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Yeshiva U. basketball team forfeits crucial game, citing inadequate warmup time after Shabbat
(JTA) — If Yeshiva University’s men’s basketball team had won its game Saturday night, it would have gone into the postseason ranked No. 1 in its division yet again. But it didn’t even play.
That’s because the Maccabees’ game against the Farmingdale State College Rams was canceled after its scheduled tipoff time, with Y.U.’s athletic director citing tight timing after Shabbat as the reason.
In a statement issued late Saturday, the athletic director, Greg Fox, said a promise to allow “adequate warmup time” after the Y.U. team traveled from its home in Washington Heights to Farmingdale State’s Long Island campus had been broken.
“It is sad for me to report that we chose to cancel tonight’s men’s basketball game against Farmingdale State College,” Fox said. “When we arrived at the game, as early as possible after Shabbat, we were not provided with sufficient time to warm up. In the interest of safety, we could not allow our student-athletes to proceed. Farmingdale had made a prior commitment to provide adequate warmup time, which was not honored.”
The stakes of the game were high: The winner would get the top ranking in the Skyline Conference and would get to play all of the postseason games at home.
The game was set for 8:30 p.m. But that time came and went without a starting whistle. Instead, the student broadcaster who has streamed Y.U.’s games since before the team’s improbable NCAA tournament run last year tweeted that the game would start closer to 9 p.m. Two minutes before that, he tweeted again: “The game has been canceled.” Fox’s explanation came hours later.
The incident marks a rare public collision in Y.U.’s unusual status as the only Modern Orthodox school in the NCAA. Last year, as the team extended its winning streak past league records, ultimately ending at 50 games, national news coverage focused on how players were able to balance religious observance and athletic commitments, and how their conference devised a schedule that would not require the team to play on Shabbat.
Saturday night’s schedule was tight. Shabbat, when travel is prohibited, ended at 6:15 p.m. at Y.U.’s campus in Washington Heights. Farmingdale State’s Long Island campus is just under 40 miles away, and travel by car or bus typically takes just under hour, suggesting that an hourlong warmup would not fit before the officially scheduled start time.
The two teams last faced off in November, during a Saturday night game at Y.U. Farmingdale State won that matchup 80-69, meaning that even though the two teams each had a 12-3 record during the regular season after Saturday’s cancelation, Farmingdale State will have the top seed in the postseason competition that begins on Tuesday. Y.U. is ranked No. 3 and will play Saint Joseph’s University-Long Island at home that night.
The championship game is also scheduled for next Saturday night. According to the Skyline Conference’s website, “The championship final will take place Feb. 25 (note: accommodations will be made for religious observances).”
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The post Yeshiva U. basketball team forfeits crucial game, citing inadequate warmup time after Shabbat appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.