A local Chicago television station's unfortunate use of the wrong stock photo in a short segment on Jews marking the holiest day of the year drew criticism on Tuesday, leading to an apology by the broadcaster.

In a news segment on Yom Kippur, WGN employed the use of a picture of the yellow 'Jude' star which Nazis forced European Jews to wear during the Holocaust.

After the mistake was brought to the attention of WGN General Manager Greg Easterly, he issued an apology on the station's website.

“Last night we ran a story to recognize Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Regrettably, we failed to recognize that the artwork we chose to accompany the story contained an offensive symbol. This was an unfortunate mistake. Ignorance is not an excuse. We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake," Easterly wrote.

"We are investigating how this situation occurred, reviewing our in-house policies and making changes in order to avoid such mistakes from happening in the future. Thank you for your understanding. We promise to do better,” he added.