Photo by Maitmix/iStock

(JTA) – A public school district in suburban New York is being investigated for discrimination by the U.S. Department of Education, months after basketball players from one of its schools directed antisemitic slurs at their opponents from a Jewish day school.

Yonkers Public Schools has already taken several measures to rectify the January incident, in which a high school basketball player reportedly called a member of the Leffell School, a nearby Jewish day school, a “f–king Jew” while also employing pro-Palestinian rhetoric. 

The school fired the team’s coach and disciplined at least one player, and the district together with the mayor of Yonkers issued a public apology calling the comments “abhorrent, inappropriate and not in line with the values we set forth for our young people.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

But in the eyes of the complainant, a screenwriter and conservative activist named Justin Samuels, the incident was still egregious enough to merit federal investigation. He filed a Title VI complaint alleging discrimination.

“High school athletes were targeted for a war thousands of miles away that [they] did not start nor have any control over. That is the definition of racism. There should have been no mention of the war at this game,” Samuels told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email. “I’m happy that OCR agreed that was illegal discrimination and is investigating.”

Samuels is based in New York City but has no connection to either Yonkers or the Leffell School; he is one of a number of outside actors who have filed antisemitism-related Title VI investigations against schools nationwide, based on media reports, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. This is at least the fourth investigation prompted by one of his complaints since Oct. 7. The Office of Civil Rights has promised to open every Title VI complaint it receives for an investigation, regardless of merit or origin, and does not comment on ongoing investigations.

The Yonkers investigation, opened Monday, appears to be the 80th “shared ancestry” civil rights investigation launched since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel; at least half of those cases involve Israel- or antisemitism-related matters. The department also opened two other new investigations surrounding alleged discrimination around shared ancestry this week, at Eastern Washington University and Seekonk Public Schools in Massachusetts.

The investigation will focus on whether the school responded appropriately to reports of discriminatory behavior, rather than on whether the behavior occurred in the first place. Following the district’s apology and disciplinary measures, it’s unclear what additional steps the office may mandate as a result of the investigation. 

A recent Title VI resolution, at a K-12 school district in Delaware, ended with the district agreeing to financially compensate the family of a Jewish victim of antisemitic bullying.

A spokesperson for the Yonkers district told JTA it would cooperate fully with the investigation, adding, “Regardless of the complainant’s affiliation, we take all allegations seriously and aim for transparency and fairness in addressing their concerns.” They added that the district’s previous response to the incident “reflects our dedication to resolving the situation appropriately.”

Representatives for Eastern Washington University and Seekonk Public Schools did not immediately return requests for comment about their investigations.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount