A young athlete who is on the verge of becoming the first Jewish player to get drafted into the Australian Football League (AFL) in 23 years has received a barrage of antisemitic comments online.
Australian-Jewish teenager Harry Sheezel is the first Jewish player drafted since Ezra Poyas in 1999 and was picked up third overall in a recent round of drafting into the AFL, Australia's most widely-watched sports league.
Before Mr Sheezel could celebrate his selection into the nationwide professional league, he was the target of a slew of antisemitic comments online.
After a profile of Mr Sheezel was published on the Facebook page of Melbourne Age newspaper, dozens of comments were written invoking Jewish stereotypes and the Holocaust.
Some comments included, “A Jew actually doing physical exercise? Fake news”, and “Does he have enough gas in the tank?”.
The post was removed once the paper’s social media team was made aware of the hateful comments.
The 18-year-old medium forward told The Australian: “My initial reaction was I kind of found it quite disrespectful, obviously,
“I think they’re just ignorant and uneducated and they’re probably not sure about the impact that stuff can have, but to be honest, I don’t let that stuff affect me.
“I just think those people probably need to learn and they need to find out that that’s not right or tolerated in today’s society.”
The chairman of Australia’s antisemitism watchdog, Dvir Abramovich said: “The number of revolting posts that have targeted Harry Sheezel on Facebook is alarming, and points to a large-scale normalisation and acceptance of bigoted, hateful speech that is a hallmark of social media today.
"Some of the ugly, hurtful expressions that I have seen shared about Mr Sheezel are not only stoking the flames of intolerance, but are recycling age-old blood libels and stereotypes of Jews that would make neo-Nazis very proud."
The AFL announced it would investigate the incident.
Mr Sheezel graduated from Modern Orthodox Mount Scopus Memorial College, a Jewish school in Melbourne, and said he wanted to be a role model for the Jewish community.
On becoming the first Jewish player in the AFL in more than two decades, Mr Sheezel said: “It’s really exciting. I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened in the past, but hopefully I can be an example for these kids.”
During drafts, Mr Sheezel was picked by the last-place North Melbourne, which finished the 2022 season with only two wins in 22 matches.
