News Brief

Two Australian Rules football players pleaded guilty to an anti-Semitic attack.

James Dalton and Matthew Cuthbert attacked an Orthodox Jew as he was walking home from synagogue last year.

The two appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, where the magistrate heard Cuthbert, 24, admit to saying to his friends on the team bus, “I’m not going to apologize to no f***ing Jew.” Dalton, 27, pleaded guilty to snatching Menachem Vorchheimer’s black hat and kipah from his head.

Vorchheimer, a son of Holocaust survivors, was with his two children on Simchat Torah last year when a bus carrying intoxicated Ocean Grove Australian Rules football players passed him. They yelled anti-Semitic slurs at him, prompting the Melbourne businessman to chase the bus. He was punched in the face by an unknown team member. In April, another player, Simon Christian, was convicted and fined nearly $1,000 for racist abuse, including yelling “Go Nazis” at Vorchheimer, who has moved to New York temporarily with his wife and children. “Today is a very emotional day for myself and for my family to go through the details of the events of that day, to see the perpetrators that were there,” Vorchheimer said, adding that “I’m hoping we can get closure.” Magistrate Julian Fitz-Gerald will sentence Dalton for offensive behavior and Cuthbert for insulting language on Thursday. Several other charges against the men were dropped.