A flight over Long Beach, Long Island, by the group in 2014.

Group Cancels Swastika Flight After Protest

A group has cancelled plans to fly a swastika flag over the beaches of Long Island after a protest by local politicians, which were joined by Shliach Rabbi Eli Goodman of Chabad of the Beaches.

From Newsday:

A group that has flown swastika banners behind airplanes over South Shore beaches has canceled plans to do the same this weekend.

At a news conference in Long Beach on Friday, state Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) said the group had planned to defy his call to ban the flights.

Kaminsky said he anticipated the flights along the shoreline would resume Saturday to mark something called International Swastika Redemption Day. For the past three years, such flights have taken place off Long Island.

Click here to continue reading at Newsday.

17 Comments

  • CR

    This group has a valid point. The swastika has centuries of tradition in central Asian and European societies as a symbol meaning life, prosperity and good fortune. It has even been used by Jewish groups during this time to evince similar sentiments. Its unfortunate misuse by one of the most evil regimes in history for a decade-and-a-half should not cloud that tradition.

    • Former Bochur

      Agree. The government attempting to ban the flight is in clear violation of the first amendment, and Rabbi Goodman’s participation makes him look ignorant of history. Imagine if some hateful group used the mogen David or Menorah as their symbol!

    • Ibm

      You are wrong. Our rabbis have taught us more than once that since evil groups use certain signs and sayings for evil purposes, that itself refrains us from using them.

    • CR

      So you are saying we can no longer sing “sheyibaneh beis hamikdash” because there are Jihadist Muslim terror organizations called “Ansar Bayit al-Maqdis” and similar? That’s just tiphshus peh.

    • Milhouse

      CR, Hashem used to like matzeivos, but when they started to be used for avoda zara He started to hate them.

    • CR

      So you received a nevuah that H’ now hates swastikas? Please tell us the when, where and how.

    • Pedant

      That’s very true Mr. CR, the swastika is very special and it’s certainly a very important tradition. Very good that these good and sane and wonderful people wish to preserve it cause what would the world be like with out the swastika. That it was and still is the symbol for um … is inconvenient but I WANT MY SWASTIKA branded cereal and I want it NOW.

      Thank you for being a voice of reason here.

    • Milhouse

      Yes, CR, I received a nevuah. Are you happy now? The rest of us find it obvious that if the bad usage of matzeivos could cause such a drastic change in Hashem’s attitude to them, then how much more so must the bad usage of swastikas make them hateful to all decent Westerners.

  • well said #1 & 2!

    This is a different kind of swastika than what the Nazis used. Ths type is a buddhist symbol.

  • Yitzchak Mordechai

    2 comment #1 & 2, Since Hitler & the Nazis Y”S took it over, it became a symbol of hate, prodigious, & racism, so yes maybe before the Nazis Y”S took it over it was a positive symbol, but now that it is a symbol of hate & racism, that’s the latest group to use the swastika & therefore now, yes it is a symbol of hate especially for Jews. So I agree with Rabbi Goodman that it is better that they don’t fly it, & most ppl today see it as a sign of hate. Thank you

  • Milhouse

    As far as I know there was no attempt to ban this (which would be wrong) but merely moral pressure brought to bear on the nuts who are running this. The fact is that nowadays the sight of the swastika upsets a lot of people, and it’s not nice to upset people. It’s perfectly OK to explain this to those who are planning to do something upsetting, and persuade them not to, so long as they remain free to do as they choose.

    That until about 80 years ago swastikas were popular with everyone, including Jews, isn’t relevant now. Hashem used to like matzeivos, and Yaacov Avinu erected several; but by the time of Matan Torah they had been adopted as an idolatrous practise, so Hashem says He now hates them. The same is surely true of the swastika.

  • Mom

    If any group used a jewish symbol for genocide I would want it banned. Free speech is not the permission to hurt innocent people.

  • Uncle Mendel

    Disagree. How about a flight saying “Death to Muslims”? Would that “fly”?

    • Milhouse

      1. Of course it would fly, if the sponsors insisted, and the government couldn’t stop it. But it wouldn’t be nice.

      2. This flight is very much not saying death to anyone, but exactly the opposite. The Raelians are trying to rehabilitate the swastika by getting people used to it. It’s a futile effort, and it hurts a lot of people’s feelings, so it’s a good thing they were persuaded to cancel it, but they mean well.

  • If only. . .

    If only the ridiculous and fruitless efforts exerted by this “pro-Swastika” organization had been expended on more fruitful acts of goodness and kindness!

  • CR

    Digging into the Newsday article we find this:

    Organizers with the so-called Raelian Movement — which, among other things, believes in UFO visits to Earth — said they were canceling flights after facing pressure by the Federal Aviation Administration.

    This is a modernist folk-religion that has replaced H’ with aliens. We can be sure that typical practitioners of Hinduism and Jainism are not on-board with this project. My advice is tolerate and ignore.