Nike Mocked ‘Never Again.’ We Will Not Forget.

For Jews across the world, “Never Again” is not a slogan. It is a sacred oath. And yet, there it was: dangling arrogantly in the London sky, hoisted on a crane like some macabre joke. A Nike billboard, shouting in black and red letters: “Never Again. Until Next Year.”

Nike should have known exactly what they were doing. They say it was a mistake. They issued an apology, claiming the slogan was about runners, about the agony and triumph of completing a marathon. But that excuse is not good enough. Not for a company whose $50 billion brand rests on understanding global audiences. Not when the phrase “Never Again” leads instantly to the memory of the Holocaust in every decent mind.

It would have taken just one voice, one person of conscience, to stop this disaster. Not one person stood up to say: This is wrong. This will hurt.

Where was the cultural sensitivity every global brand claims to champion?

And the colors they chose: blood-red background, stark black letters.

No, we are not imagining things.

The Jewish people have learned, the very hardest way, that when someone shows you disrespect, you listen. You take it seriously.

Some will say: “It was just an ad.” To that, we answer: The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It began with words.

It began with the cheapening of Jewish lives, the casual theft of Jewish memory, and the transformation of Jewish suffering into something small, something ignorable. Nike’s billboard, however unintended, fits into that chilling pattern.

Even today, as Jewish students are hounded on college campuses, as synagogues are barricaded behind walls and guards, as Hamas terrorists still vow to “do it again,” our vow of “Never Again” must be protected more fiercely than ever before.

Because “Never Again” means something. It is a boundary. A warning. A sacred line drawn in blood and fire and love for life. And once you erase that line, even in a joke, even in ignorance, you invite the unthinkable to creep back in.

Nike’s apology is welcome, but it is not enough.

They must remove every trace of this ad, invest meaningfully in Holocaust education, and demonstrate that they understand the magnitude of the wound they have reopened.

Because no race, no finish line, no shoe is more important than the memory of those whose cries we are sworn to never forget.

We will not be silenced now, not by terror, not by ignorance, and not by Nike.

Never Again means NEVER again.
Not “until next year.”
Not ever.