Itongadol.- Staten Island, NY – A bad sport enraged by the results of a youth basketball game sent a barrage of vile, antisemitic text messages to an athletic official at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island, police sources said.
The texts, which were reported to police on Friday night, went to a 53-year-old woman at the center. Police have opened a hate crime investigation.
“I am about to put the JCC back in the concentration camp,” one text reads, according to police sources. Another makes reference to “Hitler Nation.”
Police have an idea of who sent the messages, but so far, the investigation is ongoing, sources said.
Ruth Lasser, a spokeswoman for the JCC, said the texts stemmed from a teen basketball league game at the organization’s Avis/South Shore center on Arthur Kill Rd. in Arden Heights, but she couldn’t say when the game took place.
“I do know that there was a dispute of some sort that came as a result of it,” she said. “The texts that followed were about some sort of unhappiness about that game.”
She called the texts “very disturbing.”
“The JCC has a long history, sports and activities that teach you not only the programs, not only the sport, but also sportsmanship,” Lasser said. “We work very hard to make sure we instill the right values, so it is disturbing.”