Jewish Customers Call For Wayfair To Pull Inaccurate Hanukkah Merchandise
Wayfair is not new to controversy. The affordable furniture retailer was in hot water earlier this year for profiting off of border detention facilities that separate families and keep immigrants in inhumane conditions — and now they’re getting dragged online for not having “a single Jew on the design staff” after a confusing Hanukkah-themed shower curtain found its way online.
The shower curtain includes words like “Hanukkah,” “dreidel,” and “menorah,” but also non-Hanukkah-related terms like “Seder” (a feast during the spring-season Jewish holiday Passover), “mazel tov” (meaning “congratulations” in Hebrew), and “shalom,” which means hello or goodbye. Also, they included “seder” twice, really leaning into the religious inaccuracies.
Another company without a single Jew on the design staff ðŸ¤¦ðŸ¼”â™€ï¸ https://t.co/RVwkGXBoyV
— Emily J (@EmExAstris) November 25, 2019
I mean, while we're at it, of all the things Chanukah is about, one of them is not…peace.
Resistance, yes. Peace, uh, Merry Christmas I guess?— Dr. TofuForBrains (@TofuForBrains) November 25, 2019
You know what says Chanukkah to me? An $80 shower curtain. And Seder plates. SMH
— Rabbinic Commentary (@YetzerHarashi) November 25, 2019
Most critics of the shower curtain found the funny in how off-base this particular piece of merchandise is; others called for its removal from the online store.
@Wayfair, Hanukkah and sedars take place six months apart… and there are some other inaccuracies. Please remove this https://t.co/R6Pxgs6LgN
— (((TearsOfRenewal))) (@BurgessPoet) November 25, 2019
@Wayfair
Probably ought to pull this as it's completely not Jewish. https://t.co/dPgBDcoIu8— Liminal Laura ♀ï¸â™€ï¸ (@any1ButTrumpNow) November 25, 2019
As has been pointed out, the perfect way to avoid snafus like this are to employ designers who know something about the occasions they’re creating for — and having more diverse staffs across the board. After all, someone should have been able to catch these mistakes during the designing and manufacturing process. The site boasts the Hanukkah shower curtain was “designed and printed in the United States,” so you can’t even blame a translation error, either.
