{"id":78909,"date":"2024-01-04T01:52:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T06:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=78909"},"modified":"2024-01-04T01:53:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T06:53:46","slug":"these-utah-rabbis-displayed-im-jewish-and-im-proud-signs-at-nba-game-to-send-kyrie-irving-a-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/these-utah-rabbis-displayed-im-jewish-and-im-proud-signs-at-nba-game-to-send-kyrie-irving-a-message\/","title":{"rendered":"These Utah rabbis displayed \u2018I\u2019m Jewish and I\u2019m proud\u2019 signs at NBA game to send Kyrie Irving a message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JACOB GURVIS<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 When Kyrie Irving\u2019s Dallas Mavericks came to Salt Lake City on Monday to face the Utah Jazz, Rabbi Avremi Zippel knew he had to be there.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_78910\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-78910\" class=\"wp-image-78910 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-78910\" class=\"wp-image-78910 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-3-24-KyrieIrving-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-78910\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kyrie Irving speaks during a postgame press conference, Jan. 1, 2024. (Screenshot from YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zippel, his brother Chaim, their father Benny and their friend Moshe Nigri \u2014 all of whom attended Monday night\u2019s matchup \u2014 are Chabad rabbis who work at the Hasidic movement\u2019s Utah outpost in Salt Lake City. Avremi is a huge Jazz fan, and he wanted to send a message to Irving, the NBA star who was suspended in November 2022 after he promoted an antisemitic documentary that denied the Holocaust and initially refused to apologize. He later apologized following an eight-game suspension.<\/p>\n<p>The episode still stung Zippel, so the quartet of rabbis secured courtside seats and held up identical signs reading, \u201cI\u2019m a Jew and I\u2019m proud,\u201d with a Star of David replacing the \u201co\u201d in \u201cproud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of the things that Kyrie said about the Jewish community and about Holocaust denial were vile and disgusting,\u201d Zippel told The Salt Lake Tribune. He did not respond to Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>An arena guard snapped the rabbis\u2019 picture and Jazz owner Ryan Smith greeted them. At first, Zippel said, the signs did not appear to upset anyone \u2014 including Irving, who complimented the message and showed the rabbis his Star of David tattoo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe comes by, he looks at the sign, and he says, \u2018Nice. I\u2019m a Jew, too,\u2019\u201d Zippel told the Tribune, adding that Irving\u2019s response bothered him. Irving \u2014 who isn\u2019t Jewish but has said he has Jewish relatives \u2014 may have been echoing the Black Hebrew Israelite claim that African-Americans are the true Jews. But Zippel said he wished Irving a happy new year and moved on.<\/p>\n<p>But moments later, according to Zippel, Irving\u2019s tone changed: As the Dallas guard dribbled the ball up the court, he yelled to the rabbis, \u201cDon\u2019t gotta bring something like that to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the next timeout, a security guard approached Zippel\u2019s group and checked their tickets. Then another guard told them to put the signs down, according to Zippel\u2019s account. At halftime, a Jazz staffer told them that Irving had complained to security.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the Jazz said in a statement that Zippel\u2019s signs violated the policies of the team\u2019s arena, the Delta Center, meant to ensure that \u201cgames can be played without distraction and disruption. No matter where someone is in the arena, if a sign becomes distracting or sparks an interaction with a player, we will ask them to remove it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement added, \u201cThe issue was the disruptive interaction caused by usage of the signs, not the content of the signs.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kyrie Irving playing in the SLC tonight.<\/p>\n<p>With everything that happened this morning, I thought it\u2019d be appropriate to give him a welcome.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/khs8CkxqDs\">pic.twitter.com\/khs8CkxqDs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Avremi Zippel (@UtahRabbi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UtahRabbi\/status\/1741996594634133667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Zippel said he had checked the arena\u2019s regulations before the game and did not think that his group had violated any rules. And he disputed that his signs had caused any disruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Jazz seemed to fully acknowledge that we said nothing to Kyrie, [but that] Kyrie walked over, saw the sign, and chose to comment on it,\u201d Zippel told the Tribune. \u201cAnd so this idea that if you have signage that sparks interaction with a player, we\u2019re going to ask you to take down that sign, I\u2019m curious where that precedent leads to; I\u2019m curious where that goes, how broadly that can be applied?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zippel added in a post on X that \u201cthere was one person, in a building of 18,000+, that was triggered\u201d by his signs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy that bothers him so, to the point that it sparks an interaction, should be the real question anyone is asking,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz, who celebrate home victories by playing \u201cHava Nagila\u201d over the arena\u2019s loudspeakers, defeated the Mavericks 127-90. Irving, whose team recently changed Jewish owners \u2014 from Mark Cuban to Miriam Adelson \u2014 scored 14 points.<\/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=\"These%20Utah%20rabbis%20displayed%20%E2%80%98I%E2%80%99m%20Jewish%20and%20I%E2%80%99m%20proud%E2%80%99%20signs%20at%20NBA%20game%20to%20send%20Kyrie%20Irving%20a%20message\";<\/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":78910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[4159,8790,8795,12660,1961,8788,13536],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78909"}],"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=78909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78913,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78909\/revisions\/78913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}