“We appreciate this being brought to our attention and will begin the process of changing the badges on the uniforms in question. Scharf said she tried calling a number for MGM she found online, but couldn’t get an answer, so she went to The Cleveland Jewish News, a community paper.ĭebra DeShong, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts International, said a reporter from the Jewish News contacted MGM. “There’s a million things you could put on a shirt design-wise, but I understand that not everyone is aware of that symbolism and its place in history.”
The image could potentially offend many in the Jewish community, she said. Scharf is Jewish, and some relatives on her grandfather’s side were killed in the Holocaust. In Germany and in many of the countries it occupied, the badges were yellow and in the shape of the Star of David, with the word “Jew” in middle. Nazi Germany began forcing Jews to wear identifying badges in 1939. “It was a combination that it was a star, and it was on a yellow backdrop,” Scharf said. It was a security badge-type image, but to Scharf it evoked imagery of the Holocaust. The guards were wearing yellow shirts with a six-pointed star. “My most immediate thought was, this is a problem,” Scharf said. June Scharf was going through the security checkpoint at the MGM Northfield Casino near Cleveland recently when something about the security guards’ uniforms struck her.
