The Jewish treat gets its long overdue place in your texts
By AMY SPIROUpdated: FEBRUARY 12, 2018 00:54The new bagel emoji.(photo credit: UNICODE CONSORTIUM)
Hungry texters can finally rejoice – there is a bagel emoji coming to phones around the world this year.The latest slate of more than 150 new emoji symbols released by the Unicode Consortium last week included a bagel, one of the most iconic Jewish foods. The bread will appear in its sliced format, in an effort to differentiate it from a doughnut. As phone operation systems and applications update, the emoji should appear on smartphones around the world later in the year.The bagel emoji was submitted by a slate of food enthusiasts, including writers Melanie Broder and Jennifer Lee. The proposal for the new graphic noted, “The first mention of the bagel appears in a 1610 community law written by Jewish elders in Krakow, Poland, decreeing that bagels be given to women after childbirth as a symbol of long life and good luck.” It also pointed out the bagel’s multi-cultural roots and “its unique place in the hearts of American Jews.”As with any change in the online world, the new emoji has garnered both positive and negative reviews. Mordechai Lightstone, social media director for the hassidic organization Chabad, asked some hard questions.“Seriously, why would you cut a bagel in half and not have cream cheese?” he wrote on Twitter. “And don’t even get me started on how it lacks sesames or poppy seeds. #fakebagel.”But Rafael Shimunov, a Jewish activist, was very happy with the addition.“No longer will millions of Jews have to look at a donut when we need a bagel emoji,” he tweeted. “The bagels coming! The bagels are coming!”And what other new emojis will be heading your way soon? A superhero and superheroine – i.e., Gal Gadot – of course. Also for the first time there will be emoji people with curly hair, red hair and no hair at all, plus a kangaroo, a peacock, a sponge and dozens of other images that will enhance your online messaging.So the next time you text a brunch order, you’ll have just the right tools.
