Students chant 'you killed Jesus' at game against school with many Jewish students

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: NY DailyNews

A Catholic school in Massachusetts has apologized after some of its pupils chanted “you killed Jesus” at a game against a school with many Jewish students.

The fan section of Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury unleashed the anti-Semitic cheer when its basketball team visited Newton North High School on Friday night.

Memorial’s President Peter Folan called the chanting “unacceptable” and said that the offending students had to personally apologize to Newton’s interim principal after the game.

Newton Superintendent David Fleishman told Wicked Local that the incident was “upsetting and troubling and highly insensitive” for him and his students.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/students-chant-killed-jesus-basketball-opponents-article-1.2562767

[valerief]

1. Ah, religion, making new haters with every generation. nt

[rockfordfile]

25. Chanting about a character that didn't really exist

[NCjack]

50. This is proof that you can't kill a myth. /nt

[Fast Walker 52]

100. the sooner religion dies, the better

[Ferd Berfel]

2. It wasn't the Jews that killed Jesus

IT was the Italians!

[TeamPooka]

11. fugetabootit. You didn't see nuttin, got it? nt

[AngryAmish]

53. This us the funniest thing I read all week!

[FailureToCommunicate]

97. "Leave the sword, take the loaves and fishes"

[TeamPooka]

99. lol

[Ferd Berfel]

108. You Win

Best Line of the week - hands down

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

79. It was a Roman named Pontius Pilot that had him killed.

Man, Christians are dumb. I'm an atheist and even I knew that!

[Xithras]

103. Technically, it was probably the Greeks or the Syrians.

Under the reign of Augustus, the all-Roman conscripted army was largely replaced with a volunteer force and a larger Roman auxilia comprised of non-citizens from the provinces. While there were many all-Roman units in Judea, they were considered elite soldiers and wouldn't have been wasted on low-importance duties like imprisoning and executing political dissidents. The Roman auxilia in Judea, at that time, were mostly comprised of Damascene and Thracian soldiers, so the guards who actually nailed him up and killed him would have been of Greek or Syrian lineage, by modern ethnic definitions.

Greeks and Syrians, under the orders of the Romans, settling a Jewish political "problem". That's what the Romans called "multiculturalism".

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. What this except leaves out: the Newton fans yelled first "Where are your women?" to the

all male Catholic school's team.

Unacceptable behavior on both sides.

[GummyBearz]

5. Dang

I was getting ready for a good old fashion catholic bashin thread but this really puts a damper on that possibility. Maybe next time...

[IronLionZion]

32. It's important to bash someone, anyone will do

Don't let anything stop you from that!

[GummyBearz]

34. Right

FYI, you may need to re-calibrate your sarcasm detector

[snooper2]

78. Well both sides are pimping their mythical gawds to each other- Why are they all brainwashed anyway?

[LanternWaste]

106. I imagine simply asking them is far too simple for such a complex, rational and inquisitive mind.

I imagine simply asking them is far too simple for such a complex, rational and inquisitive mind.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Yes, because they are oh so comparable.

The article, which can only be quoted so many paragraphs as per DU rules, so like most, I just copied the first four, states the other side was inappropriate too.

[FailureToCommunicate]

39. See post #38

[Behind the Aegis]

41. Yes, you see them as comparable.

Ancient blood libel vs teasing about attending an all-male school.

[FailureToCommunicate]

42. fail

[Behind the Aegis]

43. Finally, we agree.

[FailureToCommunicate]

44. Well, good.

You did say you prefer to avoid drama, and that's an outlook I try to use here on DU as well.

[dbackjon]

85. My HS archrival was an all-male Catholic school

My public HS was the "black" school in town

The Catholic school would do things at games like paint a sheet with a map of Africa, with the words "Home of the Spartans" (our nickname). Worst we'd retaliate with was chants similar to what Newton did.

Neither good, but the racial aspects were far, far worse.

[Behind the Aegis]

87. Chanting "You killed Jesus" is right up there with 'racial aspects.'

Taunting someone because they attend an all-male school is not the equivalent to either example (the one you provided, or in the OP).

[valerief]

27. Well, where are they? Are women banned? And that's somehow good? nt

[HeartoftheMidwest]

28. "Where are your women?"

That's comparable to an anti-Semitic slur???!!! Not sure what universe you dwell in. There is certainly bad behavior at high school and college sporting events, but that kind of taunt is overboard. Both sides do it??? Really??? The insults aren't even comparable.

