South African school apologizes after boycott pressure forces cancellation of tennis match against Jewish students

An Anglican, private school in Johannesburg, South Africa, has formally apologized for cancelling a scheduled tennis match against a Jewish school earlier this month, following pressure to boycott the school and its players.

The match was initially set for Feb. 10 at Roedean School against the tennis team from King David School before being cancelled due to a “scheduling conflict.” On the day of the match, however, the King David team was told the game would proceed as originally planned.

After the female Jewish students of King David Linksfield traveled to Roedean for the competition, they were not allowed entry at the school gates and the Roedean girls refused to walk out onto the court.

A teacher who accompanied the King David team described the incident as humiliating for the students. “Young girls who trained, traveled, and arrived in good faith were turned away at the gate because of their identity,” the teacher said.

The Roedean School originally denied the allegations of boycott, stating it had notified King David that it could not field a team because of prior commitments, including compulsory academic workshops. The school requested a postponement or cancellation of the event.

Two days after the incident, Rodean School issued a written apology to King David School, saying its actions were “deeply hurtful to the Jewish community and sincerely apologizes.” The school also acknowledged that “communication difficulties were not the reason for the cancellation of the game, as Rodean had originally understood and communicated,” adding that this became clear as part of “ongoing independent investigations.”

Later, a South African media outlet, The Common Sense, obtained an audio recording of a telephone conversation between senior staffers at Roedean and King David Linksfield schools, contradicting Rodean’s claim that the cancellation was due to scheduling conflicts.

In the audio, the Roedean staff member asks King David if it has been pressured from any other school to not attend events, 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 sporting competitions since 2023 had gone ahead as normal.

The Roedean staff member then admitted that the parents at her school were putting pressure on them to boycott play against King David, and that they felt they needed to “take a stance” in accordance with the government.

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 competition “to make sure my parents behave,” to which the King David staff member replied that this was “very worrying.”

Roedean 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 in direct communication with King David. “Roedean has a long-standing commitment to inclusion and respect for all communities,” and “antisemitism has no place in our school,” the statement read.

However, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ national director, Wendy Kahn said,  

 “What occurred between the Roedean School and King David High School constitutes antisemitism. 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 Feb. 12, after 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.”

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.”