“The JugendErholungsWerk Hamburg e.V. organizes holiday camps for children.”
“If ‘JEW HH’ is your logo, it could send the wrong message to ‘refugee’ children and families among whom antisemitism is already a known factor.”
Paris, 4 August 2019
In a letter to JugendErholungsWerk Hamburg e.V. (JEW) - a youth recreation centre - General Managers, Ms. Ulrike Kutsch and Mr. Carsten Wode, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, stated that “a German member has brought to our attention what he considered a disturbing feature relating to your affiliated youth camps. Apparently, ping pong paddles bear the letters 'JEW HH'... This seemed to him antisemitic and even actionable under German law.”
The letter continued, “when a camp official was challenged by our member, he was told that this was an abbreviation of the camp’s sponsor "JugendErholungsWerk Hansestadt Hamburg" = ‘JEW HH’.”
Samuels noted that, “reading your organization website <//csweurope%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX%3E213036#m_8722642377762647821_m_5805290431648956793_m_9068609394084439195_m_3979181511809335477_inbox/_blank">https://www.jugenderholungswerk.de/> and the 'Summary’ on the Hamburg Youth Services website, <//csweurope%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX%3E213036#m_8722642377762647821_m_5805290431648956793_m_9068609394084439195_m_3979181511809335477_inbox/_blank">jugendserver-hamburg.de/?aid=631>, one is struck at first glance by the the wording, respectively, ‘Every year, with the JEW over 1,200 chidren from all over Hamburg go on holiday’ and ‘The JEW organizes holiday camps for children’...” ( translated from the German)
Samuels added, “we commend your programme for children, including child refugee rights.”...“Nevertheless, we are unable to find on your website the combination ‘JEW’ with ‘HH’, which suggests ‘Heil Hitler’...We therefore request confirmation that this formula on the ping-pong paddles is, indeed, yours or could it be an abuse of your work by elements of the extreme right.”
“Even if ‘JEW HH’ is your logo, it could send the wrong message to ‘refugee’ children and their families among whom antisemitism is already a known factor... We thus suggest that the problematic logo be replaced as soon as possible,” concluded Samuels.