Screenshot from Facebook. Several members of a Los Angeles junior hockey team was suspended on March 29 for posting an anti-Semitic video to social media.
The Athletic, which obtained a copy of the video, reports that a member of the Los Angeles Junior Kings program can be seen “appearing to do the [Nazi] salute while several others laugh” earlier in March.
“Individuals can then be heard saying what sounds like ‘Are you a Nazi?’ and then ‘fuck the Jews’ and ‘fucking Jews,’” the Athletic report states. “Not all the players in the video comment and only one raises his arm in what appears to be a Nazi salute.”
The L.A. Junior Kings, which has no affiliation to the Los Angeles Kings but does use their practice facility in El Segundo, announced on a statement on their website that 15 players and three coaches in the program have been suspended and will be forced to undergo “a mandatory educational program” that is “comprised of sensitivity and social media training administered by outside professionals experienced in impactful positive youth education.”
“We are a club that prides itself on being a community; one that fosters values such as friendship, respect and teamwork, and upholds ideals like diversity, equality and tolerance,” L.A. Junior Kings president Steve Yovetich said in the statement.
Simon Wiesenthal Center Founder and Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier told the Journal in a statement that the video is “outrageous.”
“At a time when anti-Semitism is so prevalent all over the world, we discover that in our own backyard an LA Junior Kings hockey team made anti-Semitic remarks and Nazi salutes mocking Jews,” Hier said. “Every day we are shocked to find out how prevalent this cancerous malignancy is in our society. If this is what they can say in their youth, what can we expect of them when they mature into adults?”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has invited the hockey team to visit the Museum of Tolerance.
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