The most important minute of Jew-hatred-related TV this year delivered exactly the wrong point – both to Jews and to non-Jews.
A decade after a near-nonstop rise in antisemitism across North America, the Blue Square Alliance ran an ad during the Super Bowl. Its intended message – asking non-Jews to stand up in the face of Jew hatred – fell flat. And it may have even done more harm than good.
In 2015, when Islamophobic flyers were thrown at the Islamic Center of Richmond, Virginia, as the director of Jewish community relations, I mobilized the community and interfaith leaders to meet outside that mosque for a unity gathering called “We Stand Together.” The following year, as headstones were desecrated at Jewish cemeteries across America, the Islamic Center orchestrated a similar gathering, under the same name, at the local Jewish cemetery.
I believe in community relations. But alliance-building alone is not enough.
When antisemites in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted, “Jews will not replace us!” two years later, and the synagogue was threatened, I partnered with DHS, FBI and local law enforcement to counter the credible threats faced by those Jewish communities. I stood with them, armed with actionable intelligence and other means, because no one would threaten our community unanswered. I also believe in being strong, self-reliant Jews.
This ad’s most significant problem is its failure to fuse those two.
Beyond being dated, since no one says “Dirty Jew” anymore – they call us Zios, colonizers, genocidal Nazis (a perversion if ever there was one) and ZioNazis – the ad shows the prototypical Jewish teen as weak. A meek teen is bullied for being a Jew. He is shoved, and a yellow sticky note reading “Dirty Jew” is placed on his bag.
Upon discovering it, he is comforted by another student who literally papers over the antisemitic sticky note with a blue one. Worse still, when the Jewish teen considers challenging the antisemitic bully, his “ally” says, “they are not worth it.” The cowered Jewish kid instinctively replies that he must have been “tripping” to consider standing up for himself.
The annals of Jewish Diaspora history are rife with such self-abasing, shrunken-shouldered Jews taught by bullies, well-intended neighbors, and even well-intended Jewish leaders, that the best course of action is to turn the other cheek. This moment in history demands a return to a better, stronger model.
As a student of Jewish history, I am forced to ask: When did we as Jews get convinced that being meek is the best course of action? When did we so lose touch with the role models of early Judaism?
In addition to teaching hospitality and monotheism, Abraham was a powerful war fighter who used his might and leadership to rescue his captured family members. Yael used cunning to assassinate Sisera and thereby cripple the army threatening the people of Israel. Jewish leaders must teach that strength is one of our Jewish values.
If one’s safety depends on someone else’s courage, one does not have safety. This is not a call to stop building relationships: It’s a call to stop outsourcing Jewish might.
My colleagues have shared opinions on what the ad should have shown. They run the gamut from (limited) support for the Blue Square Alliance ad as it is, to “mock” modified ads. One shows the young teen focusing on his studies and later creating the cure for a disease that will afflict the former bully. Another shows a muscle-bound Jewish teen with whom no one would dare mess. Finally, another shows the meek teen beating up the antisemitic bully. None of those rings true to me.
The version I would have liked to see shows the Jewish teen standing up to the antisemite – and even fighting him if he was threatened with physical violence – and then being embraced by the other teens who become his allies. He needs to stand up for himself and accept the alliance and partnership of others.
Institutions are silent on antisemitism
Since October 7, 2023, countless institutions, movements, and individuals that North American Jews once considered allies have gone silent. Others offered functionally meaningless language. Painfully, many turned against us outright, demanding from Jews a political litmus test they would never impose on anyone else in the face of violence and trauma. This betrayal was shocking and deeply hurtful.
Interfaith work was never naïve. We should not retreat into isolation. Yet the long-standing American Jewish communal assumption – that standing up for our allies guarantees that our allies will stand up for us – has always been incomplete. In the best of times, it was aspirational; in the worst of times, it became a vulnerability.
The American Jewish conversation of recent decades has often framed itself as a moral arc: we marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his followers will march with us. We stood up for others; others will stand up for us.
Sometimes, gloriously, they have. But October 7 and its aftermath exposed a harsher truth: moral credit does not always pay.
So, what now?
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks taught: “Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism.” My colleagues are rightly irked by the ad, which suggested to non-Jews that we need them for protection – and suggested to Jews that we should cower in the face of hatred.
It is time for the American Jewish community to more fully claim its biblical roots and to use Israel as the model.
Build Jewish might and self-defense independent of alliances. When that is done, we join alliances as equal partners.
Make friends. Build alliances. Do it from a place of strength.
That is the real meaning of Am Yisrael Chai – the Nation of Israel lives.
The writer is the vice president of the Jerusalem College of Technology. He previously held leadership roles at AIPAC and the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, Virginia, where he worked regularly with community leaders, Israeli government ministers and Knesset members, Congress members, and the foreign diplomatic corps.