Former American-Israeli professional basketball player, Tal Brody, was inscribed into Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund's (KKL-JNF) Golden Book of Honor.
Legendary athlete Brody was inscribed into the Golden Book alongside notable people of Israeli and Jewish History, such as the father of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, and Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
Throughout Brody's career and life, he is most notably remembered for leading the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team to victory in the European championships in 1977. In his early life he made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), and in 1979 won the Israel Prize for special contributions to the country.
Now Brody is the first athlete to have his name inscribed into KKL-JNF's Golden Book.
A ceremony was held at the Yad Kennedy Memorial, near Jerusalem. Brody signed his name into the book together with a designated calligrapher, joining the chain of generations of influencers and leaders who have left their mark on the history of Israel and its society, contributing to its development, all of which has been documented in KKL-JNF's Golden Book.
KKL-JNF, a renowned non- for profit organization known for planting trees in Israel among other altruist acts, have Honor Books, which document the honorable people who donated to the KKL-JNF fund over the course of Israeli history. The Golden Book is the most unique of the KKL-JNF Books of Honor.
"Among its pages are inscriptions recording special events in people’s lives over the past one hundred years of Jewish history," states the KKL-JNF website.
"Each volume of the Golden Book describes a different period in the life of the Jewish People and the contribution of KKL-JNF, acting through and on behalf of the people, for the preservation, care and development of the land. An entry in the Golden Book is a mark of esteem and gratitude to the donors who with their contribution, enable a variety of projects to be carried out."