Eight San Jose high school students formed a human swastika on their school’s football field in a horrifying display of antisemitism that has sent shockwaves through the Silicon Valley community.
The disturbing scene was photographed and shared in a since-deleted Wednesday social media post that featured an antisemitic 1939 quote from Adolf Hitler.
“If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe,” read what appeared to be an Instagram caption.
Sen. Scott Wiener
Branham High School announced Friday that an investigation has been launched. The eight students have been identified, but their names will not be revealed due to federal law.
“Our message to the community is clear: This was a disturbing and unacceptable act of antisemitism. Actions that target, demean, or threaten Jewish students have no place on our campuses,” school principal Beth Silbergeld said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
Silbergeld, who is Jewish, refers to herself as “Educator, conscious eater, mama, urban hippie, sneakerhead, NJ to CA,” according to her Instagram.
Maya Bronicki with the Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC) told NBC Bay Area that a fellow student at Branham High School came across the shocking photo and alerted his parents and other families.
BAJC spokesperson Tali Klima condemned the human swastika display in a blistering statement.
“To have children echoing Hitler’s words is frankly just shocking and heartbreaking, and the entire community has been rocked by this,” Klima said in a statement, according to The Guardian.
“This bold and premeditated display has really shaken everyone.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who shared a photo of the human swastika on Facebook, applauded the school’s swift response but raised concerns over the incident.
“We need to ask ourselves why these students believed it was ok to do this — not just the swastika but linking it to extermination of Jews due to ‘international financial Jews,’” the Democrat wrote.
“Antisemitism is pervasive & growing. It’s leading to harassment & violence against Jews. Yet, there’s an orchestrated campaign to deny its existence. We see this in the lies spread in opposition to the Jewish community’s work this year to pass state legislation on school antisemitism,” he added.
Wiener’s post, however, elicited a wave of troubling responses in support of the eight students, including one that read: “This gives me faith in the next generation.”
Another Facebook user wrote, “The youth are healing.”
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Sen. Scott Wiener
The hateful act has been reported to San Jose Police Department, and the district also stated it will work with Anti-Defamation League, the Bay Area Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area.
The human swastika episode marks at least the second time this year that Branham High School made headlines in connection to antisemitism allegations.
Back in April, the California Department of Education (CDE) ruled that an ethnic studies course discriminated against Jewish students, according to The Times of Israel.
The formal complaint was lodged by the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, and accused teachers of presenting biased information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 12th-grade ethnic literature course.
According to the state DOE ruling, a teacher showed students a pro-Palestinian news explainer “The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history,” but not a pro-Israel perspective.
“In order for the information to be unbiased, there would have needed to be a video that reflected a pro-Israel perspective. This would have encouraged students to create authentic answers regarding the questions provided in the lesson,” the CDE report said.
