{"id":90439,"date":"2025-11-23T12:33:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=90439"},"modified":"2025-11-23T12:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:33:18","slug":"after-outrage-coast-guard-says-it-will-continue-to-define-swastikas-as-hate-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/after-outrage-coast-guard-says-it-will-continue-to-define-swastikas-as-hate-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"After outrage, Coast Guard says it will continue to define swastikas as hate symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PHILISSA CRAMER<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 The Coast Guard says it will continue to bar the display of swastikas and nooses after drawing fierce criticism following the revelation of new rules that would redefine the symbols as \u201cpotentially divisive\u201d rather than icons of hate.<\/p>\n

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Admiral Kevin Lunday prepares to testify during his confirmation hearing to be the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Nov. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Heather Diehl\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The regulations, first reported Thursday by the Washington Post, permitted the symbols to be displayed in Coast Guard members\u2019 private quarters and said the would be barred from public spaces only if they undermined \u201cgood order and discipline, unit cohesion, command climate, morale or mission effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the Washington Post report, the Coast Guard\u2019s top official said the regulations had been mischaracterized and that promotion of the symbols \u201cwill be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.\u201d Soon, new regulations were issued that said swastikas, nooses and other symbols of hate would be prohibited in all Coast Guard \u201cworkplaces, facilities, and assets.\u201d It did not address members\u2019 private quarters.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post\u2019s report about the new regulations \u2014 which also include the removal of gender identity as a protected characteristic and a higher bar to prove harassment \u2014 had elicited wide concern from Jewish groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swastika and the noose aren\u2019t \u2018potentially divisive.\u2019 They are explicit symbols of antisemitism and hate,\u201d tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. \u201cTreating them as anything less than hate symbols is a dangerous mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, who heads the Reform movement\u2019s political arm, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, wrote to the Coast Guard\u2019s acting commandant, Admiral Kevin Lunday, to offer \u201cthe strongest objection\u201d and call for a reversal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to weaken these standards is an indelible stain on the Coast Guard and a violation of the good that our nation stands for,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI urge you in the strongest terms to immediately rescind this policy and return these symbols of hate to the forbidden category in which they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard is a branch of the U.S. armed forces. Lunday took his role in January after President Donald Trump fired his predecessor, the first woman to helm the Coast Guard, on his second day in office.<\/p>\n

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