Nordstrom pulls ‘offensive’ Hanukkah-themed sweater

In the wake of the a controversial Bloomingdales ad and the Starbucks holiday cup fiasco, Nordstrom has pulled a Hanukkah-themed sweater from their stores after customers claimed the retailer was spreading Jewish stereotypes. 

Intended to be funny, the Faux Real brand sweater reads "Chai Maintenance" above a Menorah and "JAP," which is short for "Jewish American Princess," at the bottom of the sweater. Accordingly, "chai," which mean life in Hebrew, sounds very similar to the English word "high," as in "high maintenance."

Many of Nordstrom's customers who saw it as a play on Jewish women took to Facebook to complain about the sweater. 

Echoing many similar posts, one user wrote on Nordstrom's Facebook page, “I’m disappointed to see that Nordstrom is selling such an offensive item that perpetuates negative stereotypes of Jewish women."

In an email to Fortune, a Nordstrom spokeswoman said, "We made a mistake by not looking more closely at the words on the sweater before we posted it – had we done so, we wouldn’t have offered it. As soon as we heard from customers, we removed it from our site right away. We’re terribly sorry for offending people and sincerely apologize.”

Contact Caitlin Lilly at clilly@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @caitiesmith