NewsEducationNews San Jose high school investigating ‘human swastika’ formed by students in photo on campus Branham High School working to implement teaching about the Holocaust, antisemitism Caelyn Pender is a Bay Area News Group reporter By Caelyn Pender | cpender@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: December 9, 2025 at 4:30 AM PST | UPDATED: December 9, 2025 at 2:21 PM PST Branham High School in San Jose is investigating an antisemitic incident in which a group of students formed a swastika using their bodies on the school’s football field last week and posted a photo online, prompting shock and concern from the Jewish community. Beth Silbergeld, BHS principal, confirmed that a group of students in a photo had formed a human swastika on the school’s football field. The photo was then posted alongside a quote from Adolf Hitler. The school was alerted to the photo — shared broadly across social media last week — via an anonymous tip line Wednesday evening. The incident was first reported by J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Related Articles Why two books by prominent Black authors could be pulled from a California school library California high school gym rented out for 24-hour ‘highly inappropriate’ game show Bay Area nonprofit develops teachers amid Bay Area educator shortage Former Bay Area high school teacher accused of harassment, inappropriate behavior with students sues school Opinion: Bay Area needs to take bilingualism seriously—now The incident was a “disturbing and unacceptable act of antisemitism,” Silbergeld said in a statement, reiterating the school’s commitment to creating a community where BIPOC, Jewish and LGBTQ+ students feel “safe, respected, and valued.” “CUHSD and Branham stand firmly against all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance,” Silbergeld said. “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.” Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years, and other top stories from December 09, 2025. The school is investigating the incident and has identified the students involved, Silberman said. The students are “committed to taking accountability for the harm that was done,” she added, but the school cannot share the students’ names or any details of disciplinary action under federal law. The incident was reported to the San Jose Police Department, which said Monday that the investigation into the alleged hate crime is active and ongoing. The school is implementing “multiple educational approaches” for students to learn about the Holocaust, antisemitism and hate symbols and speech, Silbergeld said. The school plans to partner with the Anti-Defamation League, the Bay Area Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area. A second incident occurred in connection to Leigh High School on Friday, in which an unidentified person posted a video on an Instagram account accusing teachers and administrators — pictured with lasers coming from their eyes — of accepting money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 00:00 00:00 Read More Michelle Steingart, LHS principal, said in a statement that “the post is untrue, and the suggestion it made is antisemitic.” The school reported the account and it was removed over the weekend. CUHSD Superintendent Robert Bravo said the human swastika was “tremendously alarming,” calling it “unquestionably antisemitic and unacceptable.” He added, in regards to the LHS incident, that “targeted harassment of our teachers is intolerable.” “As a school community and as educators, we recognize our responsibility to address and repair the harm caused by these incidents,” he said in a statement. The swastika incident was shocking and heartbreaking for the Jewish community, said Tali Klima, spokesperson for BAJC. Such incidents cause the community to fear whether it is safe to be visibly Jewish, she said, such as wearing a Star of David necklace or putting up menorahs for Hanukkah. “It is such a blatant display of antisemitism,” Klima said. “It’s not just the fact that they created the human swastika. It’s the caption underneath that is directly taken from … one of Hitler’s own speeches about the Jews. It’s the fact that this was done in this very intentional, coordinated way — visibly, right during daylight and the children are not covering their faces. The fact that the children feel emboldened to do this and then post it on social media in such a public way is very scary for our community.” Maya Bronicki, education director for BAJC, said that the district’s parents are “beyond anxious” about antisemitic incidents. “It came to the point where I’m hearing constantly from parents, ‘I don’t want anyone to know my kid is Jewish,’ ” she said. “This is an environment that no kid should live in because they should not hide their identity or their religion in order to be safe at school.” Adriana Lombard, director of public education for JCRC, added that the incident harms all students, whether or not they are Jewish. “Anytime we’re seeing any of these symbols and images and sometimes phrases that have been used historically to indicate hate toward the Jewish people, it’s going to cause harm and it’s going to be a difficult thing to experience, not just in the school community, but more