(JTA) — Yeshiva University’s men’s basketball team is set to play in the Sweet Sixteen round of March Madness on Friday, for the first time in the program’s history.

If that sentence sounds familiar, that’s because the YU Maccabees have qualified for the Division III tournament’s Sweet Sixteen once before, in 2020. But that tournament was cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and they never got a chance to play the game.

“It’s always like, ‘What could have been,’ and now here they are — they’re back and they have a shot,” said Simmy Cohen, a YU superfan.

The Maccabees, who are 22-8, advanced past the first two rounds with a 71-69 win over Bates College, followed by a 92-69 win against the University of Maine-Farmington.

To advance to the Elite Eight, the Maccabees will need to defeat Emory University, the second-ranked team in DIII. As the higher seed, Emory gets to host the game at their home gym in Atlanta. But while the Maccabees are entering the game as underdogs, they have one possible advantage on their side: fans flooding in from near and far.

“I don’t think any other Division III basketball team has any national fanbase,” said Rabbi Adam Starr, a YU alum who leads Congregation Ohr HaTorah, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Atlanta.

“Other places have alumni, that’s one thing, but here it’s much more than alumni,” he said. “Certainly within the Orthodox Jewish world, but even beyond it’s something they’re rallying behind, whether they went to Yeshiva University or not. It’s just a Jewish pride story.”

Starr said Atlanta’s Jewish community will be out in full force to support YU, the private Jewish university in New York City. Some Atlantans are taking the day off work to catch the 1 p.m. tip-off, Starr said. Students from the local Jewish day school between seventh and 12th grade will be bussed to Emory’s Woodruff PE Center.

The game is also expected to draw Jewish fans from around the country, including Cohen’s sister-in-law, who will be driving from the New York metropolitan area.

“The interesting thing here is that Emory is on spring break, so most of their students are not around,” Starr said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually feels more like a YU home game than an Emory home game.”

There’s an added wrinkle for visiting fans: Because the game falls on a Friday afternoon, fans who observe Shabbat according to Jewish law will be doing so in Atlanta.

To help those observant supporters, a Google Form that pairs visitors with host families has circulated, titled “YU Mac Fans Shabbat Hospitality in Toco Hills Atlanta,” referring to the heavily Orthodox Jewish Toco Hills neighborhood.

“We’re known for our Southern Jewish hospitality,” Starr said.

The team itself, Starr added, is staying at a hotel, but will be “having meals in the community at one of the shuls.”

On Saturday afternoon, following kiddush, Starr will host a “Meet the Macs” panel discussion at Ohr HaTorah with head coach Elliot Steinmetz; assistant coach and Orthodox Union chief of staff Yoni Cohen; team captains Zevi Samet and Max Zakheim; and senior Tom Beza, who “previously served in a combat role” in the IDF, according to a flier for the event.

The team’s tournament run has taken place over the backdrop of war breaking out between the U.S. and Israel and Iran, which has hit close to home for YU, whose roster includes seven Israeli-born players.

“While we have your attention,” Steinmetz tweeted on Sunday, the day after their Round of 32 victory, “I’d like to point out that while we are here preparing for a stupid basketball game, our friends and family in Israel are going back and forth to bomb shelters multiple times a day as Iran and Hezbollah fire rockets indiscriminately at civilian populations. Take a minute out of your day and pray for their safety and victory.”

Starr said he views the Maccabees’ tournament run as “something good and positive” that Jewish people can “gather around.”

“And I’ve heard from people in Israel, this is a very welcome distraction for them,” Starr said. He remarked that his brother had to pull over on the way home from a wedding in Israel last week and lie flat on the ground due to a siren going off. “But he was listening to the game while this was going on,” Starr said.

Last week, Israeli guard Yoav Oselka led the way with 27 points in YU’s win against Maine-Farmington; Samet, the team’s leading scorer, put up 27 in their narrow 71-69 win over Bates in the Round of 64.

Emory, as one of the top DIII basketball programs, is the favorite to win Friday’s game. But Cohen said the energy from YU fans may help the Maccabees in their push for an upset.

“I think it’s going to be an electric atmosphere,” he said.

The post Yeshiva University fans gear up for Sweet Sixteen run — and a Shabbat in Atlanta appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — A large school district serving Oakland, California, is effectively defying state efforts to make it address antisemitism on its campuses, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the California Department of Education.

