NY Times Blasted for Swastika-esque Crossword Months After Pro-Hitler Reporters Fired

Just months after being forced to fire journalists covering Israel who publicly praised Adolf Hitler, many Jews noticed that the design of the New York Times’ crossword bore a striking resemblance to a swastika.

By United with Israel Staff

On Monday, antisemitism watchdog groups noticed the New York Times chose to publish a crossword puzzle whose design looked shockingly close to a swastika, the symbol of Adolf Hitler’s genocidal Nazi regime, which sought to exterminate the Jews.

The crossword appeared at the outset of Chanukah, an annual festival that celebrates the triumph of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel over an invading army of Greek-Assyrians, who also sought their destruction. Like the Nazis, the Greeks ultimately failed to vanquish their Jewish foes, whose descendants still practice Judaism in their ancestral homeland in the modern State of Israel.

Ironically, the same paper only months ago had to fire three reporters over their violent and antisemitic social media history, including praising Hitler and glorifying terror attacks on Israelis.

One of the fired individuals, Fady Hanon, posted on social media, “The Jews are the sons of dogs. I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler did.”

Another Times-associated reporter, Soliman Hijjy, posted, “How great you are, Hitler.”

Thanks to watchdog Honest Reporting’s work, the Times broke dumped these hatemongers.

In November, the Times was caught again smearing the Jewish state, publishing misleading information about the situation in Gaza in Raja Abdulrahim’s article “Amid Israeli Blockade on Gaza a Fishing Fleet Limps Along.” The article included the debunked claim that Israel’s so-called “blockade” has been “devastating for the Gaza Strip’s fishing industry.”

In response, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) preformed what it called “basic research” to disprove Abdulrahim’s claim.

Specifically, CAMERA looked at actual figures and information collected by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which demonstrate that Gaza fishermen “have more than doubled their annual catch in the last 15 years,” reported JNS.org.

In response, the Times ran an editor’s note on December 3 stating: “The current catch is higher than that in the early years of the blockade.”

Repeat Offender

One wonders how the Times will explain its swastika-esque crossword at the beginning of Chaukah. Readers and critics alike were clearly not amused.

“This is the NYTimes crossword puzzle today on the first day of [Chanukah]. What the hell, @nytimes?” tweeted Democratic Strategist Keith Edwards.

“So far not one mainstream media outlet has reported on this,” Edwards added in a subsequent tweet .

Another Twitter user, @kennedytcooper, posted, “Can anyone explain why the Times crossword is a swastika on the first day of [Chanukah].”

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Times has published swastika-esque crosswords on at least two previous occasions, in 2017 and 2014.

By way of background, the New York Times faces persistent accusations of antisemitism. Last week, Agudath Israel of America expressed “deep chagrin” after the paper ran a front-page article “defaming and misrepresenting” the Orthodox Jewish community.

“[N]otwithstanding repeated outreach to the Times, the paper has consistently shunned any narrative that does not portray the Orthodox community as backward, societal leeches, controlled and persecuted by their own religion,” the organization commented. “Even the photographs selected, the sullen faces and marching children, are marshaled to further this narrative. This, notwithstanding that the Orthodox Jewish community produces thousands of hardworking, successful, civic-minded, peaceful families, who are an asset to every New York community they choose to reside in.”

Despite a climate in which Jews are the victims of hate crimes every 36 hours in New York City, the Times is “investing significant resources to contribute to an atmosphere of hate against those most identifiably Jewish,” warned Agudath Israel.