Labour MP David Taylor also sent a letter to Glastonbury co-creator Sir Michael Eavis, pressuring him to remove Kneecap from the festival’s line-up in June. Taylor said it would be “deeply troubling” to see the band perform at the event.
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After 47 years and 900 wins, this Jewish basketball coach is a legend at his Catholic college
BROOKLINE, Mass. (JTA) — Andy Yosinoff departs his prayer service at Congregation Kehillath Israel shortly after 8 a.m. every Thursday during the college basketball season, navigating across the Boston city line.
For nearly 50 years, the Reform Jew has commuted to what’s become his life’s calling: coaching the women’s basketball team at a small private Catholic college.
Yosinoff, 76, is the second-longest tenured employee at Emmanuel College (a philosophy professor has been there longer) and one of the school’s pillars.
“Emmanuel’s been my life,” Yosinoff told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of his 47 years at the school. “I wouldn’t be where I am if I wasn’t at Emmanuel. They allow me to be Andy Yosinoff, who doesn’t always do things in the most conventional ways.”
The all-time winningest Jewish college basketball coach at any level for both men and women with 898 wins, Yosinoff is also the country’s longest-tenured active college basketball coach, according to the NCAA. His Saints have garnered 21 NCAA tournament appearances and 18 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championships in his nearly five decades leading the Division III program. In addition to heading the women’s hoops program, Yosinoff served as the director of athletics at Emmanuel for 17 years; he is now an associate athletic director and the department’s business manager and athletic alumni development liaison.
“Even as a practicing Jewish person, Andy really embodies the mission of Emmanuel College,” said Beth Ross, the college’s president. “I can’t think of a better advocate or somebody who is more passionate or committed to developing student scholar-athletes.”
Yosinoff grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the only child of Freda and Louis Yosinoff. His family kept a kosher home and attended the Conservative Temple Emanu-el in Providence, where he later had his bar mitzvah. He still attends services there when he can, usually for the High Holidays.
That Yosinoff ended up a basketball coach is a surprise on its own. While he played varsity high school hoops “not great, pretty good,” he said, tennis was Yosinoff’s better court sport. Playing Division I tennis at the University of Rhode Island as the school’s first scholarship tennis athlete, Yosinoff held the top singles position on the men’s tennis team all four years and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame.
While at URI, he caught the coaching bug, pioneering the school’s intramural basketball team. Yosinoff continued coaching a YMCA team while obtaining his master’s at Miami University (Ohio) and developed the defensive schemes his teams still use today. He moved to Boston soon after, teaching physical education in Boston public schools and coaching basketball within the system.
One day, an advertisement in the Boston Globe caught his eye: a tennis coaching job at Emmanuel, then a women’s school.
Yosinoff applied immediately, but after meeting with the school’s part-time athletic director, he realized he couldn’t take the role because the hours overlapped with his teaching job. Yosinoff quickly pivoted, asking if Emmanuel had a basketball coach.
The answer?
“No.”
“You do now,” he responded.
Yosinoff’s Saints found success not long after his arrival in 1977, 10 years before the introduction of the 3-point line, and they never looked back. Their best season to date came midway through his career in 2001, when Emmanuel reached the NCAA Final Four, becoming the first Boston school to do so at any division, men or women. He’s the NCAA Division III record holder for 20-plus victory seasons, with 27, and one of 10 NCAA women’s basketball coaches across all levels to reach 900 wins. Yosinoff coached the Saints to 72- and 68-game regular-season conference winning streaks from 2000-2006 and 2010-2016. He won the 2012 Jewish Coaches Association’s Red Auerbach National Coach of the Year Award and was a finalist a decade later. Yosinoff has also coached in the Maccabiah Games in Israel. The list of accolades goes on.
To boot, Yosinoff also coached women’s tennis at Emmanuel from 1980-1987. He became Emmanuel’s athletic director in 1986, while continuing to teach in the public schools and coaching women’s basketball and tennis. He retired from teaching in 2007 and has been full-time at Emmanuel since.
