn center Dylan Cardwell, and the significance of the trip for Cardwell, a self-proclaimed Christian.

“First of all I want to say, ‘All Glory to God’,” Cardwell said. “I wouldn’t be here without him. Just the experience alone is an experience of a lifetime. Growing up in Georgia, I would have never myself traveling across the sea to go to Israel. There is so much going on between the food, music and the drinks, the community and the feel – it’s just an amazing environment.

“For me spiritually this is the closest I’ve ever been to God, physically, spiritually, emotionally. I just thank him everyday that I can step foot in his Holy Land and the land that he created. It’s just a blessing that not enough people are fortunate to get. I pray that I take full advantage of this and grow through my experiences and get as much as I can because this is the trip of a lifetime. I want to thank God for his grace for blessing us as a team for being over here as well, and I want to thank Israel for allowing us to be here.”

Lior Berman has spent the last two weeks in Israel playing for Team USA in the Maccabiah Games. Berman is excited to share his Jewish heritage with his Auburn teammates.

“I am looking feared to have my Auburn team here as I didn’t know the Maccabiah guys beforehand and we got super close,” Berman told Halickman. “With the Auburn team we are a close group of guys and with this trip we will get even closer as we will be with each other all of the time. We will be experience stuff for the first time and that is a great way to get closer.”

Pearl echoed those sentiments.

“Sports brings teams together, universities together and communities together and it brought us together,” Pearl said. “I am a big believer that we can do more together than apart. It’s also respecting differences. Dylan and I are spiritually different, we are racially different, but we have tremendous connection as there is so much that binds us in common. You could focus on our differences, but we would rather focus on the things that make us brothers, fathers, sons and whatever it is. That is what we choose to do, and together we are badass.”

You can read Halickman’s entire report, including more quotes from Pearl, Cardwell and Berman, in addition to photos from Auburn’s first practice in Israel.