Salita at the Western Wall
Salita at the Western WallSasson Tiram

Prize-winning Jewish American boxer Dmitriy Salita arrived in Israel for his first visit in the country Monday night. 27 year old Salita is also known as "The Star of David” because of the Israeli flag he waves at tournaments and the star of David that appears on his sports uniform. Dmitriy is an Orthodox Jew born in Odessa, Ukraine, and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He is in Israel as a guest of the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization.



In the following video, Dmitriy speaks about the combination between his religious-observant life as a Jew and the competitive-physical field of boxing. The Jewish boxer explains that boxing was Jewish field of sport since the 1920's and that his dream is to box in Israel.

Salita's arrival in Israel follows by just a few days his losing bid for a world championship, in a matchup with Muslim boxer and world champion Amir Khan. Asked if he felt the Jew-versus-Muslim aspect during the match Dmitriy says that he and Amir Khan thought only of sport during the match, but that the atmosphere in terms of the audience was very tense .