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Swastika Fliers Cause Stir in Crown Heights

Controversial fliers with swastikas on them are creating a stir in Crown Heights. Dr. Bidi Xili, the man responsible for posting the fliers, says they actually have a positive message.

He is promoting etymology classes he offers that focus on the origin of words. He says the swastika on the fliers has no relation to anti-Semitism.

Still, local residents say the fliers are in bad taste and should be taken down.

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39 Comments

  • Methinks

    How insane is that?!
    Following his thinking, perhaps it’s time to start putting up photos of men in white sheets with dunces caps, crosses burning on lawns and ‘KKK’ branded on the posters. Just claim that it’s not hate-based, but done in order to teach ‘etymology’ or some other nonsense. Let’s see how Sharpton and co. will handle that one.

  • No Haters, Please

    Words or symbols that give offense are offensive whether or not the offense is intended. As a scholar of words, Dr Bidi Xili certainly should know better, and while I believe him that he did not intend antisemitism, posting these symbols is exceedingly insensitive and highly insulting.

    At the same time, we must also keep this in mind when we speak of others. We too, at times, use highly disparaging remarks or terms, and often justify it by saying we don’t intend harm, or quite often we justify by saying we are only speaking “facts”.

    Dr Xili is correct that the swastika in its original use was not antisemitic. Nonetheless, this “fact” does not make it not offensive to us.

    When one gives offense, intentionally or not, offense gets taken.

    Let us keep that in mind when speaking of others.

    • Milhouse

      Really? So anyone can wake up one morning and decide to take offense from something, and you suddenly have to change your language to comply?! That’s ridiculous.

    • No Haters, Please

      Milhouse, I guess you feel it is ok for antisemites to use any kind of hate language, as long as they add no offenses intended, and that makes it ok.

      In that case Milhouse, you are seriously a moron. No offense intended.

    • Milhouse

      Your words are objectively offensive, not just because I decide to feel offended by them. Anybody would be offended by them, because their objective meaning is insulting. You can say “no offense intended”, but it would be an obvious lie.

      That is very different from what you propose, which is that everybody has a veto on what everyone else can say.

    • Yitz

      “Bidi Xili should know better”

      Are you serious. I have heard him ‘darshen’ to his students in the Eastern Parkway library.
      He is the most anti-Semitic man I have ever heard in my life. He believes that Hitler was Jewish and that the Holocaust was a Jewish plot. He said that all Jews are “liars and thieves”.

      He is not just some strange person, he is a nasty anti-Semite,

  • nu?

    the media once again does a sloppy job and a biased one.. He is not known as Dr. what ever here in CH

    He is known as the “kissing Man” for his inappropriate behavior towards children and women

    he has a record of mental illness and has antics that have caused many quality of life issues in this neighborhood., to put it mildly.

    he needs sensitivity training to temper his “passion” besides a nice one way ticket to the G building at kings county.

    JMHO

  • Citizen Berel

    Citizen Berel saw them posted by hand onto parking meters on the North side of President street between Utica and Schenectady closer to Utica than to Schenectady.

    Citizen Berel was not stirred but thought that the rain would come and wash wash wash the papers hand-posted to the parking meters away.

    Really I don’t think that people what would like to read german star fliers hand posted to parking meters what the rain will wash wash wash away read much anyways.

    Really Utica is funny funny place.

  • Milhouse

    Until the 1930s everyone used swastikas, including Jews. There’s nothing inherently antisemitic in them, and people should stop getting excited every time they see one, unless it’s intended to signify an identification with the Nazis.

    • Really?

      Everyone? Really? I hope this is the fake Milhouse because even the old, self-righteous one had more seichel.

    • examples of Jews using them??

      the symbol was a symbol of the Aryan groups in India. It was twisted the other way, and of course that was the basis of the fictional claim that germans came from those groups. Now, Jews used the symbol where???

    • Yup!

      In the far east the swastika is still used as a common symbol with a positive meaning.

    • Say what?

      “… people should stop getting excited every time they see one, unless it’s intended to signify an identification with the Nazis.”

      Right, except that it’s almost ALWAYS used to signify an identification with the Nazis these days, especially in the U.S.

      Milhouse, if someone left a flyer with a swastika on your doorstep would you research the author’s affiliations before calling the police?

    • Milhouse

      Yes, everyone used it. And yes, Jews used it everywhere, at least as often as the so-called “mogen dovid” (which did not become seen as uniquely Jewish until quite recently).

    • Andrea Schonberger

      You’re right. In 1940 my father was in the Oklahoma national guard and the unit’s ID patch was a golden swastika only for them it represented an ancient Native American sun symbol. When the war started it was changed to an eagle.

    • Say what? #14 Milhouse

      It doesn’t say anything, just a swastika. Again, I’ll ask, what would you do?

