Like Your Racist Aunt, Hobby Lobby Loves Crafts, Isn't Wild About Jews

We already know that ric-rac n’ hot glue purveyor Hobby Lobby is totally not down with its female employees using birth control because Jesus Is Watching You Fuck. But here’s another reason to not buy your crafting supplies there: they’re also not wild about Jews. Hobby Lobby: basically, your anti-Semitic, sanctimonious, holiday-ruining aunt.

According to HuffPo, Steve Green, Hobby Lobby’s scary-Christian CEO, isn’t stocking Hanukkah-related crafting items. And a lot of Jewish crafters are (understandably) mad about it.

The Hobby Lobby Hanukkah controversy began when [New Jersey blogger Ken] Berwitz learned that on a recent shopping trip his wife’s friends could not find anything related to Hanukkah at their local Hobby Lobby store in Marlboro, N.J., though it was stocked with Christmas items.

According to Berwitz, one of the women asked about bar mitzvah cards, and a Hobby Lobby salesperson replied: “We don’t cater to you people.”

That story prompted Berwitz, who own a market research company and writes the “Hopelessly Partisan” blog, to call the Marlboro store and ask why it seemed to be ignoring Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, which begins on Nov. 27 this year. He wrote that he received the following response:

“Because Mr. Green is the owner of the company, he’s a Christian, and those are his values.”

Once word started spreading that Hobby Lobby employees were telling Jewish people that they didn’t stock Jew-stuff because Jesus (a Jew) wouldn’t be down, corporate spokespeople began scrambling to backpedal and insisted that Hobby Lobby has nothing against Jewish people, it’s just that they…. don’t… and… have… never… stocked… Hanukkah… stuff HEY LOOK OVER THERE! (jumps out window, sound of car peeling out).