Temple massacre hit Jewish athletes hard
FOXBOROUGH, MASS. Memphis Grizzlies forward Omri Casspi, who was born in Israel, was early in his NBA career when he saw a picture of himself defaced with a swastika. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen grew up with kids who made fun of the size of his nose.
New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman has heard antiSemitic taunts during games, but he had been willing to write them off as opposing fans “just trying to get underneath your skin.”
“You’ve been called stuff here and here,” Edelman said.
“But nothing to the extent where it’s got me feeling the way a lot of Jews are feeling right now.”
In the month since a massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh killed 11 people and injured six others, Jewish athletes said they were shocked by the shooting yet not concerned for their own safety as they travel, train and compete.
“There’s crazy people out there, and it is what it is,” Casspi said.
“The notion is that anti-Semitism is dead — it’s always going to be (around). Some people are just like that. There’s going to be racist people, there’s going to be anti-Semites.”
For Jewish athletes, the shooting hit especially hard.
“I’m horrified by it,” said Los Angeles Angels manager Brad Ausmus, who managed the Israeli team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. “Just the callousness and the loss of life. It takes someone that’s inhuman to do something like that to innocent people.”
Jews in the United States have long cherished role models like Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg, Chicago Bears quarterback Sid Luckman or Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz. And any history of Jewish athletes includes the time Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in the World Series because it conflicted with the holiday of Yom Kippur.
Other Jewish players remain scattered throughout sports — a point of pride for fellow Jews but also a potential target for antiSemitism.
Casspi said he has always felt safe in the U.S., but while playing in Europe his Israeli team at times encountered violent protesters or played with no fans in the arena out of safety concerns.
After the synagogue shooting, Edelman decided it was time to go public.
Following the Patriots’ Nov. 4 victory over the Green Bay Packers, he wore an Israeli baseball cap for his post-game interviews as a shout-out to those in Pittsburgh.
“It’s disgusting what happened,” he said in a followup interview. “I’m proud of who I am and what I am. Just to let these victims know: ‘We’re all with you.’ ”
Rosen has also embraced his Judaism, developing a celebration dance called The Hebrew Hammer in the hopes he can be a role model for Jewish fans and a leader in a locker-room that includes a variety of races and religions.
“You can identify with any leader or role model you want. I’m just trying to be a good one,” he said.
“It is a part of me that I’m proud of, culturally.”