CTeenConnection

Zara, a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer, has apologized for selling a shirt resembling the uniform Jews wore when working in concentration camps during the Holocaust. According to a press release from Zara’s parent company, Inditex, the upsetting shirt was pulled from online and Zara stores after a mere few hours. The sales were only “marginal” and the remaining products will be “destroyed”. According to Zara, the star was supposed to “resemble the sheriff’s stars from the Classic Western films.” Please.

After seeing this, I was utterly disgusted. The world needs to realize that anti-Semitism is not just taking over people’s minds. Rather, it is also making an impact on the shows we watch, music we listen to, and the clothes MAJOR companies sell. Our ancestors were forced to wear this horrid “pajama shirt” while being starved to death, worked like animals, and treated as if they were dirt. Accompanied with the shirt there was a star that holds all our history, love, and pride that is being used to shame the phrase “I am Jewish and proud”. I can no longer wear shirts/sweaters I own that have this symbol of unity on it, because of the fear of not feeling safe. Who would have imagined me, a teenage girl living in America, “home of the free”, not being able to display my religion? The shirt has been withdrawn from Zara’s stock, but the fact is that it was thought of and created is horrifying. Throughout the process from designing to shipping, not one person reported its Holocaust allusion, and even if one did, obviously did not fight hard enough.

Judaism is not something that is just a part of us; it is who we are. To understand the present, one must be familiar with the past. History is repeating itself and if no one else will open up their eyes and see what is going on, it is up to us to keep pushing on. This is just another example of the discriminating world we live in. But together, the Jewish nation will lean on each other, and support one another. Nothing has brought us down in the past, and nothing will. The strength of the Jewish nation amazes me every single day. I’m forever Jewish, and forever proud.