Barak Swarttz

You get introduced to what sirens are and you just, you get thrown into the ocean.

And it's like very different from Newton, Massachusetts, where like jaywalking might be one of the worst things.

So I, part of my childhood is very much woven into, and those really early childhood experiences are to Israel.

Um, and I started playing basketball there when I was a kid, just picked up a basketball, fell in love with the game.

We came back to the States after my dad's program.

After two years, my dream was to be an NBA basketball player.

And I think I learned really on that as a white Ashkenazi Jew from Boston, I was not going to the league.

And so like I accepted that pretty early, but I, I really, my, my aspirations were just to be a hooper and my environment, my life was always different.

basketball we talked a little bit offline about this like my environment my friends my routine i would even neglect sometimes homework or dinner just just to shoot so um i played at two high schools and two colleges in the states um i studied marketing and never really found my my my path my passion through the corporate world in america i had a bunch of a bunch of experiences with

internships and I worked for corporate companies, startups, all this stuff.

But my mind and my passion were always really connected to my Judaism, Israel, somehow actually after being in a war and basketball.

And now I live there full-time.

My parents and my family are still in the States.

But I've been sort of kind of like going back and forth my whole life since, for me, home is quite multidimensional.

Wow.

Given the fact that my family's in the States, I'm very close with them, and I'm kind of solo dolo on the other side of the ocean.

Yeah.

In the most controversial place on earth right now.

How spiritual are you?

I'd say very spiritual.