KFC sends message to customers on day of remembrance for German Jews killed in antisemitic rioting, encouraging the public to treat themselves to cheesy chicken.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

The German branch of American fast food chain KFC shocked its customers on Wednesday by sending a push notification urging the public to “celebrate” Kristallnacht with a special promotional deal on fried chicken.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, was an antisemitic pogrom carried out by the Nazis across Germany on November 9-10, 1938, that saw the destruction of synagogues and homes and businesses belonging to Jews. An estimated 90 Jews were killed in two days of rioting, and the event is widely viewed as the beginning of the Holocaust.

The annual commemoration is a somber occasion in Germany, so KFC customers were startled on Wednesday after receiving the festive-sounding push notification from the fast food chain.

“Commemoration of the Reichspogromnacht [Kristallnacht] – Treat yourself to more tender cheese with the crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!” read the message, according to a screenshot of the notification posted on Twitter by a German user.

“How wrong can you be? Shame on you KFC,” wrote Dalia Grinfeld, the ADL’s associate director of European affairs on Twitter, alongside a screenshot of the notification.

About an hour after the message was sent, KFC issued an additional notification apologizing for what they said was a mistake.

“Due to an error in our system, we sent an incorrect and inappropriate message through our app. We are very sorry about this. We will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse this error,” KFC said in the statement.

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The fast-food chain failed during three previous attempts to establish itself in Israel over the past four decades.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

Israelis will get another opportunity to feast on KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” chicken this week.

The Daliyat al-Karmel KFC branch in northern Israel will open its doors on Tuesday, followed by another branch in downtown Beer Sheba this summer, reports Israel Hayom.

This is the fourth time that KFC is attempting to enter the Israeli market. The fast-food chain failed to establish itself successfully in the 1980s, the 1990s, and between 2003 and 2012.

Even though this time around the food being served is not kosher, it seems like the company is off to a good start.

“From the moment the first restaurant opened in Nazareth, we receive many responses and questions, from tens of thousands of Israelis around Israel, asking when we would come to their area of residence. Today we are taking another significant step in expanding the chain,” Omer Zeidner, head of KFC Israel, told the news outlet.

“We promise that we will continue working around the clock in order to expand to all areas of Israel, and we will continue to provide the original taste and offer the wide variety of dishes at all the restaurant’s branches,” he said.

KFC is owned by American corporate giant Yum Brands Inc. which is traded on Nasdaq with a 2019 market cap of $17 billion. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world’s third-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s and Starbucks with over 45,000 outlets in over 135 countries.

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Not all Israelis will be lining up to get some of Colonel Sander’s chicken because the restaurants will not be kosher.

By World Israel News Staff

Israelis will be once again getting a taste of KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” chicken, reported Israel’s Mako news outlet on Sunday.

According to the report, the first branch is expected to open in Nazareth at the end of December, and locations are being negotiated for additional branches across the country.

KFC’s entry and operations within the Jewish State will be headed by Business Development Director Omer Zeidner at Yum! Restaurants, an American fast food corporation group that also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

Zeidner told The Jerusalem Post that Nazareth is a “prime location for the brand” because it is a “bustling city with local and international tourists,” and this time the parent company, not a local franchisee will manage the new locations.

This will be the fourth time that KFC will be entering the Israeli market. The fast-food chain failed to establish itself successfully in the 1980s, the 1990s and between 2003 and 2012.

However, not all Israelis will be lining up to get some of Colonel Sander’s chicken because the restaurants will not be kosher.

Udi Shamai, who ran eight franchises until 2012, told Globes in February that staying kosher is what led to his downfall.

“The moment we switched to kosher, sales began to plunge and it was no longer economically viable,” Shamai said. “The product was less good, whereas things had gone fine with unkosher chickens.”

In 2009, KFC opened restaurants in cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and as of 2016 KFC operates in Hebron, Bethlehem, Jenin, and Ramallah.

In case there is doubt about KFC’s popularity in the region, in 2013 The New York Times reported that a food delivery service in Egypt coordinated a KFC order to Gaza that required the involvement of two taxis, an international border, and a smuggling tunnel.

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KFC will join McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s as American restaurants hitting the Israeli marketplace.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

A famous American fast-food chain is making a return to Israel.

Kentucky Fried Chicken hasn’t been in Israel since 2012. In late August, however, KFC announced a comeback and is now looking for employees, Globes reported.

The chain has not yet publicized the location or the number of franchises it plans to open in Israel, but it is expected to open sooner rather than later.

This will be the fourth time KFC has launched in Israel, with stints during the 1980s, 1990s and from 2003 until 2012.

Franchisee Udi Shamai said that during KFC’s 2003-2012 stretch in Israel, he struggled because they began following the kosher dietary laws rather than continuing to use the chicken supplied by the global chain, which contained milk powder. They substituted the milk with soya.

At the time, there were eight KFC restaurants in the Jewish state.

“The moment we switched to kosher, sales began to plunge and it was no longer economically viable,” Shamai told Globes.

KFC is owned by American corporate giant Yum Brands Inc. which is traded on Nasdaq with a market cap of $29 billion, according to Globes. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s, with 45,000 outlets in over 135 countries.

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