An elite Anglican school in South Africa has formally apologized after its students refused to play a sports fixture against a Jewish day school earlier this month.
On February 3, a Jewish school in South Africa claimed that students at Roedean School, a prestigious Johannesburg-based girls’ school, refused to play against them in a tennis match. The Jewish students of King David Linksfield had traveled to Roedean for the fixture, but the Roedean girls had refused to walk out onto the court, and the fixture was ultimately canceled.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) condemned what it said was a “disturbing refusal to play Jewish tennis players.”
Discrimination has become acceptable
“It also conveys the message that hate and discrimination have become acceptable values at Roedean.”
The school originally denied the allegations, writing in a letter to parents that it had notified King David that it could not field a team because of prior commitments, including compulsory academic workshops, and it had requested either a postponement or, failing that, cancellation of the fixture.
However, South African outlet The Common Sense obtained an audio recording of a telephone conversation between senior staffers at Roedean and King David Linksfield schools, which contradicted the school’s claim that the cancellation was due to scheduling constraints.
In the audio, the Roedean staff member asks King David if it has had pressure from any other school to not attend fixtures, or if parents at other schools had complained about their children playing against a Jewish school.
The King David staff member said this had never happened before, and all fixtures since 2023 had gone ahead as normal.
The Roedean staff member then admitted that the parents at her school were putting pressure on the school not to play against King David, and that they felt they needed to “take a stance” in line with the government.
Despite this seemingly reference to the government’s stance on Israel-Palestine, and not on Jews, the Roedean staff member said “at the moment it’s presenting itself as a Jewish day school issue,” and that she would be attending the fixture “to make sure my parents behave.”
The King David staff member replied that this was “very worrying.”
Roedean then released a statement saying it “recognized the seriousness of the concerns that have been raised and the distress this matter has caused to students, families, and the wider school community,” and was communicating directly with King David.
It added that Roedean has a “long-standing commitment to inclusion and respect for all communities,” and “antisemitism has no place in our school.”
However, the SA Jewish Report discovered that Roedean School’s Senior School head, Phuti Mogale, left her post with immediate effect on February 9.
“What occurred between Roedean School and King David High School constitutes antisemitism,” said the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ national director, Wendy Kahn.
“The tennis fixture didn’t fall away because of prior school commitments or academic workshops,” she said. “It fell away because in the words of Roedean’s school principal, ‘It’s presenting itself as a Jewish day school issue’.”
Roedean School finally sent a formal apology to King David on February 12, following mediation by the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (ISASA). It admitted that its actions were “deeply hurtful to the Jewish community”, and admitted that “while there were communication challenges which compounded this incident, these were not the cause of the cancellation of the match as Roedean originally understood and communicated, as has become clear from our ongoing independent investigations”.
The general manager of the South African Board of Jewish Education (SABJE), Rabbi Ricky Seeff, said, “We feel relieved. We had no interest in having long, protracted public spats with other independent schools. We want to resume normal relations. It was important to stand up to antisemitism. Now we just want to get our community and kids back to where they are meant to be – playing sports. “