By Meryl Feld
Editor
Local Jewish NFL player Mitchell Schwartz, shared a statement on Twitter July 8 stating that, “My hope is we can use this moment to shed light on and bring awareness to the hate and oppression the Jewish Community faces while standing strong with the Black Lives Matter movement.”
The statement was published amid controversy surrounding Philadelphia Eagles DeSean Jackson’s recent anti-Semitic social media posts — which received criticism nationwide last week.
Schwartz told CNN that he thinks Jackson’s posts came from “a place of ignorance,” rather than hate. Jackson and Schwartz were teammates for a season in college at Berkeley.
Jackson shared a statement attributed to Hitler on Instagram. He initially defended his comments before apologizing. Jackson later accepted a Holocaust survivor’s invitation to visit Auschwitz together.
“We have to speak out when we see things that aren’t right,” Schwartz told CNN, “I’m glad people are speaking out about it.”
Schwartz wrote that while his teammates have been supportive of and interested in his faith, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. “Tragedy after tragedy, the number of hate crimes against Jews has reached record levels in the past few years,” he wrote.
Schwartz sees incidents like this as an opportunity to do good. “I don’t know why it’s happening more, but we have an opportunity now to bring light to it and hopefully make change for the better,” Schwartz told CNN.
Schwartz wrote in his statement, “As a Jewish American in the NFL, I stand with my brothers of all races and creeds against any form of discrimination and hate.”
Schwartz knows that change is possible. He wrote, “We can only have change if we denounce racism and bias in all its forms. Our platforms as athletes are a powerful tool, and with them comes immense responsibility. We can all do better.”