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Teshuvah for Meyers Leonard

By Caleb A. Guedes-Reed

MIAMI — A recent Shabbat dinner at Rabbi Pinny Andrusier’s home in Hallandale, Fla. was memorable for many reasons.

One was that the featured guest was seven feet tall. Another was that he was a player for South Florida’s favorite NBA team, the Miami Heat.

Meyers Leonard, center, distributes Passover dinners to Holocaust survivors in the Miami area. (Chabad of Southwest Broward)

The guest was Meyers Leonard, who only a few days prior to the Friday-night meal on March 12 had sparked controversy for using an anti-Semitic slur while livestreaming a video game on Twitch.

Leonard, a center who was traded to the Heat in 2019 following seven seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, was playing the first-person shooter “Call of Duty: Warzone” on March 8 in front of an audience of thousands when he said “Don’t [deleted] snipe at me. You kike [deleted].”

The fallout was swift. Leonard was suspended from the Heat indefinitely and fined $50,000 by the NBA.

Nine days later the team traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who then waived him after the league’s trade deadline, making his future in the NBA uncertain. FaZe Clan, company Leonard had invested in, also said it would “cut ties” with him over the slur.

It was time to repair the damage. After posting a public apology on Instagram, Leonard and his representatives contacted multiple Jewish organizations.

Two days after using the slur, Leonard met with Andrusier, the rabbi at the Chabad of Southwest Broward in Hallandale, 18 miles from American Airlines Arena where the Heat play.

After hours of speaking with Leonard on the phone and meeting with him, Andrusier had an idea — he would invite him to Shabbat.

“My thinking was that it would be a good idea for him to come and eat and meet Holocaust survivors and to meet children who idolize him,” the rabbi said.

That Friday night, Leonard listened to people’s stories and spoke about the incident.

Andrusier was excited for Leonard to meet Michael Kaufman, who was born in a German displaced persons camp after both his parents managed to survive Auschwitz.

“As he told his story, the place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop,” Andrusier said. “Everyone, including Leonard, was crying.”

Leonard met on a Zoom call with representatives of the ADL and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, which had made a statement condemning his slur.

“Meyers is really interested in putting in the hard work and learning about the Jewish community,” Josh Sayles, the federation’s director of Jewish community and government relations, said.

The federation is scheduling a tour for Leonard of the Holocaust memorial on Miami Beach.

This week, Leonard was to participate in a Zoom discussion organized by the University of Miami Hillel titled “From Heat to Healing” with Matthew Hiltzik, a producer of the Holocaust documentary film “Paper Clips.”

“We are encouraged by his efforts to educate himself about the Jewish community, anti-Semitism, and the impact of his words, and that he has matched his apology with concrete actions,” ADL Florida wrote in a statement.

“We do not view this as a one-time effort but an ongoing learning process and urge Leonard to continue this process after his departure from the Miami Heat.”

Even after Leonard was traded, two pro-Israel groups took the opportunity to express support for his apology and the Heat in Miami.

StandWithUs, a pro-Israel campus advocacy group, contracted with its partner organization Artists4Israel to create a local mural with the Heat’s logo on it. The 28- by 20-foot mural reads “We Love The Heat: United Against Antisemitism, Racism & All Hate” underneath the groups’ names.

“Local teens and college students . . . were asking what they could do to show that they still love the Miami Heat and that they love Meyers Leonard for his apology,” said Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs. “They wanted to give him that opportunity to do teshuvah.”

Leonard is among a number of public figures to use anti-Semitic language recently and, like the NBA player, they have undertaken rehabilitation efforts with the Jewish community.

Ice Cube and Nick Cannon followed their anti-Semitic statements by meeting with members of Jewish organizations; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene visited Orthodox communities in Brooklyn after public fallout stemming from her embrace of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Deborah Lipstadt, the author of Antisemitism: Here and Now, said, “I think the fact that he reached out to a rabbi, went to Shabbat dinner and didn’t immediately alert the press says a lot. If he is really trying to figure out what he did wrong, then that is commendable.”

During Passover, Leonard teamed with Andrusier to deliver over 500 packages of matzah, wine and food to Holocaust survivors, older adults and families quarantined at home.

One woman was thrilled when Leonard delivered the package to her door. She’s a huge Heat fan.

“He realizes that he offended and he really wants to show the Jewish community that he never meant them harm and that he’s in solidarity with us, in support and apologetic,” Andrusier said.

“I told Meyers that one beautiful thing about the Jewish people is that we suffered so much, but if someone is truly sincere, we are very forgiving.”



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