(JTA) — Two Iowa sisters were fired from their jobs after joking about “burning the Jews” inside a toy oven.
Christina and Susan Ott were dismissed from an assembly plant in New Hampton, Iowa, in January, the Des Moines Register reported this week, after walking around work on Dec. 19 with a toy oven in which they placed gingerbread men.
“Happy Hanukkah. We’re burning the Jews,” the women said, according to five plant employees,
The Otts were rejected for unemployment benefits in separate hearings.
“Simply the act of carrying an oven around with little people in it while saying ‘Happy Hanukkah’ is offensive, let alone if she said the hate speech along with it,” administrative law judge Susan Ackerman said during a hearing for Christina Ott, according to the newspaper.
