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Are we failing to teach our chil-dren to recognize and challenge discrimination against Jews? Are our educational institutions encouraging our children to

accede to prejudice and bigotry and accept second-class treatment?

My recent experience representing sev-eral students and parents from the Beren Academy (an Orthodox Jewish day school in Houston, Texas), who brought a legal chal-lenge against the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) for deliber-ately excluding Saturday Sabbath observant schools from the state basketball semi-final and final championship games, suggests to me that the unfortunate answer to these ques-tions is “yes.” Despite evidence that TAPPS’ leaders were prejudiced against non-Sunday Sabbath observers, and despite the fact that Beren’s situation provided the Jewish commu-nity with the opportunity to lead a challenge against discrimination that was harming not only the Jewish community but also non-Jew-ish Saturday Sabbath observers and Muslims, the Beren Academy and other members of the community urged my father Nathan Lewin and me not to turn to the courts to protect the students’ rights. Those who were opposed to legal action said it was a greater kiddush Hashem for the students to forfeit the game and refuse to play. Parents and students who initially expressed interest in joining as plain-

tiffs were pressured to take their names off the legal documents.

There are, of course, many activities in which Orthodox Jews cannot participate because they involve programs that conflict with Shab-bat. I do not for one minute believe that it is appropriate to ask the world to “stand on its head” so that I, as an Orthodox Jew, may participate in every event or opportunity that exists. On the other hand, when an organiza-tion deliberately excludes Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, and Muslims; when an organiza-tion that is supposed to be teaching its student members lessons of tolerance, teamwork, and inclusiveness is teaching its students divisive-ness and bigotry; we cannot remain silent.

Let’s look at the facts:When TAPPS was created in the late 1970s

the parochial school members were all Sun-day-observing schools. TAPPS’ bylaws there-fore provided that no games or activities would be scheduled on Sundays. The bylaws, how-ever, also provide that game times (and even game dates) may be adjusted by mutual agreement of the opposing teams.

When the Beren Academy joined TAPPS, the school was aware that the state basketball semi-final and final championship games were traditionally held on Friday night and Satur-day afternoon. The school, however, was also aware that TAPPS’ own rules allowed teams to mutually agree on an alternative start time for any game. The school, therefore, decided

to join the league.This year, Beren’s basketball team excelled

and won its playoff game by 27 points, landing a place among the state’s final four teams out of a field of 32. Covenant, the team scheduled to play against Beren in the semi-final, agreed to switch the start time of the game to Friday afternoon instead of Friday night, so that the game would not conflict with Shabbat and the Beren students would be able to play. The other two teams that reached the “final four” similarly agreed that they would be willing to shift the time of the final championship round to Saturday night to avoid a conflict with Shab-bat.

The TAPPS Board of Directors refused to follow TAPPS’ own rules and informed the teams that the start time of the semi-final round would not be moved. The Board insisted that the game must be played on Friday night. TAPPS’ Board substituted the team that lost to Beren in the playoffs as the team that would play against Covenant in the semi-finals.

When TAPPS’ Executive Director, Edd Bur-leson, was interviewed by the media, he was asked why TAPPS would not change its policy now that there were Jewish schools in the league. He said, “Why should we allow one or two or three schools to dictate what 120 other schools do?” The reporter responded, “Some would call that being inclusive.” Bur-leson replied, “I don’t recall `inclusive’ being in our constitution.”

By ALyzA D. LEWIN

Battling Bigotry on the Basketball Court and Beyond

op-ed

a lesson from the beren academy sports team

op-ed

Three times over the past decade, the Burton Academy, a Houston Seventh-day Adventist School (which observes the Sab-bath from sundown on Friday evening to sun-down on Saturday), reached the final four in the TAPPS state basketball championship. TAPPS refused to make an accommodation for them. The Burton Academy students, who refused to play on their Sabbath, were therefore forced to forfeit their chance to win the state basketball championship.

In 2010, a Muslim school sought admis-sion to TAPPS. In addition to the standard application form, the TAPPS Director sent the Muslim school a questionnaire. The question-naire noted that the league included Jews and Christians—who (according to the question-

naire) the Muslims view as “infidels.” The ques-tionnaire then asked the Muslim school why they wish to join an organization with members “whose basic beliefs your religion condemns” and “whose membership is in disagreement with your religious beliefs?”

Despite requests from the Mayor of Hous-ton, U.S. Senator Cronyn of Texas, the Anti-Defamation League, and many others, the TAPPS Board refused to allow the Covenant and Beren teams to make the minor adjust-ment that would have allowed Beren’s team to play.

With this full picture, it was clear to us that the only effective avenue was to initiate legal action in federal court in Texas. On Thursday morn-ing, the day before the semi-final round was

to take place, we filed a complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order. In fewer than three hours, TAPPS agreed to reverse course and shift the start time of the semi-final and final basketball rounds.

When Beren played the semi-final match against Covenant on Friday afternoon, the stu-dents from the Burton Academy (the Seventh-day Adventist school) were on the sidelines cheering Beren on. They came to show their appreciation for the Beren Academy students, who in a true kiddush Hashem, had fought the battle against bigotry and prejudice not only for themselves, but for others as well.

Alyza D. Lewin is a Washington, D.C. attor-ney and partner at Lewin & Lewin, LLP.

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