A Brooklyn public school teacher is facing public criticism after sharing a Facebook post that used a well-known antisemitic caricature to mock Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi.
Maysa Jarara, who teaches math at Park Slope Collegiate in Brooklyn, posted an image on July 19 depicting Messi with a distorted, exaggerated face, an enlarged nose, and a Jewish skullcap, according to a report in the New York Post. The image showed Messi crying and rubbing his hands together. Jarara, posting through an account named “Maysa,” captioned the image, “The look on his face is priceless.”
The Post noted the drawing bears strong resemblance to the “Happy Merchant” meme, a widely recognized antisemitic image that depicts an exaggerated Jewish figure to promote stereotypes of greed and financial manipulation.
Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, said the post drew on longstanding anti-Jewish stereotypes.
“Jarara has crossed a major line by trafficking in classic antisemitic tropes that cast Jews as greedy and scheming,” Spern told the Post.
The Messi post was not an isolated incident, according to the report. Jarara’s social media history reportedly includes other posts critical of Israel, among them an image of an Israeli flag marked with blood. On October 7 of this year — the third anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel — she posted an image on Instagram showing a man in a keffiyeh and a woman in a hijab dancing near a fire, captioned, “And we love life, and we can live it in a way.”
Karen Feldman, head of the New York City Public Schools Alliance, raised concerns about what the posts suggest about Jarara’s suitability as an educator.
“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,” Feldman told the Post.
Public payroll data from GovSalaries lists Jarara’s 2025 annual pay at $140,016, with her position listed as teacher and her employer as the city Department of Education.
Messi has reportedly been a target of antisemitic conspiracy theories before. CyberWell, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitic content online, published findings on July 14 documenting posts from this year’s World Cup falsely claiming that Messi’s success and favorable officiating were the result of Jewish control over soccer. Some posts falsely claimed Messi himself is Jewish, while others alleged he was acting under Jewish influence.
Jarara’s post has generated significant online criticism, with commenters questioning whether someone who shared the image should remain in a classroom and what message it sends to students.
