This is the second trip that Omri Casspi has lead to Israel filled with American athletes. This year the change is that he enrolled Traci Szymanski to join forces with him. She had previously travelled to Israel with the Backstreet Boys, Jason Derulo, Paula Abdul, a member of the music group Il Divo, actor Verne Troyer, teen sensation James Maslow, supermodel Joanna Krupa, dance prodigy Sophia Lucia, actress Vanessa Marcil, and the cast of the TV show CSI.
Szymanski has also been behind the now star-studded Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Western Region Gala with billionaire Haim Saban for the past 2-years. Her contribution this year changed things up for Casspi’s year 2 adding actor and Entourage star Jeremy Piven to the trip.
Piven who is Jewish and played a Jewish agent in Entourage had never been to Israel before.
Piven remarked “I’ve wanted to come to Israel for along time, but life seemed to just always get in the way…. I think everyone should have a 2nd Bar Mitzvah later in life. Then you really know what you’re doing.”
Piven and the group also visited Yad Vashem – the Holocaust Museum, Jaffa, Caesaria, the Dead Sea, attended parties in Tel Aviv and the beach in Hertziliah. “Visiting Yad Vashem was really important and a unique opportunity to share it with some of these guys who really weren’t familiar with all that occurred”.
On a lighter note, Piven had a lot of laughs floating in the dead sea and then getting covered in mud.
The trip concluded with a day at the beach, surfing, paddle boarding and Piven worked out with UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre. Both proclaimed that this was a very special trip that had a lot of meaning to them.
“This was an amazing opportunity to travel and see Israel with a diverse group of people”.