It’s Hip To Be (Blue) Square – A Superbowl Triumph

Following yesterday’s NFL Superbowl, the Jewish press and blogosphere are alight with opinions about the Blue Square Superbowl ad sponsored by Robert Kraft – Jewish owner of the New England Patriots football team.  It was  successful in reaching an audience of 100 million viewers and diverse secular football fans and in raising awareness of contemporary anti-semitic bullying and the need for cross-cultural solidarity.  Touchdown!

According to a report by eJewishPhilanthropy, on Jewish community charitable and advocacy initiatives, the ad was pre-tested on 1000 viewers in a randomized controlled trial.  We rarely see such verified social research measurements of the effectiveness of our Jewish advocacy initiatives.  If only we saw them more often.  It might help us develop more effective Jewish communal advocacy strategies.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL), with which our B’nai Brith Canada is affiliated, found that the advertisement was very effective in raising wide community awareness of anti-semitism and related bullying as a serious problem among non-Jewish viewers, as well as the need for allyship and support from diverse ethnic communities.

Amid criticism, Kraft’s anti-hate group defends Super Bowl ad against antisemitism

In legal circles, we often use the approach of ‘interest analysis’ or ‘who benefits’ to analyze the likely responses of various groups to new cultural developments.  There were many criticisms of the advertisement from entrenched Jewish Federation professionals and established Jewish lobby groups and insular Jewish advocacy organizations, who have arguably shown far less influence on non-Jewish audiences than they would wish, and who have been less than effective.

Robert Kraft’s generosity in sponsoring the Blue Square advertisement, costing $15 million US, reaching an estimated Superbowl audience of 100 million viewers, should be celebrated.  Mr. Kraft’s own position as a successful and secularized Jewish American businessman and owner of the New England Patriots football team (playing in the Superbowl) is also a testament to the distinguished contributions he and other accomplished and secularized Jewish Americans have made to American business and culture.

Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of the Sages) teaches us to ‘know what to tell to a non-believer’ (Avot 2:14).  I would argue that a greater awareness of our likely reception in secular communities and of sophisticated PR techniques (including in Israel’s Diaspora Affairs communiques and our campus Hasbarah and community pro-Israel Jewish advocacy) would significantly improve our effectiveness, even in hostile contexts.

I have often argued that our more secularized but Jewishly educated community leaders and professionals working outside our Jewish institutions may be more effective than our more parochial ‘inside professionals’ in the Jewish community in getting the message across to our non-Jewish colleagues on the challenges our Jewish community is facing and how this poses significant economic costs to all of us.

Our non-Jewish colleagues may not always like us, but they can count.  If we can show them the costs of antisemitism, then we will count for more in their estimation.  Antisemitism poses costs to them too.  Emphasize this. Antisemitism is bad for business, innovation, and our economy.

Antisemitism costs all of us in time and energy and fear and stress and crime and costs to our criminal justice and education systems and social services, but most importantly it erodes the human potential of lawful Jewish citizens who have the right to be free of such persecution.

One might argue respectfully that the widely reported sociological rates of  rising Jewish disaffiliation among young people and their increasing disregard for Israel may in fact be a logical response to this ongoing persecution.  It may also be a factor of youthful rebellion and related to the stark economic and professional challenges faced by our young people today who are facing pressures on all sides.

Our insular and self-regarding uptown and well funded Jewish advocacy organizations and top-down self-referential ‘outreach’ programming and Jewish educational leaders have failed to protect them and all of us —  antisemitic harassment and hate crimes have increased exponentially for decades, on campus and in the community.

Think of all the wasted time and energy we have spent on fighting anti-semitism, and how much this is costing us in our Jewish institutions, on campus, in our workplaces, and personally in our lives and families, how it is affecting our schools and neighborhoods and students and professionals.  Then get mobilized politically.

Our earnest and insular Jewish leaders should recognize in the long term that they will be dependent on the charitable contributions and future economic success of our secularized Jewish students and young professionals today. They should support them accordingly rather than seeking to ‘outreach’ them.

Robert Kraft is not just a business leader.  He is also a successful American Jew.  And like the Jewish student bullied in the Blue Square advertisement, he is also a victim of contemporary antisemitism, as much as many commentators resist the depiction of the young Jewish student in the advertisement as a ‘victim’.  Sorry to say it, but that is the reality faced by many Jewish students in many secular schools and university campuses today.

We have great respect for our rabbis and teachers and Jewish community leaders and the major donors to whom they are beholden, but innovative ground-up advocacy from the likes of Robert Kraft and the Blue Square campaign may often be more effective in reaching wider non-Jewish audiences and educating them about the sheer injustice of antisemitism than our most earnest Jewish communal leaders.  They should give credit where it’s due and be thankful for the likes of Mr. Kraft.

As we are taught, there is a place for both Torah (excellence in religious learning) and Derech Eretz (excellence in secular endeavors) in our Jewish tradition.  One cannot have one without the other (Avot, 3:17). https://voices.sefaria.org/sheets/97291?lang=bi

Our religious and community leaders often seem to be competing with one another in Torah achievements while neglecting the need for secular Derech Eretz skills.  We should give credit where it’s due, and like a toolbox with many tools, let the secular leaders lead innovative secular advocacy initiatives.

Many of our insular Jewish organizations and leaders have little track record in secular endeavors and still less credibility as real activists, particularly on campus and in the wider community.  It is not surprising that they are often targeted for hate crimes, as they are often far more visible as Jews and far less savvy in navigating complex secular communities and building multicultural alliances.

Judaism is not a competitive sport like professional football.  We all have important roles to play, especially secular Jewish business and community leaders.  We should take a lesson from Robert Kraft and the Blue Square advertisement at this year’s Superbowl and build on its success rather than criticizing it.

It’s hip to be ‘blue’ square.  Am Yisrael Chai.