The KFC fast-food chain has issued an apology after launching a bone-headed promotion celebrating the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, in which Nazi attacks left more than 90 dead and destroyed hundreds of shuls and Jewish businesses.
KFC blamed “an error in our system” for an app alert message that read: “It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now KFCheese!”
The company apologized about an hour later.
“We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse the error,” a message from the company said.
Daniel Sugarman, the Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews called the incident “absolutely hideous.”
“How wrong can you get on Kristallnacht KFC Germany. Shame on you!” tweeted Dalia Grinfeld, the Associate Director of European Affairs at the ADL.
The food chain said that apparently the message was automatically sent out by a scheduling system that sends out messages based on nationally observed days, which in Germany includes a commemoration of Kristallnacht.
Mistake or not, I won’t be eating there anytime soon.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
13 Responses
That’s it! Now all Jews who eat treif will no longer eat KFC.
“Mistake or not, I won’t be eating there anytime soon.”
Me neither
If it’s already purchased, can it be eaten because of hefsid m’ruba?
They explained what happened: the made an automated bot that tweeted out messages for every holiday on the list of holidays for each country. Kristalnacht was on the list of German “holidays”. Someone should have realized that not all events on holiday lists are happy. Someone should have checked the messages before they went out. They made a mistake, they apologized. There’s no evidence anyone at KFC is antisemitic. It’s really not a big deal. If there is a KFC that’s kosher – I would eat there.
Doesn’t KFC operate in Israel?
People are human. They – and their computers – can make mistakes. It is cringeworthy, yes. Accept the apology, be understanding, and move on. (But yeah – don’t eat there. Or put any cheese on your chicken)
Enough already ! Not everything is anti semitism! You think for one minute ( even if they did hate Jews) they would do this ??? Stop crying wolf and get back to real life.
I agree with nebuch. Stop getting so offended everytime some rando says something that hurts ur feelings. We aren’t blacks stop crying victim. ‘ה made anti semitism for a reason, so we don’t assimilate, chazal say עשו שונא את יעקב is a bracha. stop trying to be like them. Let them be happy not to want us because we don’t want them
nebuch
dont be so naiv YES there are antisemites out there that want to publicize there feelings and please dont fall for there excuses…
@shloimeib
Yes They operate in Israel, but the people that eat there wouldn’t have a problem celebrating kristalnacht
I never said that there was no anti-Semitism I just said that this wasn’t done on purpose or because of anti-Semitism. If we all cry and get offended for every dumb stupid thing that people say nothing will ever be taken seriously.
Where is KFC donation to the ADL? – just like the anti-Semitic basketball for the Brooklyn Nets did after his hatred remarks about Jews. KFC should do more than a three sentence apology. What about taking its German management on a tour of Yad Vashem? What about a donation to Yad Vashem and money for holocaust education? What about donating money to the synagogues in Germany. Hundreds of Jews were murdered on that night, not 90.
This is no mistake. We have nothing to learn from Christians not their eatery’s nor their views or support. Open your eyes. Nazis never change. Inhuman