Perhaps Yosinoff’s most important accomplishment, though, came as an assist, when he helped then-freshman Lesa Dennis petition the NCAA to allow the devout Muslim to wear sweatpants and a scarf to cover her head during games in order to adhere to religious customs in the mid-1980s. Recently, Jamad Fiin, a 2022 graduate, rose to influencer status and viral fame for her empowering content as a female Muslim college basketball player.
Now, Lesa Dennis-Mahamed is a Roxbury, Massachusetts-based optometrist. She described Yosinoff as “an asset to the human race.”
“He is an advocate,” Dennis-Mahamed said. “Even though there can be some stress between Muslims and Jews, Andy doesn’t see that. He sees people as human. Andy looks beyond race, color, religion or even gender, and he sees the person for who they are.”
Yosinoff’s father Louis, who attended synagogue daily for 25 years, worked as a guidance counselor in Providence’s City Central High School, teaching his son about the importance of diversity and inclusion. Louis had started a scholarship fund at Emmanuel in honor of his wife, who died of muscular dystrophy at 65 in 1986.
Last year, Andy Yosinoff redid the gym’s bleachers in honor of his father, who died in 2017 at age 99 and was known as “Papa Yosinoff” to the team. A yellow seat in the middle seat of the first row honors Louis Yosinoff. The others are blue.
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the school’s founding order, emphasize the importance of equity, too, he said.
“It’s about giving inner-city kids opportunities to go to school. It’s essential for me, and was for my father back in the day,” Yosinoff said. “I’m more proud of how diverse our teams have been than all the wins in the world.”
As a dogged recruiter, Yosinoff can be seen in action all over northern New England. Joe Walsh, now the GNAC’s commissioner, got the Yosinoff pitch on a Friday evening in the summer of 1972 while shooting around in Allston’s Ringer Park by himself. Yosinoff approached then-15-year-old Walsh.
“I’m the coach of the Jewish Community Center basketball team,” and I need some players, Yosinoff told Walsh.
“I’m not Jewish,” Walsh said.
“I don’t care,” Yosinoff responded.
“The starting 5 was four Irish kids and one Jewish kid,” Walsh said. “You don’t get 900 wins as a college coach if you can’t recruit.”
Ross, Emmanuel’s president, remembers first meeting Yosinoff 23 years ago on the campus quad, located in the heart of Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, forming an instant friendship because of Yosinoff’s infectious energy.
“There isn’t a person on campus that doesn’t know Andy,” she said.
Ross credited Yosinoff for fostering an inclusive environment in his program while also holding his players to high standards, evidenced by their strong grade point average and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Team academic honors.
Kiera Eubanks, a current senior captain, remembers Yosinoff’s two-part recruiting promise as follows: First, if she joined the program, she’d win a championship. Second, he would do everything he could to help her find professional opportunities after college.
“He’s constantly checking up on us, also making sure that we’re succeeding off the court, and I certainly have felt supported during my four years here,” said Eubanks, a sociology major. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. He truly has made my college experience that much greater, and he truly cares about us.”
Meghan Kirwan, a 2012 graduate, joined Yosinoff’s staff as an assistant two years after graduating. She’s now in her ninth season in the part-time role.
“As a player I enjoyed it so much, so when he was looking for another assistant coach there was no one I’d rather coach under,” said Kirwan, who also works in the nearby Somerville Public Schools as a reading specialist. “He takes it very seriously and wants to win, but there’s such a free and fun lightness about him. Year after year I’m still here, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Already a member of the New England Basketball and Great Northeast Athletic Conference halls of fame, Yosinoff has since November 2016 had his name inscribed on the school’s basketball court — “maybe the only Jewish coach with his name on a Catholic college floor,” he said.
He eyes three more accomplishments: a national championship, a place in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (which includes NBA stars) and 1000 career wins, in that order.
With a list that like, he clearly is showing no signs of slowing down.
“If I feel like I do today, which is the same energy as it was 45 years ago, and feel like I’m doing a good job helping my players get better, I can’t give you an age” to retire, Yosinoff said. “If I didn’t love the place, I’d be like a normal person and retired.”
