'Jew Or Not Jew' iPhone App Draws Ire From French Anti-Racist Groups

By JENNY BARCHFIELD 09/14/11 10:26 AM ET Associated Press

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PARIS -- A French anti-racism group has threatened to sue Apple over an iPhone application called "A Jew or Not a Jew?" that allows users to consult a database of celebrities and public figures to determine whether they are Jewish or not.

SOS Racisme said the application, sold for 0.79 euro cents ($1.07) on the Apple Store France, violates France's strict laws banning the compiling of people's personal details without their consent.

Under the French penal code, stocking personal details including race, sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation is punishable by five-year prison sentences and fines of up to euro300,000 ($411,870).

Such laws were enacted in the decades following the Holocaust, which saw some 76,000 Jews deported from Nazi-occupied France to concentration camps. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.

In a statement, SOS Racisme called on Apple to remove the app the from its online store and be more vigilant about the applications it sells.

Apple France and its European headquarters did not immediately return several calls for comment.

The head of leading French Jewish group CRIF, Richard Prasquier, echoed SOS Racisme's call for the immediate removal of the application.

"It's not only shocking but also illegal," Prasquier told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. "In France, we make a very important distinction that doesn't exist in the same way in the United States between the public and private spheres. If someone wants something as personal as his religion to remain private, it must remain that way."

Johann Levy, a 35-year-old Franco-British engineer of Jewish origin, developed the application, according to Le Parisien newspaper. In an interview published Wednesday, Levy said he developed the app to be "recreational.

"I'm not a spokesman for all Jews, but as a Jew myself I know that in our community we often ask whether a such-and-such celebrity is Jewish or not," he is quoted as saying.

"For me, there's nothing pejorative about saying that someone is Jewish or not," he said. "On the contrary, it's about being proud."

He said he compiled information about famous people around the world from various online sources.

Despite the French state's attachment to secular values, the question of public figures' religious affiliation continues to be a matter of some interest to the French public. On Google's French search engine, when a user types the name of a French celebrity, a top suggested follow up word is "Jew?"

Prasquier said that while he didn't think the phenomena suggested that France is more anti-Semitic than other countries: "because of our difficult historical memories here, we perhaps pay attention to such behavior more" than elsewhere, he said.

"A Jew or Not a Jew," or "Juif ou pas juif" in French, allows users to search its database by entering a celebrity's name or to search by categories of celebrities. It is one of more than 425,000 apps available on the Apple Store France, according to the site.

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER

BcemXAHA

אני כלום בלעדיהם

1212 Fans

02:24 PM on 09/16/2011

I wonder just how the progressives would riot if they came across Muslim or not Muslim app for iPhone!

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Flying Dutchman

Don't judge what you don't yet understand

82 Fans

05:32 AM on 09/19/2011

Keep wondering... Maybe a nice subject to write a rant about on your little hilarious blogspot...

frankland99

11 Fans

09:32 AM on 09/15/2011

hold on, I have to shed a few tears when I think how 'oppressed' the Jewish people are currently. The anti-semetism police are always ready to chime in to make sure we dont forget about this holocaust or to remind us that we can never actually suggest in public that someone is Jewish, because that is anti-semetic. Who cares what a silly app says? do you think you can be outraged about something more meaningful? trust me, there are plenty of things to be outraged about. Even if it is antisemetic, let those evil anti-semites pay their own money and buy it and do whatever they want with it. Stop trying to mandate what people are allowed to see. We can make up our own mind, thank you. To think, this horrible app names prominent Jews in every field... how disgustingly racist. I hope no one develops an app that openily identifies the race or religion of any group truthfully. oh wait, we arent supposed to know, it all a big secret. The government censors will tell us what we need to know and when we need to know it. God forbit we should be allowed to be so racist a culture.

Ian Faus

49 Fans

11:00 AM on 09/15/2011

Huh ?

This is the law in France! Personal information is considered confidential and disclosing this is a violation of basic privacy of the individuals.

Plus, it has a anti-semetic connotations by asking users to determine if a famous person is a jew or not.

11:17 AM on 09/19/2011

would it be anti-american if I had an app that told me someone is born in the USA or immigrated ? hmmm..... let me answer it for you.... probably not (if you said yes, then Im wasting my time). The bottom line is the app was made by a Jew - with clearly no ill intent towards his own, and really all this whining that it is anti-semitic is alot of ,... well..., whining. Where is the line drawn on what media is approved and not in society because of its perceived 'racial' nature. If someone produced an app that stated someone is pro or anti Israel and it just happened that this app correctly pointed out Jews 90% of the time, would that make it anti-semitic? you can see where this line of thinking will take us... you cant win with censoring ultimately. What you should count on is that there will be extremes but let them play out in the yard for everyone to see judge and question. No society will not descend into a moral mudsink (and if you think censoring is stopping society from going to oblivion then you are overestimating what censorship can really do).

