For the third time, the New York Times daily crossword puzzle featured a Swastika. First in 2014, again in 2017, and most recently – and blatantly – on Sunday, December 18th. This time, the crossword also happens to coincide with the first night of Hanukkah.  A bit unfortunate, considering the milieu of mounting antisemitism in this country. To exacerbate things, apparently, two of the clues in Sunday’s puzzle relate to Nazi, Germany. The paper is rightfully receiving tons of backlash for the antisemitic slip-up.


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It’s difficult to imagine whoever’s in charge of the daily crossword missed something this obvious, but the New York Times insisted that “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.” Apparently, this wasn’t even a mistake they could chalk up to AI. Somebody working at the New York Times chose this grid pattern, and with verve. 




And of course, there was understandable outrage on Twitter.