Dear Ikea:

I read the [above] article referenced here [1], and it is with profound sadness that I read about your newest catalog that is aimed at the Haredi market. You have capitulated to the notion that erasing women from the public sphere is a positive move. While your motive is (obviously) marketing and money (nothing wrong with that) you have entered into the Twilight Zone of abuse of women.

I also will make the assumption that you will be opening an all-male store with no women allowed so that a man will not (Heaven forfend) gaze upon a human being of the female persuasion while shopping!

By publishing this catalog you take yet another step down that path of creating a totally false image of what a Jewish family is and, thereby, promote tenets antithetical to Torah and normative Judaism. You provide young girls and young women with a warped sense of values and do not provide role models for them in the catalog. (No, a catalog does not make or break an image a young girl has of her role in life. But, at the same time, by leaving them out you broadcast the notion to them that they are of lower class and are not deserving of being at your store!)

Your actions would be laughable if not so downright vulgar. You want to make money? It is a free world so feel free to do so. But to make money by publicly abusing women and degrading them—well, that is shameful.

Shame on you Ikea!

Zev Shandalov