broadly, the general community,” she said. State Senator Dave Cortese also said in a statement that he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident. “Acts of hatred — no matter where they occur — have a profound impact on our young people, our families, and our broader community. There is absolutely no place for antisemitism, or any form of bigotry, in our schools or in our society,” Cortese said. Marc Levine, regional director of the ADL’s Central Pacific Division, said that the organization is in conversations with administration from BHS, adding that students and families were “rightfully horrified” by the incident. “This is repulsive and unacceptable,” Levine said. “The swastika is a terrorizing symbol of antisemitism and the Holocaust perpetrated against Jewish people and others by Hitler and the Nazis.” Lombard added that JCRC is currently developing a recommendation for how the school can address the incident. The school has not yet reached out to BAJC, Bronicki added. The incident comes amid an uptick in antisemitic incidents, especially those at school, since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, said Lombard. BAJC, which primarily works in Santa Clara County, has received 500 reports of antisemitic incidents at K-12 schools since November 2023, Bronicki added. The California Department of Education previously found that two teachers at BHS had discriminated against Jewish students by describing the Israel-Hamas war as a genocide against the Palestinian people and describing Israel as a settler-colonial state. Bronicki noted that the organization has brought up other incidents to CUHSD that have been dismissed. “If these kids would have received proper training, proper lessons, hopefully this could have been prevented, and that’s what we are hoping that will happen now that, unfortunately, it was visible enough to get the attention of the broader community,” Bronicki said. Young people are also being exposed to these ideas and symbols online without corresponding education as to the harm behind them, Lombard said. Education about the Holocaust, Jewish and Jewish American contributions to history and antisemitism are integral to helping prevent antisemitism in young people.
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Any interesting things in berkeley talk concerning free speech Thought for 9s The most recent flashpoint is a virtual talk UC Berkeley’s Students for Justice in Palestine hosted on the evening of October 7, 2026, titled “Al-Aqsa Flood Anniversary Talks.” Speaker Mohamed Abdou (author of Islam and Anarchism, formerly at Columbia, and on a virtual “Death to the Akademy” tour) spoke to roughly 25 people.Abdou described the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack—which the group itself calls Operation Al-Aqsa Flood—as “one of the most glorious days.” He linked U.S. settlement and Indigenous history to the Palestinian cause, argued students are complicit by attending universities built on “stolen land,” and said: “There is no free Palestine until a free Turtle Island. That means destroying it.” He has previously written that he was “with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad but up to a point.” Coverage and criticism also cite earlier remarks attributed to him telling students to “be proud of your hate for America.”Jewish student groups and organizations including the Jewish Student Union, AMCHA Initiative, and Combat Antisemitism Movement called the framing of the attack immoral or dangerous and asked the campus to deny him a platform. AMCHA explicitly said the event involved free speech, which it supports, while still flagging the rhetoric. UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof replied that the First Amendment protects the expression, while speech that constitutes harassment or discrimination on a protected category is not protected.That same day, Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky gave his annual Supreme Court talk at the Berkeley City Club. It included discussion of his recent book with UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman, Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times, which addresses protest rules, disruption, and government pressure on faculty speech after the Gaza war. In an August 2026 message to the law school, Chemerinsky restated an all-comers policy for student groups, time-place-manner limits, and the view that even protected speech can trigger institutional duties if it creates a hostile environment, while disruption of events will not be tolerated.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom targets antisemitism in California schools with new law In signing the law, Newsom rebuffed objections from the state's main teachers union and others. Gavin Newsom sits with students in elementary school classroom. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure aiming to clamp down on antisemitism in schools on Tuesday. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP By Eric He 10/07/2025 04:06 PM EDT Updated: 10/07/2025 08:08 PM EDT Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that aims to clamp down on antisemitism in schools, shrugging off objections by a powerful teachers union and others that it will restrict what teachers can say about Israel’s war in Gaza and other hot button topics. The bill, AB 715, cleared both chambers of the Legislature unanimously in votes that belied the tensions leading up to its passage in the final hours of legislative session earlier this month. During a last-minute hearing to debate the bill, the chair of an Assembly committee vented he was being forced to “choose between fighting antisemitism and supporting a bad policy bill that is opposed by every single education advocacy organization.” 00:00 02:00 Read More Newsom rejected such concerns and was unswayed by opposition from the California Teachers Association, a major force in state politics. He sided instead with the Jewish Legislative Caucus and leading Jewish organizations such as Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, which had made the measure their only legislative priority for the year. In pushing for the bill, the groups cited a surge in antisemitic incidents in California and members recounted their own experiences, particularly amid the turmoil in the Middle East following Hamas’ attack on Israel two years ago. Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the attack. “At a time when antisemitism and bigotry are rising nationwide and globally, these laws make clear: our schools must be places of learning, not hate,” Newsom said in a statement. Much of the requirements in the law, which takes effect on January 1, are open to interpretation. Teachers must be “factually accurate” in lessons and adhere to unspecified “standards of professional responsibility,” while avoiding “advocacy, personal opinion, bias or partisanship.” It also creates an Office of Civil Rights within a state agency, which will include an “antisemitism prevention coordinator” to consult with school districts and advise lawmakers on preventing antisemitism in schools. Newsom on Tuesday also signed SB 48, a companion bill that creates four additional coordinator positions meant to guard against discrimination based on someone’s religious beliefs, race and ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. The coordinator positions were part of a late deal the Jewish caucus made with other diversity caucuses, whose members objected to a bill focusing only on antisemitism. The two measures were contingent on the other passing. Despite that agreement, education groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups still urged Newsom to veto the bill. The ACLU, in a letter to the governor, claimed the measure contains “vague and overbroad provisions” that will restrict curriculum that is inclusive and historically relevant, create a chilling effect on students and teachers and invite lawsuits. The Council on American-Islamic Relations blasted the bill in a letter to Newsom as “especially harmful to the mental and emotional well-being of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim youth,” saying AB 715 rendered their stories “invisible and even punishable, deepening feelings of isolation and alienation at a time when they most need affirmation and inclusion.” In a public message to the legislature explaining his decision to sign the law, Newsom called for follow-up legislation next year to address those concerns, noting that “representatives from the entire education ecosystem ... expressed deep commitment to the goals of the bill, along with urgent concerns about unintended consequences.” “Public schools play a foundational role in our democracy, and we must continue to make our schools safe learning environments for all students while fostering critical thinking skills in the context of challenging conversations,” Newsom said. David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, highlighted Newsom’s comments on unintended consequences, calling them “significant.” “At a time when too many are seeking to attack academic freedom and weaponize public education, AB 715 would unfortunately arm ill-intentioned people with the ability to do so,” Goldberg said. Democratic Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur and Dawn Addis, introduced the antisemitism measure in July after an earlier piece of legislation, which would have placed tight guardrails on curriculum for ethnic studies classes, was knocked down by the teachers union and other education groups. To drum up needed support for AB 715, Zbur and Addis agreed to major amendments during the last week of the legislative session, including the removal of language on what constitutes an “antisemitic learning environment.” David Bocarsly, executive director of JPAC, called the signing a “historic day for California’s Jewish community and for every child who has ever felt unsafe, unseen, or unwelcome at school.” “By signing AB 715, Governor Newsom has sent a clear and powerful message: antisemitism, like all forms of hate, has no place in our public schools, period,” Bocarsly said. “This law is more than policy – it is a promise that Jewish children, their families, and all students, deserve a great public education and classrooms free from hate and discrimination.” Watch: The Conversation Play Video1:40 Kevin O'Leary: US stake in Intel is 'waste of taxpayer dollars' Filed Under: California
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