{"id":70718,"date":"2022-11-29T17:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T22:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=70718"},"modified":"2022-11-30T06:50:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T11:50:06","slug":"jewish-australian-football-league-draftee-faces-barrage-of-online-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/jewish-australian-football-league-draftee-faces-barrage-of-online-antisemitism\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Australian Football League draftee faces barrage of online antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JACOB GURVIS<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Australian-Jewish teenager Harry Sheezel made headlines Monday for getting drafted into the Australian Football League and for facing a barrage of online antisemitism in the wake of his selection.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_70719\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70719\" class=\"wp-image-70719 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-300x186.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-1024x633.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-768x475.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-1536x950.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer.png 1906w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/186;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70719\" class=\"wp-image-70719 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-300x186.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-1024x633.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-768x475.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer-1536x950.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jewish_footballer.png 1906w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-70719\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Sheezel in action during the 2022 NAB AFL National Championships in Melbourne, Australia. (Dylan Burns\/AFL Photos)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The 18-year-old medium forward was picked third overall by last-place North Melbourne, which finished the 2022 season with only two wins in 22 matches. Australian football is comparable to rugby and features two 18-player teams on an oval-shaped field, with the aim of kicking the ball through goalposts to score points.<\/p>\n<p>Before Sheezel could celebrate his selection, he was the recipient of a slew of hateful comments on social media.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Age, a daily newspaper in Melbourne, published a feature story Saturday highlighting Sheezel\u2019s Jewish background. When the piece was shared on the news site\u2019s Facebook page, it was quickly met with a series of antisemitic comments, including references to gas chambers and jokes about Jewish people\u2019s athletic abilities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sheezel said the abuse didn\u2019t faze him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel fine. I don\u2019t let that stuff get to me,\u201d Sheezel said, according to the Australian Associated Press. \u201cObviously the comments are disrespectful and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sheezel added that \u201cthe right action should be taken\u201d against the commenters. The AFL announced it would investigate the incident, and The Age removed its Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p>Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of Australia\u2019s antisemitism watchdog, the Anti-Defamation Commission, said \u201cthe genie of antisemitism is out of the bottle\u201d in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe number of revolting posts that have targeted Harry Sheezel on Facebook is alarming, and points to a large-scale normalisation and acceptance of bigoted, hateful speech that is a hallmark of social media today,\u201d Abramovich said.<\/p>\n<p>Sheezel, who attended the Modern Orthodox Mount Scopus Memorial College, said he hoped to be a role model for the Jewish community. Ezra Poyas played in nine games for the league\u2019s Richmond Football Club between 2000-2002, and Sheezel\u2019s new teammate Todd Goldstein has a Jewish father.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Sheezel said, of becoming the newest Jewish player in the AFL. \u201cI\u2019m not sure why it hasn\u2019t happened in the past, but hopefully I can be an example for these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sheezel told The Age that he does not consider himself to be religious. \u201cIt\u2019s just more of the [Jewish] community that I\u2019ve involved in,\u201d he said.<\/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=\"Jewish%20Australian%20Football%20League%20draftee%20faces%20barrage%20of%20online%20antisemitism\";<\/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":70719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[11847,12754,12753,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70718"}],"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=70718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70720,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70718\/revisions\/70720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}