Soccer
fans descending on the Ukraine city of Lviv for Euro 2012 are being
urged to boycott a restaurant deemed anti-Semitic by Jewish advocacy
groups. The Golden Rose tavern is on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s
blacklist due to themes that include Klezmer music, stereotypical
attire and price haggling – all of which have been blasted by Lviv’s
Jewish population.
A Jewish non-governmental organization Thursday urged Euro 2012 fans not to visit
a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, accused of running an "anti-Semitic" theme.
Diners "At the Golden Rose" tavern in the city centre are treated to Klezmer music, given black hats with
black sidelocks to wear and are told to haggle over the price of
their food.
The small number of Jews left in Lviv have called
it an outrage and a mockery, especially since the city's once proud
and vibrant Jewish community was virtually wiped out in the Holocaust.
The eatery is part of a chain of restaurants with
gimmicky historical themes, whose owners have said they want to give
a feel of Jewish life before World War II.
Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which
strives to bring ex-Nazis to justice and raise Holocaust awareness,
said haggling Jews were a "notorious" Eastern European anti-Semitic stereotype.
He also called for a boycott of "Kryvika," another
restaurant in the chain.
Designed as a bunker and translated as "hide-out," it
pays tribute to Ukrainian nationalist forces, "who collaborated with the Nazis and whose supporters participated in the mass
murder of local Jews in 1941."
By visiting these restaurants, football fans would
unwittingly support far-right views and "insult" the memory of tens of thousands of Holocaust victims from Lviv, murdered by
the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators, he said in a statement.
Lviv hosts three Euro 2012 Group B games.
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