High school basketball player and coach booted after allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks against all-Jewish opponent

A female basketball player and her coach in New York have been kicked off the team after they reportedly made anti-Semitic comments against the opposing team during a game last week. The opposing team was a private Jewish school.

The incident was revealed in a statement made by the school system and mayor of Yonkers, New York, according to CNN. The investigation into the situation is ongoing, and more people could be involved than was initially thought.

Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Luis Rodriguez and Mayor Mike Spano released a statement on Sunday, saying, “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- Early College Studies."

“Collectively, we do not and will not tolerate hate speech of any kind from our students and community. The antisemitic rhetoric reportedly made against the student athletes of The Leffell School are abhorrent, inappropriate and not in line with the values we set forth for our young people.”

The game in question was between the girls' varsity teams from the Leffell School and Roosevelt High School Early College Studies. During the third quarter of the game, a number of the Leffell School players were injured in what was referred to as "the other team's physical style of play," according to an op-ed published at the Jewish school's student-run newspaper, the Lion's Roar.

The Leffell School decided to end the game early, as players from Roosevelt High School allegedly spewed "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,” the op-ed continued.

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise since Hamas launched a surprise attack against the Jewish state on October 7, murdering 1,200 Israelis and abducting 240 more.

In the two months following the incident in the Middle East, there have been more than 2,000 anti-Semitic incidents reported, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

This represents a 337% increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric since the beginning of the conflict.

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