[FailureToCommunicate]

38. No need to get angry at me, I just pointed out there might be more to the story than

the first 4 graphs that mention what one team fans chanted. I did not excuse either behavior on the "both sides do it" excuse. But of course they are "comparable": you could say the one chant was sexist and the other was racist. One may seem, or be, worse than the other. That is how comparisons work. But I didn't do any such comparison. I merely added my two cents that both chants -or worse ones we've also heard about lately- have no place at school sporting events, or anywhere actually.
That is the "universe I dwell in"

By the way, here is the original Boston Globe article that is different than the NY Daily News one:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/12/catholic-memorial-students-chant-anti-semitic-taunts-newton-basketball-game/SYNt0ozzZm84DiRoSmMRMM/story.html

[HeartoftheMidwest]

45. Not angry at all, but then...

...that's the problem of communicating in text. Having been born Catholic, and raised Cat'lick, I just don't see where this nasty streak is coming from. I wasn't surrounded by it in my youth....maybe I was just raised by good and decent people. But then young people often do stupid things.

I understand trash talk. It's mostly a guy thing. But to go from, "we're all guys here, let's talk trash among ourselves" to "let's bring centuries of ugly racial hatred into it" is a big step.

And I did read the original article you linked to before; again, there's no report of any taunt that would merit the "nuclear option."

But with anti-Semitism and other hatreds on the rise worldwide again, I find the Catholic youths' slur particularly offensive. I'm glad you're on the side of the angels.

[adigal]

104. I don't know what Catholics you were raised with but I was raised with Staten Island Catholics

and you won't find a bigger bunch of bigoted white, Irish and Italian Catholics anywhere. Most of the parishes are lily white, and I know for a fact that all of my husband's sisters and brother and my sister and brother are all bigots. Most of my nieces and nephews are bigots, also, except for the one or two who got away to college. They all went to Catholic schools from K to 12 across the island: Rosebank, Oakwood, Eltingville, Arrochar, Tottenville. Bigots, all of them.

I raised my kids liberal Christian and now I'm a nature person, and my kids are open-minded, accepting and wonderful. So glad I escaped the Catholic faith and the life that they all have down there.

[HeartoftheMidwest]

109. Truly, that's wonderful.

Left the church as a young person and never looked back.
Found a deeper and more meaningful spiritual experience directly from the Scriptures.

[ToxMarz]

46. When using insults properly, the goal is not to hurl comparable insults

It is to throw the best thing you got at 'em and do a mic drop. Both side we're inappropriate, one made Jewish slur, the other questioned their "manhood" (which to a teenage male is probably worse than slamming their religion). They are teenagers, and most teenagers still need a good deal of training

[Zira]

73. Maybe they were yelling, "where are your women" to protest a non integrated school?

[FailureToCommunicate]

75. Yeah, that was probably it.

I see you are new here, so, welcome !

[Zira]

88. Thank you!

sadly, I'm already making faux pas. I will learn the culture here.

[FailureToCommunicate]

96. No worries. It took me a while

to sort thru the snark and often hardened positions here. This OP ("original post or poster&quot seems to fall into that category.

[Zira]

89. I understand now. They were accusing the Catholics of being gay.

Sorry, I missed that before.

And I see that Donald Trump is inspiring racism at the High School level:

" In the middle of February a group of largely white students at Dallas Center-Grimes in Des Moines began chanting "Trump" after they lost to a school with many Hispanic students.

A similar incident happened when members of Andrean High School taunted Bishop Noll Institute with a giant cut-out of Donald Trump's head and a chant of "build that wall."

[Behind the Aegis]

90. No, they weren't.

That is just the misdirection to make the anti-Semitism seem like it isn't as bad as it is. The were commenting on the fact they were at an all-male school, not their sexual orientations. However, the other team was attacking the other students' religious/ethnic backgrounds. There are some who don't think anti-Semitism is "all that bad" and any example of it must be met with "but...but...there are things worse in the world."

[yourpaljoey]

101. Agreed

Sounds like students on BOTH sides have been taught to
believe absurdities... per Voltaire, we all know where that leads.
As apposed to taking petty sides, let us work to
lift the burdensome yolk of religion.

[Journeyman]

4. What? There were Roman soldiers at a Bay State high school basketball game?. . .

[Rosa Luxemburg]

61. Oh yes

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Number Four, Definitely

[Jack Rabbit]

8. It sounds like we hae some budding Trump supporters at Memorial Hi

OK, it's old fashioned anti-Semitism, but that's Western civilization's boilerplate for xenophobia, Islamophobia, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the persecution of black people that followed it, homophobia, etc., etc.

