Swiss hotel urges Jews to take showers before swimming

ZURICH, 15 August (ANSA) - A hotel in the busy Swiss ski resort of Arosa hung a sign asking Jewish guests to take a shower before entering the swimming pool.   

The warning revolted the Jewish community and the Israeli authorities, who accuse the site of anti-Semitism. The hotel in question is the Paradies Arosa and lies in a village of 3,000 inhabitants jammed in the mountains of the canton of Grisons in the east of the country.   

Directed exclusively to Jewish guests, the poster reads: "Please take a shower before you swim. If you break the rules, I will be forced to close the pool for you. " The paper is signed by Ruth Thomann, manager of Paradies Arosa.   

"It's an anti-Semitic act of the worst kind," said Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is based in Los Angeles, has called for the closure of the hotel, which is a popular destination for families of Orthodox Jews.   

In addition, the Swiss Foreign Ministry contacted the Israeli ambassador to the country, Jacob Keidar, to reaffirm his condemnation of "racism, anti-Semitism and any form of discrimination."   

Switzerland's tourism official, Markus Berger, called the warning "unacceptable," but stressed that it was only an "unfortunate incident", not a reflection of how the inhabitants of the Alpine nation Think.   

The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities itself said hanging the poster was an "asshole" thing, but it appealed to calm. "It's someone who did not think it right," the organization's secretary general, Jonathan Kreutner, told the Associated Press. He also said that Paradies Arosa's closure requests are "exaggerated."   

In an interview with the American newspaper "The Algemeiner," the hotel manager said the poster, already removed, was a reaction to recurring complaints that "some customers were swimming in dresses and not taking a shower."   

"At that time, we had a lot of Jewish guests, and I noticed that some of them did not bathe before swimming. So the hotel owner asked me to do something, and I wrote that warning naively, "Thomann added, this time to the Swiss newspaper" Blick. "