Gadi Gronich, member of the Conference of European Rabbis, told Israel Hayom that in today’s pluralistic world there is a sense that the Jewish religion is not included, and called on the Unicode Consortium which selects emoji icons used by Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Apple and Instagram, not to forget the Jews.
Yes, Europe’s primary rabbinical alliance, the 700-member Conference of European Rabbis, is demanding emojis depicting Jewish men and women.
In a letter to the Unicode Consortium, the CER asked why there are emojis for a woman wearing a hijab and a man in a turban, but no emoji for a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke or a Jewish woman wearing a sheitel.
Of course, the good rabbis did not consider the possibility of emoji phrases that go swastika, guy in yarmulke, fire – we’ll get those complaints later in the game.
Except that, according to the Jewish Standard’s Larry Yudelson, last year the Unicode Consortium added a bagel to its official emoji, and there’s already an effort on the way, by Sefaria, an online open source free content digital library of Jewish texts, to introduce a Torah emoji.
Expect next: Jews who don’t wear yarmulkes and scarves protesting the culturally biased emoji which ignores their values.
Also, if you check out Emojipdia, you’ll discover a slew of Star of David emoji.
Smiley face, confused cat, broccoli.