Cape Town - The Cape Council of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has requested a meeting with Somerset West Private School to discuss a way forward after an image showing students making Nazi salutes appeared on the school’s website earlier this week.
Cape Board Executive Director Stuart Diamond emphasized that while Jews, as the primary victims of Nazi tyranny, were particularly sensitive regarding displays of this nature, the incident was something that concerned all South Africans.
“With the increasing racism and hatred being spread in South Africa, especially on social media, it is incumbent on our schools to inculcate in their students, future citizens of our country, respect for others and an avoidance of any symbols and gestures that could indicate an identification with racist ideologies,” Diamond said.
SAJBD Cape chairman Rael Kaimowitz said that the intention of the students concerned was clearly to emulate the infamous ‘Heil Hitler’ salute universally associated with the regime of Nazi Germany, and that there could be no excuse for this.
“We do not accept that such behaviour can be brushed aside by claims that it was ‘only a joke’ or no more than a display of ‘youthful high spirits’. Regardless of what the intention might be, those who make Nazi salutes are in practice publicly identifying with a hateful, ultra-racist ideology that resulted in the greatest genocide of modern times” Kaimowitz said.
Diamond explained that it was with this environmental picture that the Cape Board had started a ‘No Place for Hate’ campaign to address the uses of hate today.