    • Milhouse

      If it just has a swastika then you don’t know what the person intended. You can only guess. Maybe it’s meant as a sign of identification with the Nazis, but maybe not. Perhaps the broader context can shed light on it; for instance if it was left on Jewish doorsteps and not on goyishe ones then it was probably meant to offend. If, for instance, it was put on every doorstep, in an area with a lot of Indians, then it’s probably nothing to do with Nazis.

      But here there’s a context on the fliers themselves, so we don’t have to guess. They’re advertising etymology classes, which is not a context in which one expects to find Nazi propaganda.

    • @Milhouse

      You crack me up, “milhouse”.. thanks i can always count on you for a good laugh after a long hard dayy..

    • Say what? to #18 Milhouse

      Well, thanks for NOT answering the question while providing the illusion of an intelligent response — You certainly get my nomination for “Troll of the Year”.

    • Milhouse

      I did answer the question. If the flier’s content doesn’t provide any clue about its maker’s intent, then one must look to the context of its distribution, and if that doesn’t provide any information then one simply can’t know.

  • old timer

    the Kissing Man is a chronic menace to our society
    the fact that he has not been locked away forever is proof of the disfunctional mental health system in our country….

    oichet mir a Dr…

  • s

    The kissing man had an anti-Jewish flier up in East New York (near Rutland and East 98th St.) inside of a store a few years ago. My son tore it down but the owner took it back.The paper was some crazy thing about Jewish men and government.
    He worships Haile Selassie and the swastika is a symbol in Ethiopia, which doesn’t have anything to do with its anti-Jewish use. His linguistics course got money from the city government-too bad they couldn’t use the money for something better.

    • Milhouse

      Indeed, as I understand it, to the extent that Haile Salassie had any views on Jews at all, he was moderately pro-Jewish. But of course the Rastafari religion has no real connection with Ras Tafari (later known as Haile Selassie) himself or his views. It developed around the idea of Ras Tafari, without anybody consulting the actual person to see what he thought about it.

  • Webster

    Troll (noun): One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

    Examples: Milhouse

    Source: Urban Dictionary

    • Sam I Am

      Actually, he’s an “Ubertroll” according to Urban Dictionary

      Ubertroll

      Organised, systematic or calculated trolling.

      Unlike a normal ‘troll’ where one attempts to instigate a response (typically negative) in a target audience (such as slagging off a given model of car, on the owners club forum for that model of car) ubertrolling takes it one step further by trolling those trolls. The strength of an ubertroll can be on two fronts. Primarilly, an Ubertroll can be significantly more effective than a regular troll by more intelligently constructing a trolling post (either through previous research or by having multiple trolls responding) and can cause ‘nerd rage’ far more successfully. Secondly, an ubertroll can use their powers to shut down a regular troll by agreeing with them using a tone that hints at sarcasm but doesn’t attempt to belittle them. This can be extremely frustrating for a regular troll. An Ubertroll is not normally spotted as quickly as a regular troll.

    • Milhouse

      Not cute. Not cute at all. You’re clearly the one with serious issues, and at least three personalities (“webster”, “sam i am” and “cute”). Why don’t you just take a long walk off a short pier and spare the world from your presence. You contribute nothing to rational debate, or to anyone’s happiness.

  • anonymos

    i was in Brownsville Brooklyn and stopped by a bodaiga a few years ago. In the store there was a sign written against Jewish men, and the sign said it was by Dr. Bidi Xili, aka The Kissing Man. I ripped the sign down and the store owner got upset, and started screaming at me. I think it was by Rutland Road and Rockaway Pkwy.

  • CR

    To my work colleagues from the Indian Subcontinent the Swastika is a symbol of life and health, spiritually and physically. For them it is unreasonable to part with it because of its misuse in the west 70 years ago. And, yes, Milhouse is right that Jewish groups used the symbol up to the 1930s. I have seen books published from before that era that contained the symbol in the stylized artwork on the end-paper and title-page.

    As far as this fellow is concerned I wonder what his opinion would be of someone doing a revival of the “minstrelsy” theater shows of years past. Would he find its portrayals of African Americans offensive or would he try to understand it in terms of the artistic standards and morals of the era in which it was produced?

  • The real facts and the truth.of the message is.....

    So, living near and passing through, Utica Ave. and passing these signs that are daily posted on President and Utica as well as Union on Utica Ave. at least 9 signs on President and another 18 on either side on Union for, those of you who don’t live here, should know that the numerous signs he is posting since at least August have a running theme of EVIL WHITE JEWS and many add in “killed JChrist.” Now that I read about his similarly anti semitic and inflammatory signs that are also being posted outside of Crown Heights, people should see these signs for what they are; HATE SPEECH and his TRUE intent-to spread this message as much as possible. His occasional ‘pleasantries and pandering are a cover up for his campaign to bring about hatred and anti semitism to the neighborhood. The way I see it, this swastika is a diversion from what he is trying to accomplish. For those of us who lived through 1991, this should be troubling and brought up to community leadership.