German Jews protest use of yellow Star of David by pro-smokers

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A T-shirt using a yellow Star of David to liken the treatment of smokers in Germany to that of Jews during Nazi rule has angered German Jews. Earlier this week, after several German states introduced sweeping bans on smoking in restaurants and bars that took effect on January 1, an events planner called DMP started offering the T-shirt for sale on its Web site. "This is an absolute abuse of the Jewish genocide," the deputy president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said Thursday. "It is a scandal to exploit the murder of the Jews in order to symbolize the people's desire to smoke." The operator of the Web site said on Friday that he had not sold any of the shirts and that it was a publicity stunt gone awry.