Alex Trebek Spotted At Masada, In Israel, By Philadelphia News Anchor
Alex Trebek has been the host of Jeopardy! since 1984, and in that time his cultural influence has crept far beyond that popular game show. He’s guest-starred on Cheers, he’s been parodied by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live, and he even moderated a debate in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial election this year.
Born in Canada — and a resident of the United States for decades — Trebek has also been known to travel elsewhere. This week, he was spotted in Israel.
On Wednesday, Jim Gardner, the longtime news anchor for 6ABC in Philadelphia, posted a photo of himself with Trebek to Twitter. Gardner says that the picture was taken at Masada, a mountain in Southern Israel, near the Dead Sea.
“You run into the coolest people on Masada,” Gardner wrote in the tweet accompanying the photo. According to historians, Masada was an ancient fortification that was the final redoubt for the Israelites who committed mass suicide on the site in 70 A.D. — following the destruction of the Second Temple. Masada, in modern Israel, is a popular tourist attraction.
Another photograph was posted to Facebook on Thursday, one of Trebek visiting the City of David in Jerusalem. The picture was shared by the City of David Museum’s executive director.
It’s unclear why Trebek is in Israel. The host is known to have visited the country in 2009, which led to a “Journey Through Israel” Jeopardy category soon after, per Haaretz. Masada was one of the locations featured in that segment.
You run into the coolest people on Masada. pic.twitter.com/IaOulkrv4Y
— Jim Gardner (@Jim_Gardner) December 26, 2018
Gardner, whose newscast has long run prior to Jeopardy! in the Philadelphia market, had been tweeting throughout his journey through Israel. He shared a photograph of himself watching the Philadelphia Eagles’ game on Sunday on a laptop, via Twitter. Another Twitter message revealed that the directions on Gardner’s Waze app were delivered in Hebrew — perhaps a nod to the fact that Waze was originally developed in Israel.
In a tweet made the day after the Trebek post, Gardner posted the picture again. In this share, he explained that while he remains a fan of the hometown Philadelphia Phillies, he often travels with his son to different baseball parks in other cities. While traveling, the duo collect team hats — which explains why he’s wearing a Detroit Tigers ballcap in the Trebek picture. One respondent to the tweet asked Gardner to visit the Western Wall, and to pray for another Eagles Super Bowl victory.
Visitors to Masada often make the rather arduous hike up the mountain. This would be quite an accomplishment for the two men in the photo, as Trebek is 78 years old, and Gardner is 70.