[hughee99]

98. I think you'd have a hard time finding a lot of Trump supporters

In west Roxbury, Massachusetts.

[cstanleytech]

9. They should suspend the schools sports teams for the next 1 to 2 years imo as some things

a unacceptable and behaving like that is one of those things.

[21st Century Poet]

12. Better to avoid hyperbolic solutions which create more trouble in the long run.

They are children. They were taunted first by the other team. Get both sides to apologise and shake hands. Give them some extra homework if you have to. End of story. When you inflate things up to extreme proportions, they have a tendency of blowing up in your face. Avoid it.

[cstanleytech]

14. If these were grade schoolers fine but these are high schoolers and at that age

they already know that some things are unacceptable and they need to be firmly shown that and suspending the schools sports teams or atleast making it so they cannot attend any events with other schools teams for a year or two is such a way.

[47of74]

23. I'm on board with that.

That's exactly what would have happened when I was growing up.

[noretreatnosurrender]

31. Disagree

I disagree. I think they should take this as an opportunity to educate the students not punish them which may actually harden their feelings against the other religion.

[rockfordfile]

26. I would go with one year

[FailureToCommunicate]

40. Read the article, it clearly points out that it was FANS, not the teams, that exchanged taunts.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/12/catholic-memorial-students-chant-anti-semitic-taunts-newton-basketball-game/SYNt0ozzZm84DiRoSmMRMM/story.html

[cstanleytech]

47. They were students of the school not just some off the street fans of the team thus

the school and the team should be held responsible.

[FailureToCommunicate]

49. If you worked hard to be on your school's team, you'd be okay with some a**hole classmates messing

up your sports progress and adding suspension to your record?

I don't know about you, but there were a lot of real jerks at my high school. That didn't make the rest us jerks. Just like the horrible Trump supporters now don't represent all Americans.

[adigal]

105. Group responsibility - if a few mess up, the school's reputation is ruined

That's just the way life goes.

[mikehiggins]

10. According to Scripture, IIRC, Christ was responsible for his own demise

That was the point, after all. He died for our sins, a blood sacrifice, and rising from the grave to show his dominion over death (and opening Heaven to those who had died before him) capped the deal. The Jews? The Romans? Herod? Judas? Just pawns in God's three (or more) dimensional scenario.

The kids at the Catholic school were way out of line. The teaching staff were the ones who should have apologized. The first thing I learned in an all male, ICB college was that no, the jews did not kill Christ.

It was all in God's plan.

[jwirr]

35. That is what I learned also. It was a great lesson in personal

responsibility for our sins.

[Gore1FL]

13. That's nuts.

Everybody knows Col Mustard did it in the library with the knife.

[uppityperson]

15. It's good those involved were called on it.

I wonder if they ever considered what religion Jesus was?

[whathehell]

94. It's inane...The apostles, all of his original followers were Jews

Beyond the fact of all of it happening two thousand years ago, of course.

Oh well. It:s hard to argue with stupid.

[Chef Eric]

16. Religion and sports.

Separately, they can bring out the absolute worst in some people.

Mix 'em together, and you've got a problem.

[Depaysement]

17. What did Fleishman have to say about his own students?

"The chant reportedly came in response to Newton fans’ chants about the Catholic school being all-boys, referring to it as a “sausage fest.”

Didn't he see this as an anti-gay slur?

It's all contemptible.

[Behind the Aegis]

19. That is not an anti-gay slur.

But, I do love the spin, trying to make the taunts comparable. "Sausage fest" refers to an "all male environment". And, from other articles, Fleishman is addressing the taunts from his side as well. It never fails, the article is about anti-Semitism and it becomes, "but, but...the other..."

[Depaysement]

22. Actually the article doesn't fail

But your post does. As usual, any hint of objectivity is lacking and becomes "spin."

Sausage fest refers to an all-male environment? And what is implied by that? Gee, I wonder.

Conveniently the other articles weren't posted and I bet that was because they didn't fit the completely one-sided anti-Semitic meme. Talk about spin.

[Greybnk48]

18. Newton North High School's new cheer/chant.

"Jesus was a Jew!" "Jesus was a Jew!" That'll shut 'em up.

[MissKat]

20. Just wait until Trump

Just wait until Trump decides to make Jews the enemy. Because it's coming.

I hope that Bernie is ready.
Trump is an equal opportunity hater. If hating someone helps his opportunity--Trump will pour on the hate and he will get his followers to join in.

It's time to get working, working together. If we don't, Trump will use whatever division he sees and use it to his advantage.
I thought his campaign was a joke. A farce.

I'm not laughing any more.

