Stephens outscores Kraft during Superbowl week
During America’s Superbowl LX week, two diverse approaches to today’s scourge of antisemitism were voiced by the high-profile advocates Bret Stephens and Robert Kraft. Both men are well credentialed and motivated advocates for the Jewish people and for Israel. But the sharp contrast in their messages reveals painful truths about the threats to Jewish community and brings into focus important choices to be made.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, on February 1, presented his assessment of the “State of World Jewry” at the 92nd Steet Y. With his famously clever, urbane manner he declared that it is time to stop fighting the millennia-old antisemitism. It’s time to “stop being wounded” and to stop trying to prove the haters wrong. Stephens boldly declared all Jews take as an honor – as a compliment – being hated by such an unworthy crowd. He exampled, “We have the honor of being hated by UN mandarins who would like you to know that the preponderance of human rights violations on this earth are committed by one small country, Israel.”
Stephens proposed the American Jewish community instead invest in strengthening Jewish identity and knowledge about Judaism and Israel. Stop gifting the likes of ADL (Anti -Defamation League) and instead spend money on better Jewish schools. His message resonated with the briefer statement by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, “People respect Jews who respect Judaism.”
A few days later New England Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft continued his Blue Square Alliance Against Hate campaign pouring $15 million into a Superbowl ad titled “Sticky Note.” It was essentially a medieval “morality play” featuring a diminutive, harassed Jewish youngster menaced in a school hallway and tagged with a “Dirty Jew” Post-it. He is rescued by a taller African American classmate who consoles him and overlays the offensive tag with – you guessed it – a blue square sticky note.
It wasn’t Schindler’s List, but it was a mini victimhood drama reminding millions of Americans that Jews are weak, set upon, and yes antisemitism is cruel and thoughtless.
Leil Leibovitz of Tablet Magazine calls out the huge flaw in the Blue Square campaign. He says, “Even if his New England Patriots win, the team’s owner will go down in history as having created the single most embarrassing, idiotic, abominable, counterproductive, no good, very bad ad in the big game’s history.” Leibovitz wants “…Jewish power and pride,” and he referenced presenting imagery of cool, tough, successful IDF soldiers in lieu of the characterization of pity and quivering throwbacks to desperate Jews of the past.
Maybe Kraft’s ad could have closed with the young man returning to the school hallway and handing the creeps pagers as he walks away with a sly smile. Maybe the ringtone would be Hatikvah.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard graduate who is a recognized Jewish voice, opined, “American Jews: If you are spending millions to ‘fight antisemitism’ instead of building Jewish life, you are both out of touch with the needs of Gen Z Jews and have not learned the lessons of post-October 7th Jewry … Fund Jewish Day Schools, not Super Bowl ads.”
Both Stephens’s and Kraft’s actions must be seen in the context of the long history of legacy Jewish institutions investing with huge amounts of money and effort to “fight” antisemitism. The lethal violence, along with normalized Jew hatred, witnessed since October 7 motivates their urgency to find new answers.
While both Kraft and Stephens are on the same pro-Jewish and pro-Israel team, their perspectives on antisemitism are diametrically opposed. Not only did Kraft start yet another organization, but he also doubled down on a flawed premise. As they say, eagles fly alone, not in flocks.
Stephens cut through the clutter to the painful truth. Some of his wisdom includes…” Jews need to stop caring so much about the approval of the world. We cannot charm antisemites into liking us. We cannot educate hatred out of people determined to hate … instead, we should invest in those who already like us, respect us and want to stand with us. We should build those relationships and strengthen those alliances. And then turn inward. We can invest deeply in Jewish education, presenting Judaism in its full richness and intellectual depth. We can create spaces where Jewish life is not defensive, but generative.”
At the end of the game, Stephens’s offense topped Kraft’s defense.