—
The post After 47 years and 900 wins, this Jewish basketball coach is a legend at his Catholic college appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Irish Rap Trio Kneecap Cut From Major German Festivals, Loses US Visa After Anti-Israel Statements at Coachella
Mo Chara (Naoise O Caireallain), Moglai Bap (Liam Og O Hannaidh), Rich Peppiatt, and DJ Provai of Kneecap attend the 2025 BAFTAs on Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
The Irish rap group Kneecap has been dropped from two major music festivals in Germany and must look for a new sponsor for their US work visas after parting ways with their US booking agency, all of which took place after the trio shaed a “f–k Israel, free Palestine” message on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
While pro-Israel supporters are pressuring other music festivals to remove Kneecap from their event lineups, the Hurricane Festival in northern Germany — which is one of the largest festivals in the country — and its sister event, the Southside Festival in south of the country, announced on Friday that they have both canceled performances from the rap group scheduled for June.
“The band Kneecap will not be performing at Hurricane and Southside Festival this year,” the festivals said in a statement, without giving further details.
Both festivals will feature performances by Green Day, the American rock band that has regularly expressed support on stage for “Palestine.” Kneecap, from west Belfast, announced on X that it will instead perform their first ever German headline shows in Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne in early September. The group members go by the stage names DJ Próvaí, Mo Chara, and Móglaí Bap.
Kneecap’s US booking agency, Independent Artist Group (IAG), announced late last week that the group is no longer its client. IAG – whose clients include Billy Joel and Metallica – did not specify the reason, but the move took place between the first and second weekends of the Coachella music festival, where Kneecap stirred controversy with its anti-Israel remarks. IAG sponsored Kneecap’s US work visas, which is a common practice for booking agencies and international acts. But since being dropped by the agency, it’s unclear how the band will play shows in the US, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. Kneecap has a mostly sold-out US tour scheduled to start in October.
During their second set at Coachella earlier this month, Kneecap projected three screens on stage that featured anti-Israel messages. The first screen said, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” followed by, “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” A third screen displayed the text: “F–k Israel. Free Palestine.” During the performance, group member Mo Chara talked about Palestinians being “bombed from the … skies with nowhere to go.” Kneecap also led the audience to chant, “Free, free Palestine.”
After the anti-Israel display at Coachella, Sharon Osbourne — the wife of Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne and a former judge on “The X Factor” — called for the group’s visas to be revoked. Creative Community for Peace said Kneecap “turned their Coachella debut into a platform for hate,” and that Coachella “owes the Jewish community and the festival attendees an apology.” The nonprofit organization — which is comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry — added that it warned Coachella organizers “about Kneecap’s well documented support for terrorism, but they ignored it.”
Kneecap is still scheduled to perform at a sold-out, massive outdoor show in Belfast, in Northern Ireland, in late August. The band will perform at the Belfast Vital festival at Boucher Road Playing Fields on Aug. 29 as special guests of the Irish post-punk band Fontaines DC, whose guitarist said last year “F—k Netanyahu. F—K Zionism. Free Palestine,” referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kneecap said that 40,000 tickets for the August concert at Boucher Playing Fields sold out in 35 minutes.
Boucher Playing Fields is owned by the Belfast City Council. Some observers have expressed fury that public land is being used to host Kneecap, in light of their recent controversies. However, a spokesperson for the council told the Belfast Telegraph it is not responsible for Kneecap’s appearance, and “events programming remains a matter for the organizers.”
Kneecap has a number of shows listed on its website for the summer outside the US, and they include several major music festivals, such as Primavera Sound in Spain and Glastonbury in England in June. The group is represented by Primary Talent International outside of the US.
The British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said on Monday that it has sent letters to a number of festivals, including Glastonbury, urging organizers to pull Kneecap from their line-ups. The letters also pointed out several antisemitic remarks and actions that the group has uttered done in the past, which include uploading a post on X in December 2024 that featured a cartoon with the caption “Israel is a terrorist state – F–K ISRAEL,” and a Star of David intertwined with a Nazi swastika.
“Concertgoers must be allowed to enjoy live performances without worrying about whether they may be subjected to open support for proscribed terrorist organizations that have openly declared it their mission to murder Jews,” CAA wrote. “Indeed, venues and events which seek to be inclusive must not permit their facilities to be used to promote racist, divisive and inflammatory content.”