[Behind the Aegis]

21. Well, he already has supporters who hate us (Jews).

That much is obvious by some of the rhetoric coming from his supporters and by those who are actually endorsing him. The real question is: "will it matter?" It is obvious to me when the topic is anti-Semitism, there are more than a few who like to dismiss it, make it about something else, or feign concern about another group not affected.

Anti-Semitism is something which has never left the stage, it just isn't front and center, and therefore, to some, not important.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

24. He has supporters that hate peace and love.

Just like I witnessed firsthand in the sixties.

[Behind the Aegis]

30. That is very true.

They are just trying to make Germany great again....er, I mean America. Ooops.

[elljay]

70. Not gonna happen

We Jews are going to get a pass from the Trump hate-fest. His daughter, Ivanka, is an observant Jew. In addition, Trump is a New Yorker and his circle of friends and business partners is likely heavily Jewish. He's not going to burn those bridges. Now, that is not to say that his followers won't head down that path, but I don't see The Donald going there.

[Behind the Aegis]

71. He won't be obvious about it.

It will be...



That works for many, on both sides.

[elljay]

74. Could be

after all, Bernie is now a Communist and we all know about the Communist-Jew connection.

We'll see more after Tuesday, when either the secular fascist Trump wins enough delegates to be the leader going into the conventionor is knocked off the pedestal by the self-appointed Messiah fascist Cruz. Damn, that choice is like deciding whether you prefer a guillotine or firing squad.

[adigal]

107. Yup...if Bernie is the nominee, wait until you see Trump talk about Jews nt

[jwirr]

33. And I as a Christian would like to chant back to them: "And

you are NOT a Christian."

[Jefferson23]

36. What troubles me the most is that they're young..ugh.

If polled I wonder if they think Trump is GREAT! too.

[Submariner]

37. "Jews are going to burn in the flames of hell for eternity

just like all other non-catholics and mortal sinners."

"Flames will lick at every pore of your body and the crusty red flesh will not fall off and no matter how much you wish it, and you will not die so that the awful burning pain will stop, because you are a sinner and must suffer the consequences forever."

Sister Perpetual Agony and her colleagues at the Immaculate Conception elementary school and church of the Roman Catholic Church of Child Rape in Cambridge filled our skulls with that garbage for the 8 fucking years I survived there. I look back on it now as child abuse and terroristic teaching. I would have those assholes prosecuted if they pulled that shit on kids nowadays.

What a disappointment it was to be a little kid in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, grades, etc and hear nothing but fucking hate hate hate spewing from their hateful mouths every gawd damn day.

I'm afraid you, and others in your denomination, will keep seeing and hearing this "you killed Jesus" crap until this psychotic belief in imaginary sky people comes to an end. Unfortunately, that will not happen in our lifetime, especially while conservatives control what goes into school textbooks and class curriculum. Probably another century or so if we survive as a species for that long.

60 years later and they are still teaching this you killed jesus crap?!? It makes me sick I was ever part of that fucked up school system.

My apologies from myself and other lapsed catholics that you still put up with that shit.

[whathehell]

76. I did Catholic school for 12 years & never heard ONE ant-semitic word

from any nun, priest or lay person in the school and this was back in the 50's and 60's.

Catholic teachings do NOT maintain that only Catholics get to heaven, nor do they condemn Jews and other non-catholics to hell. I don't know your pscho in Cambridge who and no one taught that

Mixed marriages between Catholics, Protestants and Jews are allowed and performed...I don't know who that psycho in tCambridge was, but his or her whack job utterances are NOT reflective of catholic teaching.

[Kingofalldems]

77. Same here. Not one word of anti Jewish sentiment.

This seems to be a Catholic bashing thread.

[whathehell]

92. I agree, and there's another thread in GD on this same subject which brought responses like.ours

Can't help but wonder if this 'repeat' isn't just a second attempt to bring out the Catholic bashers.

It's dubious in my view. -- The very fact of Inter-faith alliances.and the easy acceptance of inter-faith marriage argues against it.

[Submariner]

80. The Sisters of St Joseph did not single out the Jews, so they were not anti-semitic

Matter of fact, I don't believe I ever even heard the word anti-semitic until I got out of the Navy and went back to school.

The nuns and priests labeled ALL NON-catholics as sinners in the archdiocese of Boston from 1952-60. There were no individual psycho nuns, they all taught the same line of crap that ALL non-catholics would burn in hell.

