NY Times Blasted Over Swastika On Hanukkah

WASHINGTON - Dec. 21, 2022 - PRLog -- Many major media outlets are following the lead of the Jerusalem Post in strongly condemning the New York Times for publishing a swastika-shaped crossword puzzle on the first day of Hanukkah, with the New York Post calling it nothing short of "disgusting."

But it's possible that they are overreacting, as George Washington University [GWU] did recently when it tried to expel a student for briefly displaying an ancient religious symbol which another student momentarily mistook for a Nazi swastika, and then banning any display of the religious symbol because some students might possibly think it was the Nazi insignia, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of GWU.

The situation with the Times may be somewhat similar, with the paper explaining that the pattern was unintentional, and was certainly not meant to be antisemitic.  As its explained: "This is a common crossword design: Many open grids in crosswords have a similar spiral pattern because of the rules around rotational symmetry and black squares."

GWU's overreaction to the display of an ancient symbol sacred to several major religions is as ridiculous as expelling students for wearing a six-pointed Jewish star, and prohibiting its display on campus, simply because some students might mistake it for the five-pointed star or pentagram sometimes associated with satanic devil worship, suggests Banzhaf.

When a major university such as George Washington University would seek to deprive a deeply religious Jewish student of his right to an education for briefly displaying something which resembled a hated but legally protected symbol, cause a formal investigation when one student in a private conversation used the word "Jew," or asked a student to take down his Palestinian flag because other students complained, it's clear that academic freedom is in danger at American institutions of higher education, and its a much more serious than an image in a crossword puzzle, charges the law professor.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf