A UK branch of Ikea that concealed Hebrew lettering on a welcome sign, prompting concerns that the staff or customers responsible had an antisemitic motive, covered up the word because it had been misprinted.
When a Jewish Ikea customer spotted last week that 'shalom' had been removed from the store’s welcome sign featuring greetings in dozens of languages they were outraged.
Shoppers arriving at the flat-pack Swedish retailer’s outlet in Greenwich, south-east London, could see salutations in English, Hindi, and Chinese – but not Hebrew.
A strip of black tape had been pasted over the Jewish greeting, sparking concerns of prejudice.
"Is there a reason why 'shalom'... for Jews at Ikea Greenwich London has been withdrawn?" asked one activist on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
.@IKEAUK .@IKEA .@IKEAUKSupport
— #BringThemHome #KidnappedFromIsrael #240LetThemGo (@LikudUK) August 10, 2023
Is there a reason why“Shalom” (#Peace) for #Jews at #IKEA #Greenwch #London has been withdrawn?
shalom
/ʃəˈlɒm,ʃəˈləʊm/
exclamation
used as salutation by #Jewish people at meeting or parting, meaning ‘#peace’. pic.twitter.com/eFh6NdWLNC
"Disgraceful antisemitism," responded another user. "Time to rethink my furniture purchases."
Another added: "This is dreadful."
The reason for the omission, an Ikea spokesman has now revealed, is more innocuous.
The store was forced to conceal the word because its Hebrew script had been printed back to front.
Instead of reading ’שלום’ the letters formed the nonsense word ‘םולש'.
Well done to IKEA Greenwich for pioneering an innovative new way to spell Shalom pic.twitter.com/h5Ob8fuH3T
— Josh Kaplan (@JNkappers) May 29, 2022
The spokesman said: “When we had put up the sign, there was a mistake, we hadn’t realised unfortunately because of our [lack of proficiency in] Hebrew.
“We were made aware and took the decision this needed to be corrected. The decision was taken to cover [‘shalom’] up because it shouldn’t be incorrect. We then printed a correct version.”
The greeting has now been replaced with a correctly written ‘shalom’.
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