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July 24, 2017 3:02 pm
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Jewish Giants Player Talks About Judaism, His Hebrew Tattoo and Kosher Food Cravings

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avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

A look inside Giants Stadium. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

An offensive lineman for the New York Giants talked about his Jewish heritage, Hebrew body ink and kosher food cravings in a recent interview with the New York Post.

Adam Bisnowaty sports a Hebrew tattoo on the inside of his left arm that quotes a Bible verse where God tells Moses “ehyeh asher ehyeh,” which translates to “I am that I am.” The NFL player said that when choosing the tattoo he “wanted to symbolize something religiously as well as kind of relate back to who I am, so I thought it was the perfect thing.”

“I’m really big on who I am and what I hold myself accountable for and kind of the way I live life,” he told The Post. “In the Torah, you have it related to God, it’s also the other aspect of being able to have something kinda higher than you. For me, it’s a statement for my life…A lot of guys ask me what it is and we always joke around, what it means, because a lot of guys don’t speak Hebrew, they don’t even know what Hebrew looks like. I always tell ’em it’s the symbol for who I am and what I believe in.”

The 23-year-old was raised in a Jewish home in Pittsburgh up until his parents divorced when he was 12, which stopped him from having a bar mitzvah. He told the Post he hoped one day to resume his Jewish studies and become a bar mitzvah, preferably in Israel, which he last visited when he was 8.

Bisnowaty said he keeps certain Jewish traditions — for example lighting Hanukkah candles are “a must’’ for him and his family usually gets together for Passover. When asked if he has “Jewish cravings,” he told the publication: “Of course. It’s crazy because I don’t eat pork because that’s how I was raised. We didn’t keep a kosher house, but I’ve always had a box of matzah in the cupboard and matzah ball soup, potato pancakes, everything. It’s just how I was raised and just love the food.”

He added that being with an NFL team in the New York/New Jersey area held great significance for him. “It’s a very heavily Jewish population, so it’s great to be around, you can say, my people,” he said.

Bisnowaty has also garnered the nickname “Schwartz” among some teammates — a reference to Geoff Schwartz, another Jewish offensive lineman who played for the Giants in 2014 and 2015.

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