{"id":663452,"date":"2026-05-11T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663452\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:14:14","slug":"jody-scarcella-identified-as-woman-behind-slur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663452\/","title":{"rendered":"Jody Scarcella identified as woman behind slur"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bystanders who confronted a woman who allegedly hurled an antisemitic slur at an under 12s Jewish netball team have been praised for speaking up by one community leader who said \u201csuch incidents occur all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as the woman accused of marring the Sydney eastern suburbs\u2019 competition has been identified as a suburban Sydney mum.<\/p>\n

\"JodyJody Scarcella allegedly made antisemitic comments during a children\u2019s netball match at Maroubra.alexryvchin<\/p>\n

Jody Scarcella, 42, was banned by NSW Netball from attending any courts or games after police received reports of \u201coffensive comments\u201d during a match<\/a> between Maccabi Netball Club and Saints Netball Club.<\/p>\n

Police were called to the match at Heffron Park in Maroubra on Saturday. Officers did not arrest Scarcella but charged her with using offensive language near a school or public place.<\/p>\n

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin, who arrived at the courts shortly after the incident, said he had been told the woman had said \u201cf— the Jews\u201d and suggested they should be \u201ceradicated\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this incident unique is not the element of serious racial abuse or that it was done in a family setting in the presence of kids. Such incidents occur all the time,\u201d Ryvchin told this masthead.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Ryvchin said the abuse allegedly happened in \u201cplain sight\u201d.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unique because those directly affected by it stood up to it, took appropriate action, and held this person to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryvchin said it was obvious that society is \u201cbecoming angrier, more polarised and more violent\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those who behave \u201cappallingly\u201d should face the consequences, he added.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority don\u2019t need hate speech laws or the threat of life bans to know you don\u2019t utter racist slurs during an under-12s netball game. But those who think it\u2019s OK need to see that people will stand up to them and they\u2019re not going to get away with it any longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA line was drawn that morning and hopefully it now forces people to think before they speak, and it spares others from going through such an ugly experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scarcella told the Herald she did not want to comment, but said she was \u201cscared\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Chifley woman is a member of the South Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club, according to an annual report.<\/p>\n

She will appear at Waverley Court on June 17.<\/p>\n

President of Maccabi Netball Club Adam Dinte called the incident \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice were called to the match at Heffron Park in Maroubra on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of a deeply distressing antisemitic incident that occurred at a netball game today involving Jewish players and families from our club,\u201d Dinte said in a statement to club members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are taking this matter extremely seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaccabi NSW is communicating with NSW Police and the Community Security Group [CSG]. We are also writing a formal letter of complaint to the Randwick Netball Association and the opposing club.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish players, parents, coaches, administrators and supporters have the right to participate in community sport safely and confidently, free from racism, abuse, intimidation or vilification.\u201d<\/p>\n

The general manager of Maccabi Australia, the umbrella body of Australian Jewish Sport, David Goldman, said the incident was \u201ctragic and disturbing\u201d but was not isolated.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

He noted that a recent survey of 670 Maccabi members found nearly one in two respondents had either witnessed or experienced antisemitism in sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t isolated to Sydney, and it\u2019s not isolated to netball. It\u2019s occurred across other sporting codes, and we\u2019ve seen certainly a spike in incidents since October 7,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n

Maccabi Australia chief executive Mandy Penkin said the alleged incident was \u201chorrifying\u201d but \u201cunsurprising\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just absolutely shocking that in a country like Australia, at an under-12 netball game, that kids should not feel comfortable to play sport wearing the Jewish colours for fear of being abused,\u201d Penkin said. \u201cThe fact that we see it pop up so often is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Ossip, president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said the incident must be \u201cswiftly investigated\u201d and there must be no tolerance for racism and discrimination.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"EmilyEmily Kowal<\/a> is an education reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.\"AlexandraAlexandra Smith<\/a> is a senior writer and former state political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-663452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}