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Friday September 29, 2006

Israeli goalkeeper: I’ll play during Yom Kippur

by miki sagy
ynetnews.com

Every year this issue is raised and every time it is resolved in a different way. This year, it is Israeli soccer player Dudu Awate who said he will play for his team on Yom Kippur.

Awate, 28, is a goalkeeper for Spanish soccer team Deportivo de la Coruña and a member of Israel’s national team.

“If Yom Kippur starts at 7 o’clock, for instance, and I have a game scheduled for that time, I will move my holiday a little and start it from 9 o’clock to the next evening at 9 o’clock. In any case I will celebrate it for 24 hours,” Awate told the Spanish newspaper Ace.

In the beginning of the article, the newspaper reports that “On Oct. 1, Awate can’t watch TV, listen to the radio, have sex, eat, drink, drive and play soccer.” (Yom Kippur begins Sunday night, Oct. 1.) The same day, the article says, La Coruña is scheduled to play Real Sociedad, and Awate is in a jam.

After four years of playing in Spain, Awate recalls that only once did the holiday fall on a weekend and interfere with his playing: “There was one time we had an away game, and Yossi Benayun and I left for the game one day before so we could celebrate the holiday, and we played as soon as it was over.”

In response to the statements by Awate, Knesset Member Yakov Margi, who is also the chairman of the religious Shas party, wrote a letter to Itche Menacham, chairman of the Israel Football Association, demanding that Awate, be dismissed from the national team if he does play during the Yom Kippur weekend.

“The national team is supposed to represent Israel,” he wrote. “Whoever plays on Yom Kippur is trampling the values of the Jewish people and is not fit to represent the country.”

The Football Association’s Deputy Chair Avi Luzon defended Awate, saying that “to each their own. Everyone should do as they please.”

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