Ariel Helwani Won't Back Down
From Tablet Magazine
Ariel Helwani is one of the best known journalists covering mixed martial arts. In this profile, the writer Elie Bleier traces his rise and his family's roots in the Jewish communities of the Middle East.
His family
From Beirut to Montreal
The Helwani family traces its roots to Syria. Ariel's father grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved to Beirut as a teenager, and his mother's family, the Saads, also lived in Beirut. In the late 1960s, as tensions rose in Lebanon, both families accepted tickets to Canada from a Jewish organization and settled in Montreal, home to a close knit Sephardic and Mizrahi community. Ariel grew up attending Jewish schools and the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
His career
A voice for a new sport
Helwani studied broadcasting at Syracuse University, where he discovered mixed martial arts and saw a sport that few journalists were covering seriously. Over the following years he built a career at MMAFighting.com, Fox, and ESPN, and launched his own popular show, The MMA Hour, becoming one of the most influential voices in the sport, and sometimes one of its most controversial.
His identity
A Mizrahi Jew in the spotlight
Helwani speaks openly about his Jewish identity. He wraps tefillin daily, talks about his faith and his struggles with anxiety, and has spent time learning more about his family's Mizrahi heritage. The profile shows how a family story that began in Aleppo, Alexandria, and Beirut continues in a new generation.
Read the full profile at Tablet →
This summary was written by JIMENA and is based on “Ariel Helwani Won't Back Down” by Elie Bleier, published by Tablet Magazine. The original article belongs to Tablet.
