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These Utah rabbis displayed ‘I’m Jewish and I’m proud’ signs at NBA game to send Kyrie Irving a message
(JTA) — When Kyrie Irving’s Dallas Mavericks came to Salt Lake City on Monday to face the Utah Jazz, Rabbi Avremi Zippel knew he had to be there.
Zippel, his brother Chaim, their father Benny and their friend Moshe Nigri — all of whom attended Monday night’s matchup — are Chabad rabbis who work at the Hasidic movement’s Utah outpost in Salt Lake City. Avremi is a huge Jazz fan, and he wanted to send a message to Irving, the NBA star who was suspended in November 2022 after he promoted an antisemitic documentary that denied the Holocaust and initially refused to apologize. He later apologized following an eight-game suspension.
The episode still stung Zippel, so the quartet of rabbis secured courtside seats and held up identical signs reading, “I’m a Jew and I’m proud,” with a Star of David replacing the “o” in “proud.”
“Some of the things that Kyrie said about the Jewish community and about Holocaust denial were vile and disgusting,” Zippel told The Salt Lake Tribune. He did not respond to Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment on Wednesday.
Kyrie Irving playing in the SLC tonight.
With everything that happened this morning, I thought it’d be appropriate to give him a welcome.
Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/khs8CkxqDs
— Avremi Zippel (@UtahRabbi) January 2, 2024
An arena guard snapped the rabbis’ picture and Jazz owner Ryan Smith greeted them. At first, Zippel said, the signs did not appear to upset anyone — including Irving, who complimented the message and showed the rabbis his Star of David tattoo.
“He comes by, he looks at the sign, and he says, ‘Nice. I’m a Jew, too,’” Zippel told the Tribune, adding that Irving’s response bothered him. Irving — who isn’t Jewish but has said he has Jewish relatives — may have been echoing the Black Hebrew Israelite claim that African-Americans are the true Jews. But Zippel said he wished Irving a happy new year and moved on.
But moments later, according to Zippel, Irving’s tone changed: As the Dallas guard dribbled the ball up the court, he yelled to the rabbis, “Don’t gotta bring something like that to the game.”
During the next timeout, a security guard approached Zippel’s group and checked their tickets. Then another guard told them to put the signs down, according to Zippel’s account. At halftime, a Jazz staffer told them that Irving had complained to security.
On Tuesday, the Jazz said in a statement that Zippel’s signs violated the policies of the team’s arena, the Delta Center, meant to ensure that “games can be played without distraction and disruption. No matter where someone is in the arena, if a sign becomes distracting or sparks an interaction with a player, we will ask them to remove it.”
The statement added, “The issue was the disruptive interaction caused by usage of the signs, not the content of the signs.”
Zippel said he had checked the arena’s regulations before the game and did not think that his group had violated any rules. And he disputed that his signs had caused any disruption.
“The Jazz seemed to fully acknowledge that we said nothing to Kyrie, [but that] Kyrie walked over, saw the sign, and chose to comment on it,” Zippel told the Tribune. “And so this idea that if you have signage that sparks interaction with a player, we’re going to ask you to take down that sign, I’m curious where that precedent leads to; I’m curious where that goes, how broadly that can be applied?”
Zippel added in a post on X that “there was one person, in a building of 18,000+, that was triggered” by his signs.
“Why that bothers him so, to the point that it sparks an interaction, should be the real question anyone is asking,” he wrote.
The Jazz, who celebrate home victories by playing “Hava Nagila” over the arena’s loudspeakers, defeated the Mavericks 127-90. Irving, whose team recently changed Jewish owners — from Mark Cuban to Miriam Adelson — scored 14 points.
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The post These Utah rabbis displayed ‘I’m Jewish and I’m proud’ signs at NBA game to send Kyrie Irving a message appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.