An American Israeli father has urged Lego to “do better” after a manager at one of its largest stores refused to print a custom figurine featuring a yellow hostage ribbon, a ubiquitous symbol of support for the hostages held in Gaza for over 400 days.
Shai Davidai, a Columbia University professor, was allegedly told when he visited the shop in Manhattan with his eight-year-old son that the ribbon was a “political” issue.
While designing a mini-figure to match his appearance, including a black T-shirt with a yellow hostage ribbon and the slogan ‘Bring them home’ on the back, the shop manager intervened.
“The hostages are a political issue,” the manager reportedly said, adding that company policy prohibited political content. Davidai countered that hostages were a humanitarian issue. “I was shocked,” he said, adding that the exchange happened in front of his young son.
Davidai recounted: “You create your mini-figurines and while you wait for them to be printed out, you choose things like what kind of legs you want them to have, all the fun stuff about Lego.
“As we were doing that, the manager came up to me – obviously he recognized me because I looked just like the figurine I had made – and he said I couldn’t have what I had picked.”
The manager gave Davidai two options: to modify the figurine’s design or to accept a refund. Reluctantly, Davidai chose the latter, feeling “astonished, hurt and depressed” at the experience.
At the cash desk, he challenged the manager, saying: “This is unacceptable – there are hostages who are children, who would be playing with Lego if they were free.” According to Davidai, the manager responded: “I think you know that it is" a political issue.
Davidai later shared the encounter at the Fifth Avenue store on social media, where it sparked responses from others who successfully created similar figurines in Lego stores in Germany and Israel. The Israeli store, in particular, prominently displays hostage yellow ribbons and Lego figures.
“This may mean that the manager in New York was making his own decision and that it is not against company policy,” Davidai said. “But in any case, I don’t want people to protest against Lego, I just want Lego to do better.”
Repeated requests by Jewish News to seek comment from Lego and clarify its policy, both in the US and here in the UK, have gone unanswered.
-This article is written by Jenni Frazer and reprinted with permission from Jewish News