Belarus Bar Creates ‘Holocaust’ Cocktail

By JTA June 10, 2015

Human rights activists in Belarus complained about a pub owner’s decision to create a signature tequillaa-and-Kahlua cocktail named ‘Holocaust.’

The controversy about the Holocaust cocktail was reported last week by Radio Racyja, which displayed on its website a picture of the menu at the Red Pub in Gomel, Belarus’ second-largest city, located 190 miles southeast of the capital, Minsk.

Andrei Strizhak, founder of the Belarus Freedom Movement, a nongovernmental organization working to improve human rights in the country known as Europe’s last dictatorship, told the radio station that the incident reflects “ignorance, but not necessarily anti-Semitism.”

Strizhak, who has participated in Holocaust commemoration ceremonies and activities in Belarus, called on the Red Pub’s owners to apologize to the local Jewish community and remove the item, calling it “something that is difficult to swallow.” He also said that “the next step is to name a cocktail after Khatyn,” a reference to the site of a village in what is today Belarus, where German occupation forces in 1943 massacred thousands of civilians.

The ingredients of the cocktail marketed as “Holocaust” are listed as watermelon and blackcurrant syrups, sweet liqueur, tequila and Sambuca. Listed with other drinks in the “head shots” category, the Holocaust cocktail is priced at $7.80, making it the priciest beverage on its page of the menu.

Xenia Chyndarava, the patron who sent the picture to Radio Racyja, said she was “shocked” to find the Holocaust cocktail on the menu. She said Red Pub was one of Gomel’s finest bars but that she would not set foot in it until the item is removed from the menu.

http://www.racyja.com/hramadstva/u-gomeli-nalivayuts-kaktejl-khalakost/

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO