Holy crap, @WGNNews, this is your stock photo for a Jewish holiday?? Nobody thought that's a bad choice of photo? pic.twitter.com/z7BNuvGybS
— Marc Karlinsky (@MarcKarlinsky) September 23, 2015
The Jewish holiday Yom Kippur began at sundown on Tuesday. Known as the Jewish Day of Atonement, it runs until nightfall on Wednesday, and is considered the most important day of the Jewish faith. In fact, more people will attend temple throughout the day on Yom Kippur than on any other Jewish holiday.
Late on Tuesday night, WGN News in Chicago ran a segment on the holiday, but unfortunately, it seems the entire news department needs to brush up on their history. The image they used to accompany the segment was the yellow patch that Nazis used to force Jews to wear in order for them to be more easily identified.
The German government’s policy of forcing Jews to wear identifying badges was but one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different (i.e., inferior) to everyone else. It allowed for the easier facilitation of their separation from society and subsequent ghettoization, which ultimately led to the deportation and murder of six million Jews.
That’s unfortunate. WGN later apologized on air and on Twitter for their misstep, but the damage had already been done.
(Via Marc Karlinsky, Chicagoist)