{"id":79811,"date":"2020-07-31T17:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=79811"},"modified":"2020-07-22T08:24:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T06:24:01","slug":"31-00-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=79811","title":{"rendered":"About Antisemitism After DeSean Jackson Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Jewish NFL Players Discuss Need for More Education About Antisemitism After DeSean Jackson Controversy<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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(Clockwise from top left) Moderator Michael Neuman, Greg Joseph, Anthony Firkser and Geoff Schwartz. Photo: Screenshot.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Nine current and former Jewish NFL players participated in a three-hour live stream event on Sunday to talk about what they believed the proper response should be to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson after his recent antisemitic social media activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The virtual conversation about antisemitism was broadcast on\u00a0Aish.tv<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and moderated by Michael Neuman,\u00a0a winner of Lebron James\u2019s athletic competition \u201cMillion Dollar Mile.<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a> The online gathering was co-organized by Neuman\u2019s Jewish Inspiration Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 6, Jackson\u00a0shared on Instagram<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0a quote, falsely attributed to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, about Blacks being \u201cthe real Children of Israel.\u201d The quote also included conspiracy theories about Jewish \u201cworld domination\u201d and attempts by Jews to \u201cblackmail\u201d and \u201cextort\u201d America. Jackson later apologized and was fined by the Eagles, but not suspended or released from the team, whose owner and general manager are both Jewish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former NFL player Geoff Schwartz began Sunday\u2019s live stream event by calling out Jackson\u2019s \u201cignorance\u201d for sharing the antisemitic social media post. He said Jackson had \u201cno idea whatsoever what antisemitism is, why his quote could be hurtful to Jews, really to a lot of people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not like Hitler liked black people either,\u201d Schwartz noted. \u201cHe didn\u2019t like anyone other than blonde hair, blue-eyed Germans. So I just looked at it as ignorance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He compared Jackson\u2019s ignorance to his own experience with past teammates who did not know anything about Judaism. The former athlete, who played for five teams in the eights years that he was with the NFL, said during his career he had many conversations with teammates about Judaism in an attempt to teach them about the Jewish religion and way of life. He added that he was glad Jackson\u00a0agreed to learn about the Holocaust and the Jewish people<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tennessee Titans placekicker Greg Joseph applauded New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman\u2019s\u00a0willingness to help Jackson educate himself<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0about the Holocaust, saying it was the same route he would take with Jackson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former NFL player Ron Mix \u2014 who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979 \u2014 said Jackson \u201cshould be admired for his willingness to learn the truth,\u201d which he said was that \u201cthe Jews have been the most valuable friends the Blacks have ever had in the fight for social, racial and economic justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bob Stein, who in 1969 became the first Jewish player to play on a Super Bowl-winning team, called Jackson\u2019s post \u201ca spectacularly ignorant set of comments.\u201d Stein, who was the first president and CEO of the NBA\u2019s Minnesota Timberwolves, said he hoped Jackson\u2019s apology \u201chas some sincerity and is more than just \u2018oops, I want to get out of the way of this problem.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Retired NFL player Josh Miller said of Jackson, \u201cAt the end of the day, if he was educated and he knew the history, he probably wouldn\u2019t say those things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ed Neuman, who had a 12-year NFL career with the Miami Dolphins and is now a judge, called Jackson\u2019s actions \u201cdefinitely very ignorant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Rosenthal \u2014 who left the NFL in 2008 after nine seasons \u2014 said, \u201cWe have to have these conversations about racism, and about antisemitism. Let\u2019s just talk about it. Society has to have those uncomfortable conversations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the participants of the online discussion acknowledged that many of their current or former teammates had either never met a Jew before or knew almost nothing about Judaism.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about \u201ccancel culture\u201d and why antisemitism was sometimes given a \u201cfree pass,\u201d Schwartz commented, \u201cUnfortunately it\u2019s been happening for so many years that I think people just ignore it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding Jackson, he noted, \u201cWe would rather go the education route than the cancel route. Maybe that\u2019s our fault. Maybe we\u2019re being too easy on DeSean. But I think Jewish people, we\u2019re just raised on compassion, empathy, trying to teach and spread love. And I think we look at situations like this and say, \u2018Let\u2019s try to educate the guy, not cancel him.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schwartz also addressed a concern many people had about not enough athletes rebuking Jackson for his actions. The lack of outrage in the sports and entertainment industries over recent incidents of antisemitism was even the focus of a\u00a0column<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0written by NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are four or five Jewish players in the NFL. There\u2019s not a lot of us,\u201d said Schwartz. \u201cYou have teammates who are black. You see the pain they\u2019re going through with the George Floyd death. It\u2019s easy to say, \u2018Hey man, I got you. I understand what you\u2019re talking about.\u2019 [But] there\u2019s no Jews. They don\u2019t know really know any Jews. They don\u2019t know what we\u2019re upset about. So that\u2019s why I think it really hasn\u2019t happened with the force that people expected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jewish NFL Players Discuss Need for More Education About Antisemitism After DeSean Jackson Controversy Shiryn Ghermezian (Clockwise from top left) Moderator Michael Neuman, Greg Joseph, Anthony Firkser and Geoff Schwartz. Photo: Screenshot. Nine current and former Jewish NFL players participated in a three-hour live stream event on Sunday to talk about what they believed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79826,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79811\/revisions\/79826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}