The Anti-Defamation League is calling out retailer Urban Outfitters for a shirt the Jewish group claims bears a symbol strikingly similar to the one used by Nazis to identify Jews during the Holocaust.Here's the shirt:
The sale of the shirt, which comes on the heels of National Holocaust Remembrance Day, is just the latest in a long line of offensive products from Urban Outfitters, the ADL tells FoxNews.com.
The T-shirt, sold by the Philadelphia-based Urbn Inc. but manufactured by Dutch label Wood Wood, is a yellow and features a blue six-pointed star on a breast pocket. But the ADL tells FoxNews.com that it’s far more sinister than just a simple tee -- and is reminiscent of the yellow badges that Jews were forced by the Nazis to wear during the Holocaust.
“It’s a new low in Urban Outfitter’s consistent use of various offensive messages in what appears to be a quest for attention,” Barry Morrison, the Philadelphia regional director of the ADL, told FoxNews.com. “We are very troubled by it.”
“The juxtaposition of the six-pointed star on a yellow shirt brings about associations with the yellow Star of David that the Jews were forced to wear. A symbol marking Jews as subhuman -- setting them apart and ultimately paving the way for their annihilation.”
What exactly is the problem?
The star isn't yellow, it doesn't resemble the stars Jews were forced to wear, it doesn't evoke the Holocaust in any manner, and I would consider wearing it if it wasn't so damn ugly and if I could get past the fact that Urban Outfitters was going to charge $100 for this simple pocket T-shirt. (Now, that's offensive.)
The ADL does some good stuff, but this is beyond ridiculous, and it makes the organization look like a joke. Please, Abraham Foxman, don't look for offense when there clearly is none. There is real anti-semitism out there - and this isn't it. And if you weren't looking for offensive symbols everywhere, perhaps you could have noted this this could be considered a compliment to Jews, not an insult.
See also Jewlicious, who notes that Maccabi Tel Aviv's logo must also be offensive....