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By John Haltiwanger
Breaking News Writer
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A group of students at a private high school in Atlanta have landed themselves in trouble over their involvement in an off-campus beer pong game with a highly questionable theme: "Jews vs. Nazis."
The Lovett School ultimately expelled one of the students, suspended five others and has barred two from "co-curricular activities," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. The student who was expelled reportedly misled school officials about his role in conceiving and participating in the game.
The student who hosted the party was among those suspended.
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The students were caught after one of them posted online an image of the game that showed cups aligned in the forms of swastikas and the Star of David. Peter Berg, a rabbi in Atlanta, reportedly alerted the school about the image.
Speaking with WSB-TV 2, Berg said it was "beyond words" that anyone could "even conceive of such a game, and then play it and think it's funny."
Berg added, "We, as a community, as a country, have to get our hands and wrap our hands around the problem of hate speech in general, to understand how horrifying that image is to Jewish people."
The Atlanta rabbi said the school did a "phenomenal job" of responding to the incident. He seems to believe it offers a powerful opportunity for young people to learn about anti-Semitism and hate speech in general.
In a statement to WSB-TV 2, the school said it "deeply" appreciates "the individuals and organizations across our community who are helping us to continue to learn and grow from this very troubling incident."
On its website, the Lovett School describes is philosophy as "rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition." The school also says it encourages "respect for diversity."
The news of this incident comes at a time where anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S., and not long after a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly.
According to a report released by the Anti-Defamation League in April, anti-Semitic attacks rose by 86 percent in the first three months of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.
The latest available FBI data on hate crimes, which covers 2015, showed that 19.7 percent of all victims of single-bias hate crime incidents were victimized due to bias against religion. Overall, the data that showed Jews made up 52.1 percent of all victims of anti-religious hate crimes that year.
To put it another way, Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other religious group.
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