Israel Matzav

Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh owner is an Egyptian-Amercan Muslim Orthodox Jew

On Saturday a horse named American Pharaoh became the first triple crown winner since 1978.

Let's go to the videotape.


There are a lot of people out there who think that American Pharaoh owner Ahmad Zayat is a Muslim. He's not. He's an Orthodox Jew from Teaneck, New Jersey and a member of blogging rabbi Steven Pruzansky's synagogue (Hat Tip: Jack W).

Ahmed Zayat made his fortune selling beer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, in Egypt. He is a gradate of Yeshiva University in New York City, lives in New Jersey now, keeps Kosher, and is a member of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Teaneck.

...

The Zayats were a prominent family in Egypt — his grandfather Ahmed Hassan al-Zayat was a leading intellectual who founded Al-Risala, a well-known literary magazine. His father, Alaa, was a physician who taught medicine in Cairo and had been the personal doctor to President Anwar el-Sadat.

Mr. Zayat’s horse trading was financed by his proceeds from the sale of Al Ahram Beverages Company, the formerly state-held beer company that he had privatized, to Heineken for $280 million, or four times what he paid for it in 1997.

...

Publicly, Mr. Zayat alternately identifies as Muslim and Jewish. In fact, Mr. Zayat, who graduated from Yeshiva University, has given amply to Jewish causes. He lives with his wife and four children in a largely modern Orthodox neighborhood of Tudor and Victorian houses known as West Englewood in Teaneck, N.J.

...

They keep kosher, arranging menus in advance at racetracks and, if they cannot locate a hotel close by, they stay in an R.V. and walk to the track, as they did at the Preakness Stakes, to avoid driving on the Sabbath.

“It’s a very wonderful, kind family — very active, very generous,” said Steven Pruzansky, his rabbi at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, one of more than a dozen Orthodox synagogues in Teaneck.

Read the whole thing. 

Labels: Orthodox Jews

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:58 PM