Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

‘Ugly Hanukkah’ Sweater Sparks $1M Suit Against Metal Band Anthrax

The 1980s heavy metal band Anthrax is being sued for copyright infringement over the Ugly Hanukkah Sweater.

A Detroit artist and businessman, Aaron Cummins, filed a $1 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming he made the original design in 2012 and registered it with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2013, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.

Anthrax, the Rockabilia website and the merchandising company Global Merchandising Services are named in the suit, according to the newspaper.

The blue and white sweatshirt features dreidels, menorahs and Stars of Davids, the words Happy Hanukkah and the Anthrax logo bracketed by Stars of David. They have been sold on Rockabilia since November; the sweatshirts cost $28.99.

According to the website, the sweatshirts are designed by Axl Rosenberg of MetalSucks.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.