I had Dominican nuns in high school (1961-64) and the propaganda changed to state that IF the non-catholics truly believed in their own religion, and that they led good lives, they would only go to purgatory instead of hell. I think this was about the same time as that Vatican 2 transformation where god came to the pope and said that catholics could start eating meat on Fridays without going to hell for it.

By high school I was worn out by the meanness and was not paying much attention to church teachings anymore. I was further repulsed that this Jesus character supposedly showed up in 1960 and had the pope "update" church teachings. How did that happen without anyone else witnessing the event??? Total mythology..

Don't kid yourself for a moment that their practices were not reflective of catholic teaching. You must have belonged to a very lenient parish.

[Kingofalldems]

83. I was taught that in grade school but

once in high school the brothers taught 'following one's conscience' was sufficient.

[whathehell]

91. Funny, those same sisters taught me in Philadelphia, but singled out NO other religion for Hell

There was no 'hell -going' for good people of other faiths and the idea that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was in any way 'liberal' is a joke -- It was

well-known as one of the most conservative in the country.

This 'meanness' and hate toward other religions was just not part of my experience, nor, it seems, of most others here, so I'm afraid I'm sticking to my

initial impression, that being that you were taught by a couple of whack jobs bringing their own interpretation to the matter.

[lordsummerisle]

48. Hey Wait...

I thought Jesus was a Jew...?

[NCjack]

52. Wasn't he an electrician, member of United Union Workers, Local 801?

[PatrynXX]

51. often find left wing Jews likelye would have had no part in the killing of Jesus

but Right Wing ones (hi Bibi) are orthodox , they would , yet Republicans love those.

[deathrind]

54. So in other words

The bible is "upsetting and troubling and highly insensitive”...

Could not agree more.

[AngryAmish]

55. Thank gosh the internet did not exist when we played the yeshiva school every year in the playoffs

Those yamaka dudes must have done nothing but study the Torah, shoot hoops and learn trash talk.

They gave as good as they got.

BTW, the appropriate response to the you killed Jesus chant is we'd do it again. That shut our side up.

[LeftishBrit]

56. Ugh. Some things never change.

PS according to the Bible it was the Romans who killed Jesus, anyway.

[keithbvadu2]

57. The comparable retort would be something like -

'You molest little boys'.

The Catholic chanters might get a little irate.

[Dont call me Shirley]

58. That is fucking sick!

[Feeling the Bern]

59. We Jews killed Jesus? Your Catholic priests molest children and hide that fact from the world.

Two can play that game. Stones and glass houses. . .at least we can prove Catholic priests molest children. Prove Jesus exists and then prove he was white!

[Bonobo]

60. It was shouted at my family and myself many times.

Truly the Catholic church bears a great deal of blame for centuries of hate propagation.

[MosheFeingold]

84. Luther did a pretty good job, too

His "on Jews and their lies" was the basis for the Final Solution.

It set out a step-by-step guide for dehumanizing Jewish people, stripping them of civil rights, and eventual concentration camps.

[Journeyman]

65. Unfortunately, this system does not allow me to comment on your "opinion". . .

with the proper response, so I'll just bid you adieu.

[Sunlei]

66. was the right thing to do, to make each student personally apologize.

Religious schools need LESS Bible, Koran and Torah and MORE real History about the rise of those 3 religion-governments from the SAME People. Ancient religions are all intertwined especially those three.

[Marrah_G]

67. I can easily imagine this

My ex used to coach football at a very diverse Catholic school and one game when playing a very white Catholic school the players found themselves being called racial slurs by the players, My guys response was to his players was " shut your mouths and beat them on the field, let them say whatever they want to say" That group of really diverse kids beat the pants off the racists

There is still racism in Massachusetts.

[They_Live]

68. Yet, without his sacrifice

your religion doesn't work. Ironic.

[Initech]

69. Jesus.

[Zira]

72. I think the Christian Church was just starting and was made up of Jews.

Christ was a Jew.

[ripcord]

81. The Jewish students should have chanted

YES WE DID! YES WE DID!

[applegrove]

82. I wonder if their inspiration was Trump?

[Le Taz Hot]

86. Uh, Jesus was a Jew

Helllooooo!

[whathehell]

93. Positively medieval..

I attended Catholic school 50 years ago and never heard such silliness...We're definitely going backwards.

[markpkessinger]

95. But...but...if they hadn't killed Jesus . . .

. . . then all those protesting Christians' sins would never have been forgiven. I mean, God either sent his son to die for the sins of the world or he didn't, right? Ingrates!

[24601]

102. Are they from a Jewish school in Rome? And I've never forgiven the Germans for bombing Pearl Harbor.

"Germans?"

"Let him go, he's on a roll."