Anti-Semitism in an exclusive Zurich sailing club?

Leading members of a yacht club in Zurich, Switzerland, are being accused of anti-Semitism, following their refusal to admit a Jewish man into their association. The Yacht Club is generally regarded as the most exclusive of sailing clubs in the main Swiss city. In late 2003, the Jewish publicist and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Peter C. Newman asked to be admitted to the club. The Canadian, who now lives in London, and his then sponsor say that the refusal by the board of the Yacht Club was due to anti-Semitic views held by some older members of the board. Moreover, the leading Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" quotes Newsman's sponsor who said that there had been other alleged cases of rejections of Jewish applicants by the exclusive society. The man has now resigned from the Yacht Club. The club's president Jörg Hotz has denied the charges, saying the decision to postpone Newman's admission had been based on other reasons.