Anger after Russian company names ice cream ‘Poor Jew’
Leader of Naberezhnye Chelny's Jewish community brands the product “racist” and called for its production and sale to be halted
Jews in Russia’s Tatarstan region are objecting to a new ice cream called “Poor Jew.”
The ice cream cone, announced last month by the Slavitsa company in Naberezhnye Chelny, 600 miles east of Moscow, is wrapped in an image of Israel’s flag.
Leonid Shteinberg, a leader of the Jewish community in Naberezhnye Chelny, has called the name “racist” and demanded its production and sale be halted, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The city prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the complaints.
In a social media post announcing the ice cream’s launch on Feb. 28, the company describes it as a “crusty horn” filled with chocolate- and prune-flavoured ice cream and topped with peanuts.
“Trying all this tastiness, it turns out that he is not so ‘poor,’” the post asserts.
The Slavitsa company has been criticised previously for creating a chocolate ice cream named after then-President Barack Obama, which had a wrapper depicting an African boy, and for naming another ice cream with an ethnic slur for Ukrainians.
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