In January, the department ordered the Oakland Unified School District to send letters to families and staff condemning antisemitism and take several other steps. The lawsuit says the district failed to carry out any of them by the March 1 deadline.

The state filed suit on Monday in Alameda County Superior Court seeking a court order requiring the district to comply.

“OUSD has … unlawfully refused and failed to carry out the corrective actions,” the lawsuit says.

An OUSD spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle the district has a policy against commenting on pending litigation.

The dispute places Oakland schools in the middle of a broader national debate over how educators should address antisemitism amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Many advocates say Jewish students need greater protection amid rising antisemitic incidents. Critics, however, argue that efforts to combat antisemitism are increasingly blurring the line between antisemitism and criticism of Israel or Zionism, raising free speech concerns.

In addition to requiring school officials to send districtwide letters condemning antisemitism, the state ordered staff training on nondiscrimination and political activity in schools, as well as a public presentation on the issue at a school board meeting.

The state also required the district to hold student assemblies at four schools — American Indian Model Schools, Thornhill Elementary, Montera Middle School and Oakland Technical High School — addressing the Holocaust, the meaning of the swastika and the harm caused by antisemitic imagery.

The dispute traces back to a series of complaints filed by Oakland attorney Marleen Sacks on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, a community group formed after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, alleging antisemitic incidents across the district’s schools.

After investigating, Oakland Unified issued a report in December addressing 17 complaints. The district concluded that discrimination against Jewish or Israeli individuals had occurred and that some practices in the district had contributed to what it described as a discriminatory environment.

Among the issues cited were pro-Palestinian posters displayed on campuses, teachers using instructional materials that presented the Gaza war from only one perspective, and staff using school resources to promote political advocacy related to the war.

The district also found that antisemitic graffiti had appeared on school property and acknowledged that some complaints about antisemitism were not addressed promptly.

State education officials intervened after reviewing the district’s findings and concluded that the remedies the district proposed were insufficient.

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Sacks said she hopes the state’s intervention will force the district to address what she described as persistent discrimination affecting Jewish students.

“The District has been deliberately discriminating against and violating the rights of Jewish and Israeli students for years,” she said.

The case arrives amid broader legal disputes over antisemitism in California schools since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed.

Last month, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the advocacy group StandWithUs filed a separate lawsuit accusing the state of California, its Department of Education and several school districts of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination.

That lawsuit argues that antisemitism has become widespread in California’s public schools and seeks federal intervention.

The post California sues Oakland school district, saying district ignored order to address antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.

Police in San Jose, California have opened a hate crime investigation after two Israeli-American Jews were overheard speaking Hebrew and then assaulted in broad daylight on Sunday.

“After arriving at a restaurant, they [the two Jewish men] were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly unconscious,” according to a statement posted by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) for the Bay Area. “Both victims were transported to the emergency room and later released.”

JCRC is aware of a disturbing incident at Santana Row in San Jose in which two Israeli Americans were brutally attacked while speaking Hebrew. After arriving at a restaurant, they were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly… pic.twitter.com/GZ9IkMnxfU

— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026

An additional video from @jewishsf shows a closer vantage point of the assault.

According to one of the victims, one of the suspects uttered “f***ing Jew” while repeatedly beating him to the ground. pic.twitter.com/GClqx6lkRi

— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026

Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, waited for a table outside the Augustine restaurant on Sunday afternoon when the violence began. They told police that the three attackers used antisemitic language as they punched them.

According to one of the victims and local reports, one of the suspects said “f**king Jew” or “f**k the Jews” during the beating.

“Every punch connected directly to where they wanted, to the head directly. It was on purpose to hit and make maximum damage,” one of the victims told ABC7.

Levy lost consciousness briefly after one punch to the head on Sunday. The beating left him with his lower lip split and bleeding. Both men reportedly had swelling on their heads and faces following the attack.

According to ABC7, a witness also heard one of the assailants say, “Don’t mess with Iran,” apparently a reference to the current war in the Middle East.

Keanu Kahrobaie, a retail employee on Santana Row whose parents were born in Iran, filmed one of the videos and said he heard one of the attackers speak in Farsi while fleeing.

