A student at a San Jose high school posted a photo of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a football field

A student at a San Jose high school posted a photo of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a football field

A photo of eight students lying in the shape of a swastika on a high school football field in San Jose, California, has caused shock and outrage among the Bay Area Jewish community.

A Branham high school student posted the photo to social media on 3 December, and included an antisemitic quote from Adolf Hitler in the caption. A screenshot of the post began circulating on Reddit last Thursday and garnered more than 500 comments. The post and the account were removed by Instagram by Friday morning, according to J., the Jewish News of Northern California.

The school’s principal, Beth Silbergeld, told the Guardian in a written statement that the social media post was reported to an anonymous tip line on Wednesday evening.

  • CarroladeEnglish
    61·
    2 days ago

    attributed the incident in part to a lack of proper Holocaust education and historical context on hate symbols, such as the swastika. “We have absolute faith that if the district takes actual measures to teach students the right lessons about being inclusive and anti-hate, that Jews are a minority that deserve compassion and understanding and deserve to be equal to everyone else in this education system, then that would be a huge step towards tomorrow’s society,” she said.

    No, I’m afraid not. They’ve likely been preemptively inoculated against lessons by anti-intellectual sentiment, lessons will not cut it. They won’t trust anything that might be attributable to a “deep state”.

    You need a more natural, more grounded style of communication if you want to have a chance.