NEW YORK (VINnews) — The town of Davos in Eastern Switzerland has gained fame and prominence due to the annual World Economic Forum conference held there during the winter months, which attracts leaders and celebrities from around the world. However the town is also a popular tourist retreat for thousands of Orthodox Jewish families in the summer months.
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In recent weeks, tensions between the Jewish visitors and local Swiss residents have been rising due to behaviors by the tourists which offended locals, according to a Ynet report.
Last week,these tensions came to a head following a wave of complaints from local residents and property owners about excessive littering by tourists and rude behavior in public spaces.
Reto Branschi, director of the local tourism office, also levelled strong criticism at the Jewish visitors in two interviews he gave to local media outlets. “Some of these visitor groups find it very difficult to respect local laws and the common ways of life here,” he said in one of the interviews.
However, a recent offense by one tourist proved a step too far for the local hospitality sector. Gipfel Zeitung, a small local newspaper, featured a front-page photo of feces left by Jewish guests on the balcony of a rental cabin, under the headline: Davos: A “s–t stain” on the balcony.
The newspaper stated, “This undoubtedly comes from someone of Jewish descent.”
According to the newspaper, the property owner claimed that “he had never experienced anything like this in all his years and has decided not to rent apartments to these people anymore,” expressing hope that the Davos tourism authorities would finally take action on the matter.
The local paper in Davos also published a letter to the editor saying this: “The behavior of Orthodox Jewish guests here in Davos is not only borderline at times, but downright presumptuous and transgressive. With all understanding for the suffering of the Jewish people, it was unacceptable that the descendants of the victims use behavior that cannot be reconciled with local customs, even in the most elementary way.”
The increasing local outrage against Jewish tourists is deeply troubling and embarrassing for the Swiss Jewish community, especially for Jonathan Kreutner, the Secretary General of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities.
For years, Kreutner has led a project in Davos designed to cultivate positive relations and address behavioral and cultural gaps between tourists and residents. However, Davos authorities have decided to halt their collaboration with him due to the growing number of complaints.
“In my view, the situation in Davos is very uncomfortable. Taking the inappropriate behavior of a few individuals and generalizing it to many is simply racist, and they are doing this only in the case of Jews, which makes it antisemitic,” Kreutner told Yedioth Ahronoth this week.
Kreutner, who has also lodged a police complaint following the headline, which he said “crosses all red lines,” added, “We don’t understand why the Davos tourism office has decided to cut ties with us. This will only exacerbate the situation. It seems that Davos has decided they simply no longer want Jewish tourists. They’ve made crude generalizations about all Jews based on the behavior of a few.”
Earlier this week, the canton of Graubünden, where Davos is located, reportedly opened an investigation into the newspaper headline, the behavior of the Jewish tourists and allegations of racism.
This issue has been covered extensively in Swiss mainstream media. According to a report in the Swiss newspaper Blick, the editor for Gipfel Zeitung refused to apologize for the picture and headline and denied accusations of racism. “I will only apologize if the person who did this comes to me and provides a reasonable explanation for their actions.”
G-d gave the Swiss a magnificent country. It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily nice and tolerant people. That said, let this story serve as a warning to Yidden the world over to be excessively cautious with their public conduct and manners. And for Heaven’s sake, don’t litter anywhere!, Not only in Davos. But also at the Bronx Zoo or Liberty Science Museum come Chol Hamoed. Aku”m don’t usually eat Bissli or Super Snacks, or drink Mayim Chayim. So please cover your tracks and dispose properly or simply take your trash home and discard it there.
Call the Heimishe Yidden whatever you want, however, NEVER has a Heimishe Yid left feces in public before. This was obviously left by someone’s dog (many Swiss people one at least one).
This does not excuse anyone from littering, but this accusation is taking it one step too far.
“This undoubtedly comes from someone of Jewish descent.”
for most people, all excrement looks the same, but the swiss seem to have perfected a remarkable sense, to be able to determine this so definitely. or maybe it’s just that they’ve perfected their prejudice against jooz…
Swiss people are are very quite, not very friendly, and very clean (obsessively so). We Orthodox Jews are not quite, are friendly to our type but not to others, and mostly clean but not to the extent of the Swiss (no one is). Do we leave a little bit of shmutz from time to time? maybe. But, we would never ever leave fecal matter on a balcony – it’s unheard of – it’s a made up story.
Shouldn’t he be ranting against, and banning litterers, not jews? Isn’t his rant racist? What about Jews who are careful to not litter? How would the public react if black or Moslem was substituted for Jew in the news feed?
Jew hating amalekites. Europeans never change . Disgusting
Before we accuse people of anti-Semitism, we should look deep inside ourselves and ask ourselves:
Do we carefully obey the laws-and-rules that are required by non-Jews, or do we consider it an act-of-piety and a badge-of-honor to completely ignore the laws-and-rules of non-Jews, even when those laws-and-rules are logical and beneficial?
I have lived as an Orthodox Jew in a large Orthodox Jewish community for the past 40 years, and I have personally witnessed that most Orthodox Jews have absolute contempt for all laws-and-rules except for their own, and they consider it an act-of-piety and a badge-of-honor to completely ignore the laws-and-rules of non-Jews, even when those laws-and-rules are logical and beneficial.
