Zara gets festive. With a little help from its Jerusalem customers…

We’d like to think Jerusalem is THE holy city. A sacred point for three of the main religions of the world, Jerusalem stands out in its devout holiness for Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Despite no one religion being in the majority and the problems that there have always existed between the three, we’d all like to believe that we can all get on in some semblance of peace and order.

Thus, it was perhaps unfortunate to hear the recent news that the Spanish fashion company Zara, popular among many of Israel’s stylish set, had to remove many of its Christmas trees from the windows of its four main stores in Jerusalem in response to a number of customer complaints.

The same occurred in Haifa’s main Zara store at the Kiryon mall when a customer wrote to a local Israeli news publication that there were Christmas trees proudly displayed in store windows but there was not even one Hannukiah candlestick there. There were also a number of Christmas trees in the Ramat Aviv mall in Tel Aviv. Customers complained the stores were supporting the Christian holiday and ignoring the Jewish one.

A representative of Zara said that the chain recognizes all of its clients of all religions and backgrounds, “We have Christian, Jewish and Muslim customers and we are a melting pot for all clients,” the rep said, “Therefore the Israeli branches don’t deviate from the international concept and don’t look any different from the branches in Spain.”

But it seems the company has decided to forgo that same “international concept” in favor of an appeal to the locals. The chain has since added Hannukah candles and lamps to its various window displays to recognize the Jewish holiday.

“We are in Israel after all, and this is first of all a Jewish country,” one customer said.

That may or may not be true, but perhaps Zara should have recognized that three of the world’s major religions exist here and should have put representations of all three. Or none at all.