A girls’ high school basketball game in Yonkers, New York, was ended abruptly this week when players for Roosevelt High School yelled anti-Semitic slurs at players for the Leffell School, a Jewish school.
Where do you think these young people are picking this up? Who is teaching them this?
From the New York Post:
NY girls HS basketball game canceled after antisemitic slurs hurled at playersThis was flagrant and foul.A high school girls’ basketball game in Yonkers was canceled this week when players on the home team shot antisemitic slurs at their Jewish opponents, who needed security guards to escort them off the court to safety.The girl’s varsity teams from The Leffell School, a private Jewish school in Hartsdale, and Roosevelt High School, a public school in Yonkers, faced off in the non-league game Thursday evening.“I support Hamas, you f–king Jew,” a Roosevelt player snarled at a Leffell opponent, according to The New York City Public Schools Alliance, a group of parents and teachers fighting antisemitism.From the outset, there was hostility and aggression with “substantially more jabs and comments thrown at the players on our team than what I have experienced in the past,” senior player Robin Bosworth wrote in an op-ed for Leffell’s student-run newspaper, The Lion’s Roar.
Here’s an excerpt from the article in the Lion’s Roar:
Antisemitism at the Girls Varsity Basketball GameEver since I started school at what was then Solomon Schechter School of Westchester in kindergarten, I have always felt incredibly proud to be a part of a community that values kindness and Tikkun Olam above all else. This evening, at a Girl’s Varsity Basketball game, I was reminded of the pride I feel for our school community, and more broadly, what it means to be a Jewish-American teenager.Throughout the first half of our game against Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, there was a somewhat hostile environment, with substantially more jabs and comments thrown at the players on our team than what I have experienced in the past. Despite this, our team chose to let their aggressiveness fuel us going into the second half of the game, as we continued to play passionately.However, all of that changed in the third quarter. Members of our team started to get injured from the other team’s physical style of play. At the end of the quarter, players on the opposing team started shouting “Free Palestine” and other antisemitic slurs and curses at us. Attacking a team because of their school’s religious association is never acceptable, but especially due to the current war in Israel and the world’s rise in antisemitism, this felt extremely personal to me and many members of my team. I have played a sport every athletic season throughout my high school career, and I have never experienced this kind of hatred directed at one of my teams before.
Watch a video report below:
This does not happen by accident. It would be very interesting to ask the players who used this language who has influenced their thinking on this issue.
UPDATE: The coach of the school who used the slurs is out.
The New York Post reports:
Yonkers high school boots girls’ basketball coach, player after antisemitic slurs during gameYonkers canned a high school girls basketball coach and booted a player off the team after an ugly antisemitic incident at a recent game against a Jewish high school, city officials said Sunday.The Thursday night game between the Leffell School, a private Jewish school in Hartsdale, and Roosevelt High School, a public school in Yonkers, ended early after some kids from Roosevelt shot antisemitic slurs at their opponents — including one who allegedly said, “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew.”Security guards had to escort Leffell School players off the court following the hostile contest.On Sunday, Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Luis Rodriguez and city Mayor Mike Spano issued a joint statement denouncing the hatred and apologizing for the vitriol the visiting team faced.“The Yonkers Public Schools, along with the City of Yonkers, sincerely apologize to the students and community of The Leffell School for the painful and offensive comments made to their women’s basketball team during a recent game with Roosevelt High School,” the statement said.
Featured image via YouTube.
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