Swastika-Like Street Light Designs to Stay

The City Council on Tuesday rejected demands from the leader of a prominent Jewish-rights organization for removal of swastika-like designs from 930 street light poles installed in the 1920s, saying they were never meant to be Nazi symbols.

Irv Rubin, national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, criticized the city last month, saying the symbols around the base of the ornate green light standards were offensive to Jews and should have been removed long ago.

On Tuesday, he said he was “tremendously disappointed” by the council’s decision but that the JDL would not pursue a lawsuit to force the city to comply, as he had earlier threatened.

The council members “forget that this particular emblem has been stolen and appropriated by forces of evil,” Rubin said. “Glendale has had a bad reputation with respect to race relations in its history, and this does nothing to repair that.”

The controversial symbols--a reverse image of the Nazi version of the swastika--are depicted in a chain about two inches high circling the base of the cast iron lampposts. City officials say that they were present on many lampposts bought by Southern California cities 70 years ago, when they were regarded as Asian emblems of good fortune. The swastika is a common ancient symbol that has appeared in Native American, European and Asian designs for centuries, and still decorates some Buddhist temples.

The light poles were installed 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 Hitler came to power in the 1930s.

In the wake of Rubin’s complaints, City Atty. Scott Howard researched and wrote a 14-page report on the history of the swastika symbol, suggesting several options to combat the contention that city property is decorated with Nazi symbols.

The options ranged from completely replacing the street lamps at a cost of $2.8 million, to grinding down or covering the symbols, to doing nothing. Although the lampposts are not protected by any historic preservation laws, the Glendale Historical Society has supported preserving them in the city’s older neighborhoods, the report said.

City officials have conceded that they receive a handful of inquiries about the offending symbols each year, but council members cited a host of reasons for keeping them--including their centuries-old use by various cultures as a good-luck symbol.

“If this sign is so offensive, it wouldn’t be Mr. Rubin standing here, it would be the Jewish community,” said Councilman Larry Zarian, noting that the rabbi of Glendale’s only synagogue declined to back Rubin and opposed removing the symbols.

“I think we’re making something very major out of something that ought to be very small.”

Seven residents also spoke against removing or altering the lampposts, with most objecting to spending tax dollars on the matter. Malcolm Hackett criticized the Jewish Defense League, which he said had generated much publicity over a “trivial matter.”

“I just think it’s a ridiculous effort by a few people who are trying to push around the majority of the people here,” said Hackett.