A Brooklyn math teacher is under scrutiny after posting an antisemitic caricature of soccer star Lionel Messi that echoes Nazi-era propaganda.
Maysa Jarara, who teaches at Park Slope Collegiate, shared the image July 19 on Facebook under the name Maysa, according to the reporting. The illustration depicts a crying, groveling Messi with an exaggerated nose, wearing a yarmulke and rubbing his hands together. “The look on his face is priceless,” Jarara captioned the photo.
The image resembles a notorious antisemitic internet meme known as “The Happy Merchant,” which casts Jews as greedy and scheming. Messi, 38, visited Israel in 2013 as part of a “peace tour” and was targeted by antisemitic conspiracy theories during the World Cup claiming Jewish control of FIFA benefited his career, according to Cyberwell, an online antisemitism watchdog nonprofit.
“Jarara has crossed a major line by trafficking in classic antisemitic tropes that cast Jews as greedy and scheming,” United Jewish Teachers President Moshe Spern said.
The post was not an isolated incident. Jarara regularly reposts messages denigrating Israel on social media, including one featuring the Israeli flag covered in blood. On the three-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, she posted an illustration to Instagram of a keffiyeh-clad man dancing with a woman in a hijab in front of a burning pile. “And we love life and we can live it in a way,” reads the caption.
“This is deeply disturbing. We have a teacher who is entrusted with educating children publicly sharing inflammatory, biased, and historically misleading posts about Israel and the Jewish people,” New York City Public Schools Alliance President Karen Feldman said.
Jarara earned $140,000 in 2025 according to public records and could not be reached for comment.
The case adds to a pattern of antisemitic conduct among city educators since the October 7 attacks. Damian Neva, a history teacher at P.S. 77 in Park Slope, texted “Long live Yahya Al-Sinwar” in a group chat with others seeking to boycott Israeli goods at The Park Slope Food Co-op, according to a lawsuit. George Trim, a social studies teacher at IS 181 in Brooklyn, was reprimanded by the Department of Education after hosting an antisemitic conspiracy podcast while wearing a tinfoil hat.
Thousands of Jewish families have pulled children from public schools amid concerns about anti-Israel content in classrooms, contributing to a roughly 3,100-student enrollment surge at Jewish schools across New York State, according to a Teach Coalition study.