Ashish Srivastava

32 Fans

09:37 AM on 09/19/2011

I keep a pretty low bar on stupidity.. you just crossed that too.

norkas

357 Fans

08:17 AM on 09/15/2011

I am against this big time. He did not think this out at al and it provides and platform for people to hate or believe that Jews are so segregated and elitist that nothing else matters.

I have a none Jewish last name and lost 3 jobs 4 decades ago because my employers found out i was a Jew when i wanted time off for passover.

This bull sht ignites blind hate and ignorance that is already growing globally.

see-ellen2001

449 Fans

10:17 AM on 09/15/2011

Norkas: fired? That is disgusting!

06:50 AM on 09/15/2011

One of the pillars of the Jewish belief system is the strong presence of a in-group/out-group mentality towards their environment. As far as I know this has always been the case, it's one of the things making Jewish religion/ethnicity so successful on the one hand, on the other hand leading to tension and conflict with their neighbors. It didn't surprise me at all to read that the programmer of the application is a member of the Jewish faith. It is important to them to define who is in-group and who is out-group. The programmers quote: "On the contrary, it's about being proud", does illustrate this.

11:05 AM on 09/15/2011

You don't know many Jews do you ? Jews are a very diverse group of people and most Jews aren't really religious in the first place to consider in-group/out-group. Jews have always been segregated and discriminated against by Christians and others and it is due to this that they have remained apart from European society - to escape prejudice.

08:25 AM on 09/16/2011

Yeah, why don't you pull out that yellow star, it seems to fit you well...

I feel the need to point out that this is a sarcastic statement!
"Pulling out the yellow star" became synonymous for the unfounded charge of accusations and implications against a certain group of people. Maybe it is rude, maybe it is harsh, but those accusations and implications are at least as rude and harsh...

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Koeiseun

97 Fans

10:23 PM on 09/14/2011

Funny they didn't "look" Jewish.....

joachim pfau

1 Fans

04:23 PM on 09/14/2011

You can generally get this kind of info on a person on Wikipedia. If someone didn't want their religious affiliation known, why blab it to someone in the first place?

04:20 PM on 09/14/2011

The app was created by a Jewish man so users can know if so and so is Jewish or not. Knowing that, I would say it is not to discrimante against Jews, but to 'discriminate' (for lack of a better word) against non-Jews.

11:07 AM on 09/15/2011

Its seems like a nice recreational tool for budding Nazis and Anti-Semites everywhere. The fact that a Jew made this doesn't make it all right.

Di Gray

I can give as good as I get. Remember that.

195 Fans

03:44 PM on 09/14/2011

Wow. Whose bright idea WAS this? The company should fire that person and then offer a sincere apology to its customers for such an insensitive oversight. Ugh.

Who would want to search such a thing anyway? Who CARES if someone is Jewish or not? Awful. Just awful.

Cael

108 Fans

04:21 PM on 09/14/2011

Maybe Jewish people are proud of their heritage and show who is Jewish and who is not? That is a possibilty.

04:58 PM on 09/14/2011

Granted, the creator of the app, Johann Levy, had these intentions. But however well-intended, it has no gone over well among its constituents.

And now knowing the French have laws against the collection of "personal data such as a person's religion or ethnicity without permission from the individual," it seems that Mr. Levy could be in some hot water over this app.

Then, too, as a Jewish person himself, it seems logical that he would have at least thought about the possibility that this would not go over so well. The Holocaust is still one of the most talked about atrocities in history. He should have been more sensitive to the possibility that this could be seen as stigmatizing Jews, not uplifting them.

I can see the innocence in it, but I can also see why some would be hypersensitive about an app that works in much the same way as a method of information gathering that got countless Jews murdered. IJS.

Mister Grumpy

An Angry American

850 Fans

03:14 PM on 09/14/2011

Whats coming next?......... Employed, Unemployed, and Unemployable.......

BHD

The last great Victorian thinker.

59 Fans

03:08 PM on 09/14/2011

So wait... how does marketing work in France if they can't compile lists of "people statistically likely to buy Brand X?"

02:35 PM on 09/14/2011

any idea if it was an actual Jewish person who made this app because he was proud of the people who are Jewish? Didn't see the actual app if it is done in an offending matter or just points out who is and isn't Jewish.

10:21 AM on 09/15/2011

I think they also look at 'opening the floodgates' . If it can be done for celebrities, then ' what CEOs are (faith/ethnicity of yr choice)'. That way people can boycott products or services for racist reasons.