Anti-Defamation League objects to T-shirt sold by Urban Outfitters

The Anti-Defamation League in Philadelphia publicly objected Thursday to a T-shirt being sold by Urban Outfitters Inc. that bears a symbol that critics said resembles a Star of David patch that Jews in Nazi Europe were forced to wear during the Holocaust, sometimes on concentration camp uniforms.

"We find this use of symbolism to be extremely distasteful and offensive, and we are outraged that your company would make this product available to your customers," Barry Morrison, regional director of the ADL, wrote in a letter e-mailed to Richard A. Hayne, chairman and chief executive of the retail corporation headquartered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. ADL shared the letter with the media.

A phone call to Urban Outfitters spokesman Ed Looram was not immediately returned.

The shirt was brought to the ADL's attention earlier in the day by an affiliate in Chicago, Morrison said. The $100 Kellog Tee — a yellow cotton shirt from the Denmark-based Wood Wood label — features a six-pointed blue patch embroidered to a chest pocket. It was available on the company's website as of Thursday afternoon.

— Maria Panaritis