Jews & Hindus critical of Swiss campaign maligning Roma

Hindus and Jews have strongly criticized the advertising campaign in Switzerland reportedly likening Roma migrants to rats and thieves, calling it racist and xenophobic.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, and Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California in USA, in a joint statement in USA today, demanded that this campaign should be immediately banned and legal action taken against those behind it.

Rats were reportedly shown nibbling at Swiss cheese in these posters that went up in some Switzerland towns. Stigmatizing an entire ethnic group of helpless Roma was highly inappropriate, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, and Rabbi Freirich, argued.

Switzerland; the country of Albert Einstein, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jeremias Gotthelf, Max Frisch, Roger Federer, orphan girl Heidi, cosmopolitan Geneva, Lausanne cathedrals, Valais wines, Red Cross, World Economic Forum, International Olympic Committee, dozens of Nobel laureates, and mountain high life; should be more mature, accepting and welcoming; Rajan Zed and Jonathan Freirich pointed out.

Doris Leuthard is President of Swiss Confederation.