Girls basketball players from a private Jewish high school in New York were reportedly met with antisemitic taunts — including “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew” and “Free Palestine” — from their opponents during a recent game that was canceled as a result of the hostility, according to a New York Post exclusive.
Robin Bosworth, a senior at The Leffell School (Hartsdale, NY), described the first half of her team’s game against Roosevelt High School — a public school in Yonkers — as a “somewhat hostile environment.”
“[S]ubstantially more jabs and comments [were] thrown at the players on our team than what I have experienced in the past,” she wrote in an op-ed from her school paper, The Lion’s Roar.
According to Bosworth, who the Post said is also the paper’s editor-in-chief, things took a turn in the third quarter when Roosevelt players shouted “Free Palestine” and “other antisemitic slurs and curses at us.”
One Roosevelt player allegedly shouted “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew,” according to the New York Public Schools Alliance, a parent-teacher group dedicated to fighting antisemitism, the Post reported.
“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,” Bosworth wrote.
Leffell’s head coach, John Tessitore, reportedly spoke to his team and elected to end the game early, according to head of school Michael Kay.
“Our team was playing on the road, and during the course of the game, a small number of players on the opposing team directed hurtful, antisemitic comments toward members of our team,” Kay wrote in a letter to the school community, per the Post.
Roosevelt AD Kyle Calabro apologized and said “the follow-up would be swift and appropriate,” according to Kay, the Post reported.
Roosevelt principal Edward DeChent also apologized to Kay Friday, according to the Post. DeChent reportedly also “outlined a number of disciplinary consequences and educational responses,” including a possible in-person meeting between both teams.”
“I am incredibly proud of the manner in which our players and coaching staff responded to this potentially harrowing incident,” Kay said, via the Post.
