{"id":53832,"date":"2020-02-27T18:35:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T00:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=53832"},"modified":"2020-02-29T09:46:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T15:46:17","slug":"yeshiva-u-president-slams-brooklyn-college-athletes-who-knelt-during-israeli-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/yeshiva-u-president-slams-brooklyn-college-athletes-who-knelt-during-israeli-anthem\/","title":{"rendered":"Yeshiva U president slams Brooklyn College athletes who knelt during Israeli anthem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"dateline\">&nbsp;(<em>JNS.org<\/em>)<\/span> \u2013 Yeshiva University president Ari Berman slammed the \u201cdisrespectful\u201d decision by two Brooklyn College volleyball players to kneel during the playing of \u201cHatikvah,\u201d Israel\u2019s national anthem, at a recent match hosted by the university.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_53833\" style=\"width: 322px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53833\" class=\"wp-image-53833 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"312\" height=\"207\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495.jpg 312w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495-300x199.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 312px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 312\/207;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53833\" class=\"wp-image-53833 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"312\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495.jpg 312w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/yu-kneeling-880x495-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-53833\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brooklyn College athletes kneel during &#8220;Hatikvah&#8221; in a game between them and Yeshiva University on Feb. 23. (Photo via screenshot.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt is unfortunate that some members of the opposing team disrespected Israel\u2019s national anthem,\u201d Berman told JNS. \u201cWe are proud to be the only university who sings both the American and Israeli national anthems before every athletic competition and major event. Nothing makes me prouder to be an American than living in a country where our religious freedom, our Zionism and our commitment to our people will never be impeded and always be prized.\u201d<ins class=\"adsbygoogle JNS_InArticle_1\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8573325940152694\" data-ad-slot=\"JNS\/JNS_InArticle_1\" data-adsbygoogle-status=\"done\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_expand\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_anchor\"><\/ins><\/ins><\/ins><\/p>\n<p>The two athletes, part of the Brooklyn College Bulldogs men\u2019s volleyball team, kneeled on the ground when the song blared on the loudspeaker before the match against Yeshiva University\u2019s Maccabees on Feb. 23.<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn players were later identified as Omar Rezika and Hunnan Butt in social-media posts about the event.<\/p>\n<p>A&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sarah.serfaty.9\/videos\/3087703064624000\/\">video<\/a>&nbsp;of the athletes kneeling on the ground was posted on Facebook by Sarah Serfaty, a Stern College student watching from the stands inside Yeshiva University\u2019s Max Stern Athletic Center.<\/p>\n<p>The Bulldogs won the game 3-0.<\/p>\n<p>While some social-media users claimed Rezika and Butt refused to shake hands with the Jewish athletes, Yeshiva University debunked that claim. The Jewish school&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YUathletics\/status\/1231722185460416519\">wrote<\/a>&nbsp;on Twitter that accusations about a handshake not taking place are \u201cnot accurate.\u201d It added, \u201cPlease rest assured that if anything like that should ever occur we would handle it through the proper channels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Brooklyn College spokesperson&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/c.com\/issues\/brooklyn-college-athletes-draw-ire-for-kneeling-during-israels-national-anthem\/\">said<\/a>&nbsp;the school \u201cstrongly condemns all forms of anti-Semitism and hatred,\u201d and also defended the students\u2019 rights under the First Amendment to kneel during Israel\u2019s national anthem.<\/p>\n<p>Neither team responded to requests for comments from JNS, though many social-media users took to the Bulldogs\u2019 official Instagram page to call out the athletes for not showing sportsmanship during the game.<\/p>\n<p>Their anti-Semitic actions were called \u201cdisrespectful\u201d and \u201cshameful,\u201d and one Instagram user wrote to the team saying, \u201cYou should put out a statement either condemning the anti-Semitic actions of the two who knelt, or kick them off your team. If Bklyn won\u2019t punish the players, the conf needs to,\u201d referring to the CUNY Athletic Conference.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Yeshiva%20U%20president%20slams%20Brooklyn%20College%20athletes%20who%20knelt%20during%20Israeli%20anthem\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[1009,10527,8790,8795,8788,1481],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53835,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53832\/revisions\/53835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}