By Elchanan Poupko
When retired Arizona Superior Court judge and federal prosecutor Charles S. Sabalos saw a wholesome article about Jewish teens from around the world coming to the JCC in Tucson, Arizona, to play baseball, basketball, volleyball, and other sports, he could not remain silent. Sabalos penned a letter to Tucson.com arguing that publishing an article about these teens is akin to featuring German youth during the Holocaust.
In an angry and hateful letter to Tucson.com, the antisemitic judge writes: “During the Holocaust, how would Jews living in Tucson have felt about our city hosting and supporting an ‘Aryan Games’ event for German youth celebrating their culture?”
Despite the teens coming from the United States, Canada, Israel, Ukraine, and Moldova, the ex-judge did not even distinguish between where the teens were from; it was enough for him that they were Jewish.
Despite there being no political messaging in the games, in an appalling attack on these teens, the ex-judge wrote: “It is grotesque to view photographs published in this newspaper depicting the smiling faces of healthy JCC Maccabi participants juxtaposed to the photographs of the anguished faces of Palestinian children who are dying from starvation.”
While it is not unusual to find hateful individuals expressing their opinion, the fact that such a letter appeared in a mainstream newspaper indicates how mainstream antisemitism has become in America.