“The only logical thing I could think, other than to stop it, because there was way too many people, was to record it, because it could be used as evidence,” Kahrobaie told J. The Jewish News of Northern California. “They actually kind of carried him, then threw him to the ground, and then just continuously hit.’

San Jose’s Mayor Matt Mahan issued a statement condemning the attack.

“I’ve been in touch with Jewish community leaders and our police department regarding this heinous attack, and I will continue to update you as we make progress in our investigation,” he said.

“The attacks on two people speaking Hebrew in San Jose yesterday are reprehensible,” the mayor continued. “Our Jewish community is shocked and angry, and they have every right to be. In recent years in America, violent acts against Jews have nearly tripled and nearly 70 percent of all hate crimes involving religion target Jews.”

Mahan, who is now running for California governor, added that “this is a time to stand with our Jewish neighbors, support their freedoms, their rights, their full inclusion in American society, and it’s time to root out the hate and the ideologies that drive these kinds of violent acts.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office also shared the video on Wednesday and wrote, “This is disgusting. Thank you, San Jose PD, for investigating.”

Marco Sermoneta, consul general of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, commented on the beating on X.

“Two American-Israelis brutally attacked in broad daylight in #SanJose just for speaking Hebrew,” he posted. “I call on California elected officials to condemn this vile, cowardly act and for law enforcement to address this grave incident swiftly and effectively.”

On Wednesday, San Jose police said that detectives at this time “have not located evidence indicating the assault would meet the elements of a hate crime.” However, the attack is currently being investigated as a hate crime as investigators continue to review evidence.

The local Jewish community “is very afraid for our safety following this brutal assault in broad daylight,” Tali Klima, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told the San Francisco Gate. “Given the ongoing surge in antisemitism in recent years, we expect San Jose police and local officials to take this matter seriously and take proper action to address not only this specific incident but the overall climate of Jew hatred.”

The attack in San Jose follow an ongoing pattern of antisemitic acts targeting Jews and Israelis who are overheard speaking in Hebrew.

Last month, French tourists attacked three Israelis speaking Hebrew at a bar in Thailand, resulting in hospitalization for two to treat injuries that included broken ribs, damaged teeth, and back trauma. The bar’s employees reportedly joined in the assault, hitting the Israelis with batons.

In December, Israeli tourist Almog Armoza had to flee in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu when someone hit him from behind with an iron rod after hearing him recording a voice message in Hebrew. That same month, criminals targeted an Israeli tourist in Cyprus after hearing him speaking Hebrew on his cell phone outside a hotel. The victim’s father wrote on Facebook that “he was brutally beaten, injured in the head and face, and evacuated for medical treatment.”

The prior month, police arrested a 25-year-old Pakistani man who allegedly assaulted an Orthodox Jewish American tourist at Milan’s Central Station.

In July, Ran Ben Shimon, the coach of Israel’s national soccer team, spoke Hebrew with assistant coach Gal Cohen while walking in Athens. This prompted an assault from a man who yelled “Free Palestine.” That same day, a waiter in Vienna refused service to a group of well-known Israeli classical musicians after they confirmed to him that the language he overhead them speaking was Hebrew.

Jewish organizations have begun tracking the prevalence of Hebrew conversations triggering antisemitic incidents. Following the release of a report on antisemitism in Ireland earlier this month, Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), stated that “a recurring feature is hostility triggered solely by Jewish identity or perceived Jewish identity, including visible symbols, the Hebrew language, or accent.”

The researchers looking at Irish incidents found that in 30 percent of cases, the antisemitism only began after some reference to Jewish identity.

Surveys following the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against southern Israel show that many Jews have begun concealing their Jewish identities when in public.

In February, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in partnership with Hillel International released a survey of Jewish college students revealing that 34 percent made an effort to hide their Judaism to avoid experiencing antisemitism and that 38 percent refrained from voicing support for Israel out of fear of target by anti-Zionist activists.

According to AJC research of the broader Jewish public in March 2025, 56 percent say they changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism and 40 percent said they refrained from wearing or showing items that could identify them as a Jew. The previous year that number was 26 percent.

Much higher numbers of Jews in the United Kingdom report similar sentiments. When the UK’s Campaign Against Antisemitism activist organization polled on the question in November 2023, 69 percent of British Jews said they were less likely to show their Judaism in public. However, by 2025, the Jewish Landscape Report from the Voice of the People initiative reported that number had now risen to 81 percent.