LONG BEACH ISLAND -- A plane that towed a banner displaying the word "Swastika," and showed a swastika intertwined with the Hebrew Star of David, flew over Long Beach Island and along the Jersey Shore on Saturday.
The Long Beach Township Police Department received at least several calls reporting the sighting, according to Bill Gee, a dispatcher with the department. Reports of the plane and banner have been reported as far north as Manhattan.
The plane appears to have been sponsored by an organization connected to the Raelian Movement, which claims life on Earth was created by a species of extraterrestrials.
The Jewish Community Center of Long Beach Island said it is aware of the incident and wants to know more.
"We're trying to find out-- what are their intentions?" said Don Pripstein, the center's president.
In a press release, the group said it intended to fly the banner on Saturday over New York City from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and “along the New Jersey coastline” from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Flights were also scheduled for other U.S. cities including Houston, Los Angles, Chicago and Miami.
Have you seen this plane? Please let us know in comments.
The Raelians' press release also declared Saturday as their "3rd Annual Swastika Rehabilitation Day," and invited Buddhists, Hindus and the numerous spiritual groups who use the swastika as their spiritual symbol to stand up and show their support in cities around the world.
According to its Web site, the swastika is a "symbol of peace and good luck in many Eastern religions." One variation of the symbol on the site shows it intertwined with a hexagram or the Hebrew Star of David and is described as the the “official” symbol of the movement.
This symbol or a slight variation of it is what callers told township police they had seen on Saturday.
The racist KKK burned croses. But the cross symbol continues. The Buddhists, Hopi, Raelians and other groups who embrace the swastika symbol, want people to understand it's history. I read proswastika.org and understand now.
It is not because it was high jacked by the Nazis during WW2 that the Swastika, oldest symbol of the world should be banned! Should the people stop wearing the cross because the KKK used it as their symbol?
With the rise of Nazi Germany they changed their insignia in 1939 to a Thunderbird , also a southwestern Indian symbol.
A pentagram is a FIVE sided star as its name implies. PENTA, five sided as in Pentagon. BTW, It is a Star of David, it is a Shield of David. By either name it is a hexagram, six sided.
Having a closed mind ! You can not graft a new idea on to a closed mind, even when shown the thinking is flawed ! So, many cling to their flawed ideas because they do not have the strength of character to admit when their wrong, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of the facts ! One of the things that makes this country great is the fact that this group has the right to do this in a peaceful way. They did not force me to look at it and anyone that did see it and was upset ( however misguided that might be ) can go right over to that place of business and have them tow a banner with their message, as to why they thought it was in bad taste. I do wish that the symbol in question was disassociated from the Nazi's and their regime of hate, as it was and still is a symbol of good luck in many cultures around the world ( in the 20's, 30's & 40's many U.S.A. sport teams even had the symbol on the front of their jerseys & even called themselves the " Swastikas " ). People need to stop assuming ( we all know the old joke about assumptions... makes an ASS out of U and ME ). People who saw this symbol automatically assumed it was a message of hate and never checked out this groups web site. They have a very long campaign ahead of them to try to get though to the many closed minded people before the symbol will be seen for what it always was and still is ! Notice, no name calling. Grow up, folks !
As I said in the post above, don't assume it stands for hate until you KNOW how it is being used ! TOLERANCE is what makes our country great ! !
While your digging up facts about the Swastika in Wikipedia to show everyone how smart you are...why dont you look up some facts on America's history of tolerance.
" The Jewish Community Center of Long Beach Island said it is aware of the incident and wants to know more." " We're trying to find out-- what are their intentions ? " said Don Pripstein, the center's president. " The group that paid to have the banner flown over the beach has responded to the question asked by Don Pripstein, the center's president....( Below is the link to the letter that was sent to him. ) " Letter to the President of the Jewish Community Center of Long Beach Island " http://www.proswastika.org/news.php Amazing what a little research will turn up. I must say that I have to respect what they are trying to do even if I don't believe in their core beliefs. At least they are up front with what they are trying do and it seems to me, doing their best to be respectful by writing to Don Pripstein-The Jewish Community Center President directly ! I would be very interested to know if Mr.Pripstein writes a response to this letter and now that he has seen what their intentions are, exactly how does he feel about their mission to reclaim the Swastika ? I would hope that the authors of this article would contact him and do an update. Judging from all the comments posted, I think it would certainly be newsworthy ! For the folks above that responded to my posts, thank you for your opinions, I will give them some thought. The symbol has been used for good for 3000 years, before Hitler.
If so, you must be the last person to use that term in the past 40 years.
Then a few years later they reported that some guy named Barack Obama was elected President. I am just so glad none of that was true.
If you don't agree with their opinions perhaps you should limit your viewing to PMSNBC.