Switzerland’s tourism office on Tuesday decried an “unfortunate” incident in which a small Alpine hotel posted a sign asking “Jewish guests” to shower before swimming in the hotel pool.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded the closure of the Paradies Arosa hotel, and issued a statement calling on “the broader Jewish community and their Gentile friends to blacklist this horrific hotel.” On Twitter, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called for “justice” against the hotel’s management.
Officials said the hotel in the eastern town of Arosa had apologized for the incident and taken the sign down. Hotel management didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Swiss Tourism spokesman Markus Berger called the sign unacceptable, adding: “It always needs to stay in perspective: This is one unfortunate incident.”
Under the headline “To our Jewish Guests,” the sign read: “Please take a shower before you go swimming. If you break the rules, I am forced to cloes (sic) the swimming pool for you. Thank you for your understanding.”
Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister, posted an image of the sign on her Facebook page and wrote that “there can be no tolerance and no indifference” to anti-Semitism and racism, in comments that also alluded also to violence around a white supremacist rally in Virginia in the United States.
We “must not let there be a place in the free world for Nazi flags or Ku Klux Klan masks or ugly signs in hotels directed at Jews only,” she wrote. “We cannot allow acts of hate against Jews around the world to become normal.”
The secretary-general of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities said it was “really a dumb thing” to do, but he called for calm.
“It’s somebody who really didn’t think a lot,” Jonathan Kreutner said in a phone interview.
He said that calls to close the hotel were “very exaggerated,” Kreutner said. “This is the most important thing now: To stay cool. Things happened that are not good. I don’t want to reduce the problem behind this, but it is very important to stay cool.”
Kreutner said that most of the Jews who visit the area are from Belgium, Britain, Israel, Switzerland and the U.S.
Berger, the tourism spokesman, cited a recent trend of Orthodox and other Jews traveling to four Alpine villages in the area in the summertime, including Davos of World Economic Forum fame. He said didn’t know the origin of the trend, but that numbers “definitely in the thousands” have grown in recent years. He said many area hotels serve kosher food, and that Jewish guests “feel well-treated” there.
“It’s just this one lady at this one hotel who was not on top of the situation,” Berger said. “It’s an isolated incident that doesn’t need for greater action to be taken.”
Switzerland’s foreign ministry, responding to a request for comment from The Associated Press, said that it has been in touch with the Israeli ambassador and “outlined to him that Switzerland condemns racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination in any form. Switzerland has been strongly committed for years – as it is at the moment, for example, within its presidency for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – to raise awareness to the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination.”
(AP)
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10 Responses
Glad to see that there are still people out there who don’t have to be politically correct all the time!
Just this morning I heard a message on a whatsapp group explaining the whole mis-understanding. It came from someone who stayed at this place before and knows the manager. The main concern here was that the hotel was looking for guests that shop in the local stores in the city. Jews when they came did not shop locally because of Kashrus. They also came in with their hot plates and big pots for cooking. When they came in to the rooms the first thing they did was to place tape over the sensor even though covers were available at the front desk. The other more important concern was that there were men who were using the pool as a Mikva even when there were other people including women in the pool. The sign asked that they shower and wear bathing suits before and while using the pool. It was not happening. This is a big international stink over nothing. Yes, his choice of words was wrong. He has since changed the wording. Get over it!
Yes– this sign is anti-Semitic and disgusting. What prompted this sign, as printed in the Israeli newspapers, was that a Chassid used the pool as a Mikvah and didn’t shower before. The sign should really have addressed ALL guests that wish to use the pool to shower first. That would have been the correct way to address the issue.
Reading into this a bit too much…
If you’ve ever been to a bungalow colony on a sunday in the summer, you’ll see that they’re right. They need to shower first. I also think that you’re taking this a bit too far – there’s no way to prove she had any resentment whatsoever in her tone.
Being a bit to sensitive I think and trying to read into things the wrong way.
who said that this hotel management have the sinahs chinam that amalek has for us? maybe the current people occupying the hotel are the type that has poor hygiene? and maybe their annoyed about that? why is everything anti antisemitism when people go on an off brand airline to Israel and harass the non Jewish stewardesses and stewards and delay the plane from taking off because off their commotion causing you expect them not to get upset and mutter something nasty? not everything is pure hatred coming from the sinah of amalek like the nazis y”sh . if only we would realize that,,
I can see any anti-Semitism on this sign by its language but i am sure the management meant otherwise. All the Chasidishe mikvehs have signs posted that you MUST shower before using the mikveh and unfortunately majority users ignore the rules. They come in from after a day sweating and a nights sleep straight into the mikveh without showering. All it takes is 3 minutes to rinse your body and NOT be oyver on Bal Teshaktzi.
I am sure this Hotel is used to its summer Jewish guests and the guests don’t behave different then at home.
This is certainly an outrage, and worse, if it is true. But why would a Swiss hotel post a sign in English? Is it possible that this is a very unfunny hoax?
I was in Switzerland last summer, I felt the anti Semitism, I DID NOT go back this summer.
The hotel workers told me, she waits for the jews to come, so she has a job….
Whilst I do not excuse or condone the notice which is badly written, I think we heimsihe Yidden need to look at ourselves. Why should a man go straight into a pool without showering ,it says it on every pubic swimming pool. And when the person is obviously jewish it is much worse. I have also been to non jewish hotels and used the freezer, but why does that have to be 24/7 . It really is only the frum yidden who do these things. Another example, why when waiting for take off does an obviously jewish family come in at the last minute with fourteen bags per person( which then takes 15 minutes to organise) including the Talis beitel on show?
The limit is one or maybe two bags. My Talis is in my casethe hold, my tefilin in my ONE carry on. I am in my seat in good time.
When we go on an excursion for chol hamoed, the place is littered with, guess what, kosher crisp bags.
I agree that the notice should have been addressed to all customers but dont we need to behave a little better. Kiddush Hashem anyone?
Pleaseing to see the above introspection.
It’s clear from the lack of command of basic English that the writer is uneducated and evidently very unaware of the power of the written word.
We really do have to be more responsible & make sure that we live up to what we are expected to be…