New York high school girls basketball game called after antisemitic slurs toward players: report

A high school girls’ varsity basketball game in New York State was canceled Thursday after players from the visiting team were subjected to antisemitic slurs, according to the New York Post. 

The Leffell School, a Jewish day school in Hartsdale, faced Roosevelt High School, a public school  in Yonkers. According to Leffell player Robin Bosworth, who wrote about the game in her school’s student paper, the first half of the game was played in 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.”

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Bosworth is a senior and also the editor-in-chief of the school paper, according to the Post. 

In the third quarter, members of The Leffell School team began to be injured due to the opposing “team’s physical style of play,” she wrote. 

“At the end of the quarter, players on the opposing team started shouting, ‘Free Palestine’ and other antisemitic slurs and curses at us,” Bosworth wrote. “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.”

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An unidentified Roosevelt player also allegedly said “I support Hamas, you f—— Jew,” according to The New York City Public Schools Alliance, a group of parents and teachers fighting antisemitism, per the New York Post report. 

Leffell Coach John Tessitore, reportedly consulted with the team before deciding to end the game. 

“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,” Leffell’s head of school Michael Kay wrote in a letter to the school community, per the Post. 

The athletic director for Roosevelt High School, Kyle Calabro, apologized and said that “the follow-up would be swift and appropriate,” according to Kay. 

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The Spalding NBA basketball in the hoop during the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Detroit Pistons on February 14, 2021, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.  (Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Roosevelt High School for comment. 

According to the Leffell School student paper op-ed, the two teams did line up to shake hands after the game. 

“Despite our conflicting feelings about this practice, every member of my team acted with respect and class and lined up to shake their hands,” Bosworth wrote. “However, being forced to shake hands with and say, ‘Good game’ to people who had expressed such hatred did not sit right with me afterwards. If a team shows blatant disrespect towards my team and our school community’s values, it should not be tolerated or forgotten immediately following the game.”