Apple pulls ‘Jew or not Jew’ app worldwide

Apple has pulled the “Jew or not Jew” app from its app stores worldwide following a lawsuit from French anti-racism groups, reports the Register.

The app allowed users to measure “how Jewish they were” by cataloguing Jewish personality traits according to how genetically Jewish users considered themselves to be.

“Listed for you, thousands of Jewish personalities (through their mother), ‘half-Jewish’ (through their father), or converts,” the app’s inventor Johann Levy promised potential buyers on the French Apple Store.

The app was pulled from the French app store in September and Europe in October, but was only pulled globally this week.

Groups including the French Jewish Students Union, SOS Racisme and the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between People had brought a suit against Apple in Paris demanding it withdraw the app worldwide — calling it anti-Semitic.

However rights groups dropped their case after the withdrawal of the application from every country in the world, which “satisfies our demand,” the groups’ lawyer Stephane Lilti said in court.

“I’m satisfied that Mr Levy has belatedly repented and taken the wise decision to withdraw the application,” Lilti said, speaking on behalf of four rights groups.

The International League Against Racism and anti-Semitism (LICRA) has also dropped its demand that Apple uninstall the app from all devices where it has already been installed.

“Where is the anti-Semitism in this case?,” Apple’s lawyer, Catherine Muyl, said during a hearing for the LICRA case on November 17, insisting that “this is not a discrimination case.”

“When Johann Levy conceived the application, he was actually worried that it would be perceived as too ‘pro-Jewish’,” Muyl explained.

Prior to its removal from the store the “Jew or not Jew” app listed 3 500 Jewish personality traits.