Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 7:20pm GMT 21/12/2002
Israel's largest importer of quality wooden toys is in trouble. By removing the little carved pigs from hundreds of play sets he may have avoided offending orthodox Jews, but that is nothing compared with the tears he has wrought in children who are three porkers short of a full farmyard.
The decision to remove the wooden pigs from hundreds of sets of "Country Life" toy farms was taken by Amindanav Nahari, an orthodox Jew who owns Amindav Toys, because he believed that the boxes, imported from Toys R Us, offended Jewish custom.
The pig removal came to light after complaints from a customer who had bought a "Country Life" box for one of his children and discovered, that the three little pink piggies shown on the front of the box had been replaced with three lime-green geese, although the wooden pig sty was still included.
"Some people were saying to me 'how can you let children play with those pigs, it is a bad influence and it is just not right'," explained Mr Nahari, a 36-year-old former paratroop officer who turned orthodox five years ago. "To many people in Israel it is not right to play with unholy animals. The image of the pig is a very powerful one in Jewish history and it is an offensive image."
While there are no specific religious rulings on the issue of playing with toys resembling pigs, it has long been Jewish custom to avoid anything that might promote the image of the pig, considered an "unclean" animal whose meat is not kosher.
The dispute has been seized on by the Shinui, a secular centrist party which says Mr Nahari's actions are offensive to secular Israelis. The party, which opposes the increasing interference in civil life of orthodox groups, is expected to be the third largest in the Israeli parliament after next month's elections. "According to Judaism it is also forbidden to eat dogs, so will they remove those too next time?" asked Avraham Poraz, a Shinui member of parliament.
"From what we understand, Mr Nahari's rabbi told him to take the pigs out," said Ido Mazursky, the chief executive of Toys R Us in Israel. "We are very unhappy because he did not inform us beforehand. I will be telling him to leave the pigs alone."
Mr Nahari says he has already had up to 30 irate parents on the telephone demanding either the pigs or their money back and from now on the pigs will stay in the boxes.
"It seems I cannot win," he says. "People were complaining when there were pigs in the box. Now they complain when I take them out. Israel is a very complicated country."
My pigs - past & present
