Update: May 14, 2010: Polish police detained five fans suspected of displaying the anti-Semitic banners, charging two of them under a law banning public incitement against ethnic or religious groups.  The country’s soccer federation also penalized the soccer club.

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New York, NY, May 12, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on the head of the Polish professional soccer league to sanction a team for a blatant display of anti-Semitism by its fans.

During a May 8 match, fans of Resovia Rzeszow displayed a large banner showing a caricatured hook-nosed Jew with a blue and white yarmulke – the colors of the opposing team – and the phrase, "Death to the Crooked Noses."

"This sickening display of crude anti-Semitism is an alarming manifestation of a continuing problem in Polish society, where our opinion surveys and other polls have found disturbing levels of anti-Semitic sentiment," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.  "We call on the league's president to sanction Resovia Rzeszow and to apply the anti-racism practices of the European football authority, UEFA."

In a letter to Mr. Andrzej Rusko, president of the Ekstraklasa league, ADL said, "An equally important measure of society is how authorities react to such incidents."

"Only 700 of Rzeszow's 15,000 Jews survived the Holocaust," the letter stated.  "Jews were starved and executed in Rzeszow's ghetto, which was later transformed into a concentration camp for the region.  Some were sent to nearby death camps, while others were shot in the forest.  Calling for death to Jews on the same spot cannot go unpunished."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.