Netherlands: At graduation party, teens sing about burning Jews

Via JTA:

Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs called on authorities to identify and punish high school pupils who during their graduation ceremony sang about burning Jews.

The incident happened last week during the graduation gala of the Elde College in the town of Schijndel, 70 miles southeast of Amsterdam, the Brabants Dagblad daily reported on Wednesday.

As they approached the party, several graduates sang: “Together we’ll burn Jews, because Jews burn the best.”

The phrase is part of a chant heard several times in recent years during soccer matches connected to the Amsterdam’s Ajax football team, whose players and supporters are often dubbed “Jews” because of the historic Jewish presence in the city, which is sometimes colloquially called “Mokum” after the Yiddish word for “place.” But the gala incident had nothing to do with soccer.

The student body and organizing committee of the Elde College gala expressed their sincere apologies for the incident, but Jacobs said the guilty parties “must be prosecuted for hate speech.”

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