Swastika-Like Designs on Lampposts Draw Protest

The leader of a Jewish rights group demanded Tuesday that the city of Glendale remove swastika-like designs from more than 500 street lights installed in the 1920s, which city leaders say were never intended to be seen as Nazi symbols.

“The swastika is an insult to the memory of millions of people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis,” said Irv Rubin, national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, threatening to sue the city if the symbols are not removed.

Rubin spoke for about 10 minutes Tuesday night at a meeting of the Glendale City Council, which said it would consider his protest.

The controversial symbols are depicted in a chain about two inches high circling the base of cast iron lampposts, and are a reverse image of the Nazis’ swastika. City officials say they were on many lampposts bought by Southern California cities 70 years ago, when the symbols were regarded as Asian emblems of good fortune.

Located in the downtown area and some of the city’s older neighborhoods, the light poles were made between 1924 and 1926. Germany’s National Socialist Party began using the symbol as early as 1919, but Americans did not associate it with anti-Semitism until Adolf Hitler came to power in the 1930s.

Swastika-like symbols were used by various cultures, including Buddhists and Native Americans, for centuries before they became the Nazi emblem.

“I don’t buy this insane logic that these twisted crosses are ancient Eastern good luck religious symbols,” said Rubin, who initially brought the matter to the attention of city officials last week. “It is an insult to Americans of all religious and political persuasions.”

City officials conceded they receive about two or three inquiries a year. They said they are considering Rubin’s demand and may opt to grind them off the posts.

But City Atty. Scott Howard called it “ridiculous” for Rubin to threaten a lawsuit less than a week after raising the issue.

“At the same time, we’re looking into it,” Howard said. “We’re listening to what he says. But to expect us to wipe out 70 years of history in six days is ludicrous.”

Glendale Jewish leaders declined to back Rubin, saying the swastikas have caused no alarm in the city’s Jewish community.

Roni Blau, director of the San Fernando Valley office of the Anti-Defamation League, said her office also receives inquiries about Glendale’s lampposts, as well as those with similar insignias in other cities.

“With most people, we explain to them what it really is and it becomes a non-issue,” she said.