Students at Branham High School, a public high school in San Jose, Calif., that has 1,955 students per U.S. News and World Report, who formed a human swastika, were identified quickly and are “committed to taking accountability for the harm that was done,” according to Beth Silbergeld, the school principal.
Silbergeld told JNS that the human swastika was a “disturbing and unacceptable act of antisemitism and hate.”
“While this incident does not reflect the values of the vast majority of our students and families, the harm it caused is real and must be addressed,” she said. “Many in our community were rightly appalled by the image.” (She told JNS that per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the school cannot disclose names of students or what disciplinary action was taken.)
The school is also “implementing multiple educational approaches to help students understand the history of the Holocaust and impact of hate symbols, hate speech and antisemitism to be both responsive and preventative,” the principal told JNS.
Eight students at Branham High formed the swastika and reportedly referenced a Hitler quote in a since-deleted social media post. “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,” the post allegedly stated.
Robert Bravo, superintendent of Campbell Union High School District, which includes Branham, told JNS that the swastika was “tremendously alarming” and “unquestionably antisemitic and unacceptable.”
Bravo has “full faith” that Silbergeld is “taking appropriate action,” he told JNS.
“As a school community and as educators, we recognize our responsibility to address and repair the harm caused by these incidents,” he said. “Antisemitic actions that target, demean or threaten any student or staff member have no place on our campuses.”
Tali Klima, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told JNS that it’s “unacceptable but not surprising that such a blatant act of antisemitic hate should happen on any school campus.”
“The community has been deeply shaken by not only the act itself, but by its coordinated, brazen and highly visible nature,” she said.
