Adolf Hitler and the Nazis are known by the world for their hatred towards the Jews and the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Amidst the onset of the Jewish festival Hanukkah that started on December 18, popular publication The New York Times took to draw criticism for printing a crossword that was quite similar to a swastika (the sign that marks the flag of Nazi Germany).
Social media was flooded with tweets and posts that slammed the media outlet for their Nazi-themed swastika crossword during the celebration days of the Jews which is also called Chanukah. The name of the eight-day festival refers to "dedication" in Hebrew and sees people celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Amid the celebration mood that geared up during Hanukkah, The NYT's swastika-like crossword design sparked concerns as people questioned the ideology behind the edition. Meanwhile, a netizen dubbed the newspaper as "The New York Nazi Times."
Check out some tweets:
A spokesperson for The New York Times was quoted in media reports to confirm that the print page doing rounds on the internet isn't fake: "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." There was no comment on any deliberate intention to release such was crossword format during the days of the Jewish festival.
