New York: Several readers were in for a shock when the Sunday crossword puzzle grid published in the New York Times looked like a Hakenkreuz, the emblem of Hitler’s German Nazi party. The crossword, social media users have deemed to be resembling a ‘Swastika’, the symbol appropriated by the Nazi Party and neo-Nazis.
The symbol appeared on the grid on the first day of Hanukkah, one of the biggest festivals of the Jews. While some called out the publication on Twitter for promoting anti-Semitism, others were plainly shocked at the producers for overlooking such a major gaffe.
It all started when readers took to Twitter to share pictures of the grid and point out how it looks like a Hakenkreuz. Former US President Donald Trump’s son also called out the publication for it. “Disgusting! Only the New York Times would get Chanukah going with this in the crossword puzzle. Imagine what they would do to someone who did this and was not ideologically aligned with them? I’ll give them the same benefit of the doubt they would give those people… EXACTLY ZERO,” he wrote.
Twitter was quite angry at the crossword grid and shared their annoyance in the form of tweets.
Following the uproar, The New York Times issued a clarification. Jordan Cohen, the executive director of communications at The New York Times, told Newsweek that the crossword puzzle was simply done for symmetry and the Hakenkreuz part was not intentional.
