Football team fires coach over ‘Auschwitz’ audible

Duxbury High School in Massachusetts fired head football coach Dave Maimaron this week and canceled Friday’s game amid a probe into the shocking use of antisemitic language as audibles — including the word “Auschwitz.”

“I am outraged, disappointed and profoundly saddened that we find ourselves here,” said Duxbury School Committee Chair Kellie Bresnehan.

The offensive audibles came to light after Plymouth North players informed their coaches that Duxbury players were using antisemitic language when the two teams met on March 12.

The Herald later learned and was the first to report that one of the calls used was “Auschwitz.”

“The fact that members of our school community used such offensive language, including antisemitic language, is horrifying and disappointing,” the school’s statement read. “We are collaborating with the Anti-Defamation League regarding the seriousness oftheallegations,andonourshortterm and long-term response.”

Maimaron, the head coach at Duxbury since 2005, was also placed on paid administrative leave from his special needs teaching position pending further investigation.

Apparently, the use of antisemitic and other offensive language by Duxbury players and under the purview of the coaching staff has been going on for multiple years. Two incidents occurred last year at the junior varsity level.

(Boston Herald/TNS)

Argentine soccer fans chant about ‘killing the Jews to make soap’

Fans of a Buenos Aires-based soccer team chanted about “killing the Jews to make soap” before a game against a team with a history of Jewish fans.

The Argentina umbrella Jewish organization DAIA filed a criminal complaint Tuesday against the fans of Chacarita Juniors based on a video from March 16 that went viral on social media in Argentina. An often debunked rumor from World War II involved the Nazis making soap from dead Jewish bodies.

“Chaca is coming along the road, killing the Jews to make soap,” the fans chanted.

Chacarita was preparing to play

Atlanta, two teams based in Villa Crespo, a Buenos Aires neighborhood with a traditionally large Jewish population. Founded in 1904, Atlanta has historically received support from Jewish fans and featured several Jewish players and administrators.

The teams have been fierce rivals in the second tier of Argentine soccer for decades.

“The episode is an incitement to violence, to persecution, to hate, and represents a threat against the Jewish community as a whole,” DAIA wrote in a statement.

In February 2000, Chacarita fans greeted the Atlanta team with Nazi flags and threw soap on the field while singing “with the Jews we make soap.” That spurred the Argentina Football Association to establish rules requiring the referee to end or suspend a match due to racist expressions.

Argentina enacted an anti-discriminatory law in 1988 that makes such activity punishable in court.

A year ago, a player from another rival team made headlines for making an obscene antisemitic gesture while leaving a game against Atlanta. (JTA)