A pair of Israeli figure skaters and their coach accused The Ice House rink in Hackensack of discriminating against them based on their nationality, according to a report in The NJ Record.
The report said court documents filed in Bergen Superior Court claim that Ice House official Nikolai Morozov told the coach for Olympic ice dancers Roman and Alexandra (Sasha) Zaretsky, “I don’t want to work under the Israeli flag.”
On another occasion, Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul, described in the documents as a Morozov “associate,” threatened to call the police on the pair and told them she would have them banned from the rink. The Zaretskys were later told by rink staff that they could not skate there.
A lawyer for The Ice House, Matthew S. Hawkins, disputed the claims – but a hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
“The Ice House did not engage in any discriminatory conduct and we intend to defend against these spurious allegations vigorously,” Hawkins said.
The suit asks the court to allow the Zaretskys to skate at the Ice House free from harassment and for unspecified damages including attorneys’ fees.
The coach, Galit Chait, who was born in Israel but moved to New Jersey as a child, was a top international figure skater for more than a decade. She represented Israel in the ice dancing competition at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics, and carried the flag in the latter two events.
In 2007, she joined her former coach Morozov, who coached skater Suzuka Arakawa to an Olympic gold medal in 2006, at the Elite Program for world class skaters in The Ice House. Chait took on the Zaretskys, a brother and sister who were born in Belarus but compete for Israel, later that year.
Morozov tried to discourage her from taking on the pair and said they were not world class skaters. He continued to criticize them and said he would sign a one-year coaching contract with Chait only if she “got rid of the Israelis,” according to court documents.
The Zaretskys and Chait claim that Morozov’s comments preceded harassment, which included Baiul’s threat to have the pair banned from the rink.
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10 Responses
Pritzus.
Jews stand up for your rights in every arena (even the ice arena).
#4, I thought you were still oggling during your long abscence.
samiam, I suppose others post demagoguery on select items, after having been demonstrably wrong on all the others.
#9, not worthy of responding to your mudslinging.
Joe : What does ogglong mean. It is not an English word. Is it Latin or Ladino? How do the experts know that figure skating is Pritzus? Did they ever take a peek?
#11, When fast paced forums become a spelling contest, you can talk. Until then, consult a dictionary, sans the extraneous g.
Woe is to the one who does not know where to avoid pritzus and claims he stumbled upon it due to ignorance.
so joe, you’re saying that ywn can’t post anything that mentions in passing a sport that women play? get a life.
#13, who ever said that? not every woman’s sport is by definition pritzus.
and if it is ywn can’t mention it?!