A lesson in caring
Senator speaks to Duxbury football team players about Holocaust, anti-Semitism
A Massachusetts senator spoke to Duxbury football players about the history of anti-Semitism and the atrocities of the Holocaust after the teens used the name of a Nazi concentration camp for their play calls.
State Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, met with members of the high school football team over the weekend following reports of their anti-Semitic play calls, including using “Auschwitz” as an audible at the line of scrimmage.
Finegold — who is Jewish and played football for Andover High School — said it was “a great conversation” with the team.
“I spoke to the students about the history of antiSemitism,” he said in a statement. “I let them know that I’ve been called ‘kike’ and other painful names. I explained that Jewish people have faced centuries of discrimination and persecution, and I noted how the Nazis tapped into this prejudice.
“I spoke to the students about the Holocaust,” he added. “This was not an easy discussion, but it was important. I showed how people like me were rounded up, sent to concentration camps, experimented on, and murdered. I showed images of children — the same age as my children — at Auschwitz. I played videos from survivors talking about their experiences.”
The Andover senator stressed the importance of being a “messenger” and talking about the Holocaust 75 years later.
“When people forget about or make light of genocide, history repeats itself,” he said. “It happened in Rwanda, and it happened in Bosnia. We need to speak out and become the messengers.
“Words have consequences, and what you do matters,” Finegold added. “It matters when you use the word ‘Auschwitz.’ It matters when you have the courage to step up, right a wrong, and not be a bystander. This is about the message you send to friends, neighbors, and the broader community.”
The reports of the antiSemitic play calls started emerging last week. The school district has since fired head football coach Dave Maimaron, and the district has hired a firm to conduct an investigation. The Herald learned that the use of anti-Semitic language by Duxbury players has been going on for multiple years.
The Duxbury play calls are yet more evidence that Massachusetts schools need to require Holocaust and genocide education, lawmakers told the Herald last week. A recent survey showed that 35% of Massachusetts residents under the age of 40 were unsure what Auschwitz was, and 22% of American millennials have never even heard of the Holocaust.
“There is a term in Judaism known as t’shuvah, which means ‘return’ or ‘repentance,’ ” Finegold said. “I sincerely hope we will move forward, and move forward stronger than before. I believe that we can use the incident in Duxbury as a crucial learning opportunity. It is on all of us to fight for a better world. We all can be messengers.”