On a Sunday afternoon, eight students from Branham High School in San Jose arranged themselves on the school football field to form a human swastika, a shocking act of antisemitic vandalism that has rattled the wider Silicon Valley community.
A photo of the arrangement was posted—though it has since been removed—alongside a chilling 1939 quote from Adolf Hitler that read:
> “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.”
When Maya Bronicki from the Bay Area Jewish Coalition told NBC Bay Area, she said a student who witnessed the screenshot immediately alerted his parents and a few other families. Branham High School announced on Friday that it has opened a formal investigation into the incident.
Chief Principal Beth Silbergeld, who identifies as Jewish herself, posted a statement to the LA Times explaining the school’s response. She wrote, “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.” According to her Instagram bio, she calls herself “Educator, conscious eater, mama, urban hippie, sneakerhead, NJ to CA.”
State Senator Scott Wiener, who appeared on Facebook with a photo of the human swastika, praised the school’s quick reaction. He added, “But 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,’” yet his post attracted a surprising wave of supportive replies for the students, with one comment reading, “This gives me faith in the next generation.”
The identities of the eight students involved have been identified, but the school will not release their names publicly to comply with federal privacy statutes. The incident has already been reported to the San José Police Department, and the school district has pledged to collaborate with the Anti‑Defamation League, the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area to address the fallout.
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