Kneecap is also being investigated by counterterrorism police in the United Kingdom for past comments that have recently resurfaced following the group’s anti-Israel messaging at Coachella. At a concert in November 2024 at the Kentish Town Forum in London, Kneecap voiced support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are US- and UK-designated terrorist organizations. It is also a crime to express support for the terror groups in the UK. A year earlier, at a concert in London in November 2023, one member of Kneecap said: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP [Member of Parliament].”
Metropolitan Police in the UK said on Sunday that videos from both shows are being assessed by its counterterrorism unit “to determine whether any further police investigation may be required,” according to The Times. Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch demanded that police prosecute Kneecap because of the group’s “dead Tory” comment and Katie Amess – whose father, MP Sir David Amess, was stabbed to death in 2021 – said the rap group should apologize for “saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric.”
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday that he does not think “individuals expressing those views should be receiving government funding,” according to the BBC. A UK government spokesperson further denounced Kneecap’s remarks in a statement cited by the Belfast Telegraph.
“We unequivocally condemn threatening remarks made towards any individual,” said the UK government spokesman. “Political intimidation and abuse must have no place in our society. We recognize the chilling effect that harassment and intimidation of elected representatives can have on our democracy. All reports of intimidation, harassment, and threats are taken extremely seriously. We work with the police and Parliament to do everything in our power to crack down on threats to elected officials.”
Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minster Micháel Martin called on Monday for the group to “urgently clarify” their comments in which they appear to show support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Martin said any support for the Iran-backed Islamist terrorist groups, both of which openly call for Israel’s destruction, “would be unacceptable.”
“I think it’s important that free speech is always facilitated and the capacity to speak out and criticize and condemn policies of others. That’s all legitimate. But in terms of life and security and safety of people, that’s a different issue,” he added.
Northern Ireland’s Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald told BBC News NI she did not agree with the group’s comments but then proceeded to make her own anti-Israel comments.
“I think the most outrageous issue facing the world today is the ongoing genocide that we are seeing in Palestine and the bombardment that continues on a daily basis, the blockading of aid, the slaughter of innocent women and children and I think that’s what our focus should be on as an international community in bringing an end to that,” she said.
After they displayed the anti-Israel message at Coachella, Kneecap’s Mo Chara told Rolling Stone magazine on April 23 that their statement was “about [the Israeli] government’s sickening actions, not ordinary people.” Kneecap further claimed in a public statement two days later that it is the victim of a “coordinated smear campaign” by those who allegedly “weaponize false accusations of antisemitism to distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide.”
“We do not give a f–k what religion anyone practices,” the group wrote in a social media post on April 25. “We know there are massive numbers of Jewish people outraged by this genocide just as we are. What we care about is that governments of the countries we perform in are enabling some of the most horrific crimes of our lifetimes – and we will not stay silent.”
The post Irish Rap Trio Kneecap Cut From Major German Festivals, Loses US Visa After Anti-Israel Statements at Coachella first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Warns of Immediate Retaliation to Any Israeli Strike Amid Nuclear Talks With US
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of attempting to sabotage the ongoing nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, warning of immediate retaliation to any military strike.
Araghchi said that Tehran was confident in its ability to counter efforts by “malicious external actors” to undermine the country’s foreign policy or dictate its direction, emphasizing that he expected his US counterparts to adopt a similar stance.
“Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response,” the top Iranian diplomat wrote in a post on X on Monday.
“What is striking, however, is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran,” Araghchi said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments calling for the dismantling of Tehran’s entire nuclear program.
“There is no military option, and certainly no military solution. Any strike will be immediately reciprocated,” he continued.
Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response.
What is striking, however, is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran.…
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 28, 2025
On Sunday, Netanyahu said that the only “good deal” between Washington and Tehran would be one that dismantled “all of [Iran’s nuclear] infrastructure,” drawing a parallel to Libya’s 2003 agreement with the West, which resulted in the country halting its nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile programs.
Netanyahu also said he had urged US President Donald Trump to ensure that any nuclear agreement between the two countries prevents Tehran from advancing its ballistic missile program.
