Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq., strongly praised the Miami Heat Basketball Organization and its owners, the Arison family, for taking swift and strong action against player Meyers Leonard in response to his use of the anti Semitic term “kike.” This term is comparable to the N word used against Blacks. The player was placed on indefinite suspension and the coach and two prominent players on the team denounced Leonard’s use of the term. ZOA urged a significant monetary fine and suspension. 

The Miami Heat management issued a statement that included the following: “The words used by Meyers Leonard were wrong and we will not tolerate hateful language from anyone associated with our franchise.” 

The team, unfortunately, did not state that Leonard’s hateful language was an ugly insult against Jews. That needs to be immediately corrected and the team must make this clear. The National Basketball Association has also announced that it is investigating the episode. 

We are living in an era when Jews are attacked and the Jewish state is falsely accused of the worst behaviors by members of Congress, academia, those in entertainment, the news media, “social justice” movements, student organizations and others — and we see increasing physical manifestations of Jew-hatred including assaults and attacks against Jewish institutions as well as persecution of Jews for their support of Israel. It’s a plague against Jews We call on leaders in these respective fields to confront and punish the influential Jew-haters among them who encourage more Jew-hatred that threatens the safety of Jewish Americans. We hope that the strong action by the Miami Heat in light of this attack will become a role model rather than the exception.