On Thursday, a woman’s basketball recreation between The Leffell College, a non-public Jewish faculty in Hartsdale, and Roosevelt Excessive College, a public faculty in Yonkers, was canceled within the third quarter after gamers from Roosevelt hurled antisemitic slurs at their Jewish opponents.
In line with The New York Metropolis Public Faculties Alliance, a Roosevelt participant stated to 1 opponent, “I assist Hamas, you f–-ing Jew.”
In an op-ed for The Lion’s Roar, a student-run newspaper at Leffell, senior participant Robin Bosworth shared the main points of the disgusting show by the Roosevelt gamers in her piece, “Antisemitism on the Women Varsity Basketball Sport.”
Bosworth writes,
All through the primary half of our recreation in opposition to Roosevelt Excessive College in Yonkers, there was a considerably hostile setting, with considerably extra jabs and feedback thrown on the gamers on our workforce than what I’ve skilled previously. Regardless of this, our workforce selected to let their aggressiveness gasoline us going into the second half of the sport, as we continued to play passionately.
Nonetheless, all of that modified within the third quarter. Members of our workforce began to get injured from the opposite workforce’s bodily type of play. On the finish of the quarter, gamers on the opposing workforce began shouting “Free Palestine” and different antisemitic slurs and curses at us. Attacking a workforce due to their faculty’s spiritual affiliation is rarely acceptable, however particularly because of the present struggle in Israel and the world’s rise in antisemitism, this felt extraordinarily private to me and plenty of members of my workforce. I’ve performed a sport each athletic season all through my highschool profession, and I’ve by no means skilled this type of hatred directed at certainly one of my groups earlier than. On the finish of a basketball recreation, it’s customary to shake palms with each member of the opposing workforce, to indicate that the whole lot that occurred throughout the recreation was the truth is simply part of the sport. Regardless of our conflicting emotions about this observe, each member of my workforce acted with respect and sophistication and lined as much as shake their palms. Nonetheless, being pressured to shake palms with and say “good recreation” to individuals who had expressed such hatred didn’t sit proper with me afterwards. If a workforce exhibits blatant disrespect in direction of my workforce and our college group’s values, it shouldn’t be tolerated or forgotten instantly following the sport.
In the end, Leffell’s head coach, John Tessitore, and his workforce determined to finish the sport.
Leffell’s head of college, Michael Kay, wrote in a letter to the varsity group, “Our workforce was enjoying on the highway, and throughout the course of the sport, a small variety of gamers on the opposing workforce directed hurtful, antisemitic feedback towards members of our workforce.”
In line with The New York Post, about an hour into the sport and after a timeout was known as, Tessitore consulted with hello gamers and the referees.
The Roosevelt gamers are seen gathering and seem to trade phrases from afar with the Leffell gamers. Safety steps in between each groups and the refs make an announcement earlier than each groups immediately trade handshakes and safety escorts them off the court docket.
Roosevelt Excessive College agreed to a voluntary forfeit, in response to a spokesman for the Yonkers district.
Though Roosevelt principal Edward DeChent apologized for the disgusting habits of his college students, per the Submit, and stated “investigative steps” had been taken and “outlined a lot of disciplinary penalties and academic responses,” a spokesman for the Yonkers Public Faculties district appeared to downplay the antisemitic habits.
“It has come to our consideration {that a} student-athlete made an announcement involving ‘free Palestine,’” the district stated. “This incident was promptly addressed consistent with our district’s insurance policies and values.”
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano shared his considerations concerning the incident on social media.
to convene a gathering of academic, civic and non secular leaders to debate this incident and provide you with suggestions as to what steps we are able to take as a group to forestall something like this from occurring once more.
— Mayor Mike Spano (@MayorMikeSpano) January 7, 2024