Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Protesters Wear Nazi Garb; Protest in Jerusalem to Promote Their Way of Life

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency website reports today (January 1, 2012) that Israeli leaders criticized a haredi Orthodox demonstration in which protesters wore yellow stars to indicate that they are being oppressed in Israel like the Jews were in Nazi Germany.

More than 1,000 haredi Orthodox Jewish protesters gathered in Jerusalem on New Year's eve to protest what they described as persecution against their way of life, including separation of men and women.

Many of the protesters wore yellow stars with the word "Jude" written on them, using Holocaust imagery to hammer home their point. Young haredi Orthodox children were also brought on a makeshift stage wearing striped prison garb along with their yellow stars.

Elan Steinberg -- vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants -- said, in a statement: "We who survived and witnessed these Nazi crimes are particularly offended that demonstrators so blithely used children in their public outrage. They have insulted the memory of all Jewish victims, including those who were ultra-Orthodox."