“We are in close contact with the United States. But I said, one way or the other, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” the Israeli leader said at a conference organized by the Jewish News Syndicate.
Tehran has previously rejected halting its uranium enrichment program, insisting that the country’s right to enrich uranium is non-negotiable, despite Washington’s threats of military action, additional sanctions, and tariffs if an agreement is not reached to curb Iran’s nuclear activities.
In his response to Netanyahu, Araghchi also accused him of misleadingly framing their talks with Washington as a revival of the JCPOA — a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
“Conveniently, Netanyahu’s Allies in the Failed Biden Team — who failed to reach a deal with Iran — are FALSELY casting our indirect negotiations with the Trump administration as another JCPOA,” Araghchi wrote.
“Many Iranians no longer believe the JCPOA is sufficient. They seek tangible dividends. Nothing Netanyahu’s Allies in the Failed Biden Team say or do will change this reality,” he continued.
On Saturday, Washington and Tehran concluded their third round of nuclear talks in Oman, with discussions on technical topics like uranium enrichment and sanction relief.
As part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
“The talks in Muscat were positive and productive. There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” a senior US official said in a statement sent to reporters.
Earlier this month, the two adversaries held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal. The second round of talks took place in Rome on April 19.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, who is serving as a mediator between the two parties, announced that both sides agreed to meet again on May 3 in Europe for the next round of talks.
Despite Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes rather than weapon development, Western states have said there is no “credible civilian justification” for the country’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
The post Iran Warns of Immediate Retaliation to Any Israeli Strike Amid Nuclear Talks With US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK Signs Memorandum of Understanding With Palestinian Authority to Advance Two-State Solution
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa signed a Memorandum of Understanding in London, April 28, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
The United Kingdom signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday to advance “Palestinian statehood” as part of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy hosted the PA’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in London, marking the first official visit by a PA leader to the UK since 2021.
“This visit marks a significant step in strengthening our relationship with the Palestinian Authority — a key partner for peace,” Lammy said, emphasizing that Britain is dedicated to recognizing a “Palestinian state at a time that will have the greatest impact.”
The MoU reiterates the British government’s recognition of the PA as the sole legitimate governing power in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” rejecting any role for the terrorist group Hamas — which violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, taking full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year. It also underscores the importance of reunifying Gaza and the west Bank under PA control.
“The UK will continue to press for a return to the ceasefire and a return of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Starmer wrote in a post on X.
“We are committed to a two-state solution, with lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Lammy added.
The British government also announced a £101 million ($135 million) aid package intended to provide humanitarian relief, stimulate economic development, and strengthen governance reforms in Gaza and the West Bank.
The UK designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in 2021, expanding its previous designation of only the group’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, to include its political entities, arguing that Hamas operates as a unified organization rather than separate branches.
Last week, Hamas announced it is challenging its designation through a legal petition seeking to be removed from the country’s list of proscribed terrorist groups.
The MoU comes amid international concerns about the PA’s ability to govern the war-torn enclave during reconstruction efforts, with leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron calling for reforms to boost the PA’s credibility.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has previously called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, cede control of the war-torn enclave, and give up its arms. However, Hamas has previously rejected calls to disarm — a key condition in ceasefire negotiations with Israel and the United States.
The PA has attempted to publicly separate itself from Hamas while simultaneously pursuing Palestinian reconciliation talks. However, PA officials have regularly rationalized Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, in some cases even denying it took place or falsely claiming Israeli forces carried out the onslaught that started the Gaza war.
The PA, which has been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also long maintained a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis, leading critics to question whether the PA can effectively govern Gaza.
Earlier this month, Macron said that France could recognize a Palestinian state at a United Nations conference in June, prompting criticism from Israeli officials and French Jewish leaders, who stated that such a move would only reward terrorism.
Last year, Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia recognized a Palestinian state, claiming that this approach would contribute to fostering a two-state solution and promote lasting peace in the region. At the time, Israel condemned the decision as an “incitement to genocide” against the Jewish people.
Out of the 27 European Union member states, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden have also recognized a Palestinian state.
The post UK Signs Memorandum of Understanding With Palestinian Authority to Advance Two-State Solution first appeared on Algemeiner.com.