Beyond the Blue Square: The Hard Sell of Jewish Thriving

Last night, between the multi-million dollar beer commercials and the high-stakes plays of the Super Bowl, Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance delivered its latest $15 million message to America. The ad, titled “Sticky Note,” depicted a Jewish student being harassed with a slur, only to be “saved” when a classmate covers the hate with a small blue square. It was heart-tugging, well-intentioned, and – if you listened to Bret Stephens at the 92nd Street Y just last Sunday – it completely misses the mark.

Speaking at the 46th annual “State of World Jewry” address – a podium historically graced by Elie Wiesel and Abba Eban – Stephens didn’t just offer a critique; he threw a gauntlet.  Stephens argued that our current strategy of “fighting” antisemitism is a “well-meaning, but mostly wasted, effort.”

The Blue Square ad is the latest iteration of a comfortable, long-standing Jewish belief: if we just share the “truth” widely enough—if we show the “unengaged” 100 million Americans our pain—antisemitism will dissipate.

But Stephens’ diagnosis was unsentimental. He argued that antisemitism is not a “defect of education” but a “psychological reflex… a neurosis” that is impervious to facts. We think that if people only had a finer understanding of history or the Israeli-Arab conflict, they would stop hating us. “That thesis is wrong,” Stephens said. “Constantly seeking to prove ourselves worthy in order to win the world’s love is a fool’s errand.”

Why is it so hard to let go of this belief? In my opinion, it’s because the alternative is a much harder pill to swallow. If we stop trying to “fix” the world, the work falls entirely on us. It requires us to stop being a “perpetual apology machine” and start the grueling work of reinventing ourselves.

The Day School Dilemma

Stephens’ vision for a “good offense” is built on a massive structural shift toward Jewish Thriving. This isn’t just about safety; it’s about a community where Jewish learning and ritual are central to every member’s identity. He was explicit about the price of entry: “We have superb Jewish day schools, but we need many more of them… at a tuition that is comparable to what you’d pay for a Catholic parochial school.”

This is the ultimate “hard sell” for American Jewry. Even if we slashed tuition tomorrow, we would still face a cultural wall. Most Jewish day schools cannot, and should not, compete with the “bells and whistles” of elite public or private schools. They will not, for the most part, have the Olympic-sized pools, the varsity football programs, or the prestige of being a direct “feeder” to the Ivy League. In fact, if we measure our success by secular status symbols, the Jewish school loses almost every time.

Parents and grandparents will only choose this path if they possess a soul-level appreciation for the content of a Jewish education -something that goes far beyond “not being hated.

Parents and grandparents will only choose this path if they possess a soul-level appreciation for the content of a Jewish education -something that goes far beyond “not being hated.”

The “Insider Language” Gap

The tragedy is that for many of our current leaders, a “good Jewish education” has become insider language. They literally don’t know what Stephens is talking about because they haven’t experienced it themselves. To many, Judaism has been thinned out into universal values that look like general modern liberalism with better holidays. They won’t register their kids for a “thriving” Jewish life if they are content with a “surviving” one. The building of more day schools will only matter if the adults in the room actually value the wisdom inside them.

They won’t register their kids for a “thriving” Jewish life if they are content with a “surviving” one.

The Countercultural Revolution Begins with Us

So, how do we inspire the countercultural revolution Stephens is calling for? We cannot ask the next generation to value an education that the current generation doesn’t understand.

The answer is an immediate, massive explosion of adult Jewish learning. This is where the paradigm shift happens. Adult learning is what sets the stage for thriving because:

• It Creates Value: When an adult wrestles with a text or discovers the radical intellectual depth of our tradition, the “prestige” of a secular sports program starts to look thin.

• It Moves Us from Victim to Agent: We stop being “targets” of history and start being “agents” of our own destiny.

• It Builds the Table: Quoting composer Philip Glass, Stephens said, “If there’s no room at the table, build your own table.” But you can’t build a table if you don’t know how to use the tools.

The Blue Square might have made us feel “seen” for thirty seconds on a Sunday night. But deep, rigorous Jewish learning will make us thrive for a lifetime. It is time to stop spending millions to tell the world we are victims and start spending our time becoming what Stephens calls “October 8th Jews”—those who “woke up trying to remember who they truly are.”