NEW YORK (JTA) A referee in Virginia has slam-dunked a local Jewish school basketball team.
The team from the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, made up of sixth- through eighth-graders, forfeited a game last week after the referee told six of its players they could not wear their yarmulkas on the court.
The wearing of yarmulkas is “not something we are going to be flexible on,” the coach for the academy, Nathan Drory, was quoted in the Associated Press as saying, adding that four of his players are sons of rabbis.
The commissioner of the local officials association defended the referee’s decision, saying, “If the clips were to come loose and stick someone in the eye, our $5 million liability insurance wouldn’t cover it.”
After the forfeit, the academy played the Sweethaven Christian Academy in a scrimmage, which Sweethaven won, 33-22.
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