It is unfortunate that the behavior of some gets applied to all. Personally I found it very disturbing to find people littering all over the charedi neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Someone explained to me that it was cultural. That in certain cultures littering was of common practice. That they didn’t see it as a desecration of yerushalayim or as a disgusting behavior. What I learned is that very decent people may have different cultural behaviors that are offensive to me but acceptable to them and I may have behaviors that are unacceptable to them. The answer is to learn about and try and be understanding of other cultures and respect their customs. If you are going somewhere be respectful of their way of life.
Let’s call it Antisemitism even though looking at the streets of Jewish Brooklyn they are covered in garbage. When someone posts a tour of Boro Park so many comments are, “Why are the streets so dirty?” “Do they not have pride in where they live?”
How many complaints have the Non-Frum made about the candy wrappers (with Heimish Hashgachas) left all over the parks?
But of course it’s always a blind hatred of Jews & even suggesting we may in some way could be responsible is also “Antisemitism”
On the main business street here where the Orthodox, Conservative & Reform shop the Non-Frum organized a community cleanup of the street (not that it was that bad to begin with).
The biggest group to show up were the Frum boys (with their black yarmulkes & tzitzit hanging out) wearing safety vests.
When a Conservative Shuls Hebrew school kids sign up to clean a cemetery & a Reform Temples kids do as well the response from Bais Yaakov girls was to join as well. How does it look when the Non-Frum show up to do a Mitzvah all Jews agree on but the Frum are a no show?
What do the Non-Frum think when they see the Frum boys & girls right along side them contributing to the betterment of the community?
I don’t know what they think but the hate I read about in other places is (almost entirely) missing. In fact, the Non-Frum go to great lengths to help the Frum in many ways that benefits all.
It takes so little effort to get along & act Menschlich but unfortunately too many of us allow arrogance & immaturity to get in the way of doing what we know is right.
I learned in yeshiva in Switzerland in the 1970s…
Vividly recall the jew hatred of the local folk.
They neglected to mention other the mess other tourists leave behind….
I guess Hashem wanted us to see this in Elul, two weeks before Rosh Hashanah. May we all have a clean slate before Hashem.
And while we’re at it, all the frum jay-walkers make drivers mad against all frum Yidden even though many of us are careful to cross only at lights. Same for those who stroll down middle of street vs sidewalk users.
This is clearly racism and antisemitism!
Feces, common!!!
These accusations are like the blood libels and are way beyond the pale!!!
And to say “This undoubtedly comes from someone of Jewish descent”.
This statement undoubtedly comes from someone of Amalek decent!!!
The Swiss are known to be very antisemitic, and are big Nazi sympathizers and they took in many nazis that fled Germany after the Holocaust.
As a matter of fact, today there are about 450,000 Germans living in Switzerland, a country of only 8.7 million people.
Pure Amalek ym’s!!!
May Hashem immediately wipe them all out forever!!!
Sad
The fact that they turned back over 30,000 Jews trying to enter their country during the Shoah, makes them the filthy ones
They’re looking to blame and thus even created their self made evidence as proof !!!
sadly, i can’t unequivocally say that jews do not litter. or that they always respect the local culture.
blaming all jews for the ones who misbehave is prejudiced, but we have to always be aware that we are a visible minority, which makes us an easy target.
when one jew breaks the rules, it reflects badly on all of us, because that’s just the way it is.
The fact that the Swiss are inherently anti-semitic is not a new concept. One of the first countries to ban Shechita was a Swiss canton (province) in the 19th century. They did this explicitly to keep Jews out.
Another point, how does this sound.
“I met a few Swiss men that smelled of BO, I have petitioned the NYC council to keep Swiss tourists at bay, they don’t understand our culture or our “sensibilities “.
While this is obviously biased and anti-semitic reporting, I have had some problems (as a Hareidi Jew, in a Hareidi neighborhood here in Jerusalem) with neighbors made suddenly rich by means of donations, and their children. What can you do, if a “sponsered” family is acting incorrectly? And then they travel…
To zlate1: The issue of Swiss anti-semitism notwithstnding. There is no excuse to use that to rationalize and justify ugly, socially unacceptable behavior, or acting , thinking, or talking in ANY WAY WHICH BRINGS CHILLUL HASHEM, on the part of any heimisha ‘frum’ Jew, regardless of age, gender, place of residence, etc. etc. We should all act in a proper, mentchlicha , and exemplary way, setting an example to everyone we encounter. That, I believe, is part of what is meant by making a Kiddush Hashem. I do try and try to constantly be aware as well.
Maybe Chulent?
It’s just curious how you will accept at face value the הגדת עדות of a gentile, of people who are famous for antisemitism, at face value. It must be so because the goy said so!
In 1968, I was eating at a restaurant in Boro Park, where there wee many Orthodox customers. I’ll never forget what one of the busboys, who was undoubtedly an anti-semite stated as he was cleaning the tables, which were not that badly littered. He stated “filthy pigs”, in referring to the customers.
i know many rebbes from Israel go there for 3 weeks every summer.
The truth is that we Yidden do keep on learning about the Gadlus of Bnei Yisroel, Asher Bochar Bonu. And we also learn about the Shiflus of Eino Yehudim. (a 3-year-old is not even allowed to look at them).
It is very hard for us to respect their rules even if they might seem logical.
Some of this is simply a function of us BH having lots of children. No matter how many times you tell kids not to litter and be respectful, kids are kids. Its easy to say watch that they never litter but you ask for the impossible as when dealing with multiple kids on extended vacation your eyes will drift here and there. I don’t condone this behavior but its an issue we are proud of