This story first appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News/cjn.org. Reprinted with permission
As late as 9:38 p.m. Nov. 16, customers of Amazon could buy a “generic Jewish wine tumbler” bearing the inscription, “I said glass of JUICE, not gas the JEWS.”Listed as a “gift for Jew,” the 12-ounce black tumbler was listed for $21.95 with delivery between Friday, Dec. 10 and Wednesday, Dec. 22, with $4.95 shipping.
By 9:20 a.m. Nov. 17, that item was no longer available.
In a Nov. 17 emailed statement to the Cleveland Jewish News, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the items were no longer being sold at Amazon.
“All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” the statement read. “These products have been removed.”
James Pasch, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Cleveland, said the ADL reached out both to amazon.com and to the third-party vendor that sells that particular tumbler.
“We’re glad that Amazon removed the product quickly,” he said. “Holocaust jokes are never OK and it normalizes something that should never ever be normalized.”
Holocaust jokes are offensive, he said.
“One of the reasons why we reached out to the third-party vendor is that … this product shouldn’t be sold anywhere. … Companies should not be profiting from Holocaust jokes and they should not be normalizing (them). And I hope that anyone that’s selling the product removes it immediately from their product line.”
Buynicer.top, an online store, is offering the same item at a cost of $10.98 plus shipping.
In 2018, multiple customers of Amazon complained about a coffee mug with the same saying on it.
A reviewer, identified as s.i.r., gave the coffee mug one out of five stars.
“Please remove the mug,” s.i.r. wrote Oct. 13, 2018. “This is a horrible thing to put on a mug. It’s hurtful and offensive esp to Jewish people.”
“Disgusting,” wrote reviewer Leore on Nov. 23, 2018. “This is disgusting.”
“Unbelievable,” wrote reviewer Liveforjehovah Nov. 26, 2018. “I can’t believe this is allowed on Amazon. Very offensive and antisemitic.”
For more on this story, visit The Cleveland Jewish News.
