Arizona Teens Put Swastikas on Cupcakes at Jewish Friend’s Party
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
— Teens at a Jewish girl’s birthday party in Arizona reportedly decorated cupcakes with swastika symbols, saying they did it to “be funny.”
The teen’s mother posted a photo of one of the cupcakes on Facebook, and called for it to be a teaching moment for parents, the Arizona NBC affiliate 12 News reported late Sunday. She reportedly removed the post, but the photo has spread on social media.
The teens had recently learned about the Holocaust and therefore knew what the swastika symbolized, the mother reportedly said in her post.
The mother later posted that the girls had apologized, according to 12 News.
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, director of the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona, in an interview with 12 News, called on parents to talk to their children about hate symbols such as the swastika.
“When you joke with symbols like the swastika you begin to normalize them and make it very casual within our society,” Galindo Elvira said.
Arizona teens bring swastika cupcakes to Jewish girl’s birthday party https://t.co/BmHWxJKi1j pic.twitter.com/t12CpiMKg7
— 12 News (@12News) November 28, 2016
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
