The year is 2026, and a Jew has sixty seconds to tell other Americans about the surge of antisemitism. What does he say?
The billionaire Robert Kraft produced the “Stand up to Jewish hate” ad to air during the Super Bowl. It’s filled with the kind of messaging expected from a public school “anti-bias” assembly, suggesting, given the resurgence of antisemitism among the youth, that its effectiveness will be at best limited.
The ad shows an athletic black teen with a Muslim-sounding name reassuring a scrawny Jewish boy who is being teased by his schoolmates. Try not to laugh—the black kid is seen covering a hate message with a blue square sticky note, the symbol of Kraft’s campaign, and the two hug as they walk off into the light at the end of the hallway. The commercial paints an idealized image of an intersectional “upstander”—you come to my marches, and I’ll come to yours—coming to rescue the Jewish victim, a situation that failed to materialize for Jews. Ever.
For what it’s worth, antisemitism in the U.S. is higher among young people and minorities, particularly those with Muslim-sounding names. So, the black kid in the ad defies stereotypes—fine, he’s modeling desired behavior. But why is the Jewish boy so diasporic?
There was never a time the ad wouldn’t raise questions, but post-2023, it misses the Jewish mood entirely. In the aftermath of the Simchat Torah Massacre, we treasure the stories of Israeli heroism in the face of the Gaza assault, the resilience of the hostages, and the brilliance of Mossad. Not surprisingly, the social media reaction to the ad ranged from a personal account of standing up to—and gaining respect from—a high school bully to pointing out that the main source of antisemitism today is anti-Zionism.
That said, Jews are not the target audience for the ad. The target audience has a different frame of mind; heroes, hostages, and the pager operation do not inform their worldview in any meaningful way. Then why are we informing Gentiles about adolescent socialization? Surely, high school bullying is a reality for many Jewish students—my children’s San Francisco Bay Area public high school had its share of antisemitic incidents. Yet I wouldn’t recommend rewarding the perpetrators with a spotlight at the nation’s premier sporting event.
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko wrote on X:
The reason so many Jews are upset with the Robert Kraft’s upcoming ad against antisemitism is simple: it has no connection to our reality.No one is slamming stickers on the backpacks of Jewish high school students that say: “dirty Jew”, they are screaming at them “Free Palestine!”, drawing swastikas in the bathroom, and calling them “genocide enablers” and “zios”.There is no ally who shows up to help, young Jews are finding themselves on their own.The backlash to this ad is going to be horrible once it airs.Many white people will complain the ad portrays them as anti-Semitic, while many black Muslims who are portrayed as the ally that will come save the Jewish student, will complain they have been tokenized. The ad is likely to cause more antisemitism than it will prevent.
My former synagogue received threats on high holidays multiple times—and that was before the explosion of antisemitism in 2023. That was the old normal, before anyone thought of broadcasting concerns about Jew-hate.
What worries Jewish Americans today is not a swastika etched into a locker or even sporadic bombings of our places of worship, but a sustained campaign of discrimination and violence, nurtured abroad and often supported by elected officials. We have no language for this conversation—and mainstream America might not be ready for it, anyway.
Some commentators suggest making an antisemitism ad about Jewish self-defense—our girls with Uzis, inglorious basterds, and so on. Come for us—and we’ll send you a pager. I would like to count myself among the Jews who don’t walk on trembling knees, but what would be the point of a self-congratulatory ad? If we got it under control, if we don’t have a problem of which American gentiles need to be aware, why spend millions on a public relations stunt?
From Tablet Editor-at-Large Liel Leibovitz:
So much love and respect for Robert Kraft, but it’s almost impossible to imagine a more retarded ad than this.First off, let’s do the same thing we did last year, to make sure you understand we have no creativity left.Second of all, let’s make the call to action posting a #BLM like bullshit square, because that’s what serious people do.Third of all, let’s make sure the story we tell is of a dweeby Jew getting gallantly rescued by a cool Black dude.If I had ten million dollars to spend on a Super Bowl ad, I’d just show a bunch of exploding beepers, dead Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, hot Israeli girls with guns, and the caption “Fuck Around, Find Out.”But hey, why go with Jewish power and pride when quivering victimhood mixed with the worse of social media clicktivism is exactly what some committee of overpaid PR pros and professional Jewish org types thought would work wonders.
How do we explain in a minute’s time—and without poking anyone’s ego—that Qatari money contaminated our media, think tanks, and educational institutions? Or that Chinese algorithms and KGB narratives poisoned the minds of American kids?
Antizionism is deadly. Take, for instance, the native of Jordan and a computer science professor, Loay Alnaji, who allegedly used a megaphone to kill the Jewish American senior Paul Kessler at an anti-Israel demonstration. Or Mohamed Soliman incinerating the Holocaust survivor Karen Diamond at a rally for hostage release. Or the accused “Free Palestine” double murderer, Elias Rodriguez, now charged with terrorism, for gunning down Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside of the DC Jewish Museum.
Reports of antisemitic incidents skyrocketed since the fall of 2023. Many of them are violent, occur on college campuses, and are committed by individuals who are ostensibly supposed to be cultural elites. Some of them are foreigners, but many are U.S.-born. We had to elect a new president—Donald Trump—for universities to begin to address this problem.
American politicians—being, you know, politicians—are responding to demographic shifts. In San Francisco, Scott Weiner, the progressive Jewish State Senator running for the US Congress, found out that he is obligated to renounce Israel to be nominated by the Democratic Party. Popular Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was taken off Kamala Harris’s VP shortlist for being a Jew.
Worse, some elected officials are antizionist to the bone. The Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar notoriously proclaimed that Jews are “all about Benjamins, baby.” New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, incompetent as he is when it comes to his regular mayoral duties, is proficient when it comes to antisemitic policies. His latest scandal is the appointment of antizionist blowhard Phylisa Wisdom to head the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
Jews played a crucial part in making America a great nation, but today, looking at our brethren across the West, at those fleeing France, Australia, or the UK, many of us are wondering how much time we have left in the States. Islamism taking over the lands of our allies will come to our shores in no time. Unless our society transforms itself speedily and radically, in another generation, America will generate a flow of Jewish refugees. Is that the kind of country we want to be? And what kind of country will America be without Jews?
I’m sure it sounds like an academic matter for many Americans. What they need to consider is that Jews are canaries in a coal mine. Individuals and organizations that are at this moment focused on Jews will not pacify themselves once Jews leave.
We don’t need a Super Bowl-timed conversation about high school bullying. The questions we are asking are existential, and unfortunately, the average American will have a hard time coming to terms with the gravity of our country’s condition.
Jews will be OK—after all, we have Israel to return to. We love this country, but if it’s gone, it’s gone. What everyone else is going to do is less clear.
I have no doubt that Kraft means well, which is why he should, if still possible, withdraw the commercial. No more woke schoolmarms. We have a different message to convey.
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