The toy store chain Toys R Us in Israel has announced plans to join a global effort to eliminate the gender division between toys for boys and girls.
In response to this announcement, the Eidah Hachareidis of Yerushalayim said, “This is a serious compromise of modesty and a bad influence on the youth of today.”
The Eidah called for a consumer boycott of the store.
Toys R Us will be working on consolidating its toy categories in its stores, bringing together boys’ and girls’ toys that had previously been in separate sections.
In is not clear if the store will mix dolls, for example, with boys’ toys and the like, but reports indicate that there won’t be clear designations for separate sections for each gender.
Yoilish Kraus of the Eidah called the new store model a “rupture in modesty and a bad influence on the youth by introducing Western concepts that are unacceptable and dangerous.”
According to Kraus, the Eidah will hold an emergency meeting and will consider steps to counter this “dangerous phenomenon of secularization,” especially in the Holy City of Yerushalayim.
“Yerushalayim is not New York or Tel Aviv,” said Kraus. “What the secular allow elsewhere is prohibited here… We have a responsibility for the sanctity of the city. We will not allow pride parades in Yerushalayim or cinemas from opening on Shabbos, and no toy store chains that desire to mix and confuse the genders gender, contrary to human nature as determined by the Creator.”
Kraus added that “there is complete disregard for the large population of observant [Jews]. We will not allow it. Accordingly, we are closely following this phenomenon, and if the situation will call for it, we will consider a consumer boycott on the store and call on the public to stay away from these stores.”
