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Imagining a Different Super Bowl Ad Against Antisemitism
(Times of Israel) Dr. Mitchell Bard - This year's Super Bowl ad combating antisemitism is well-intentioned. It shows a Jewish teen named David walking down a high-school hallway. Two students bump him and stick something onto his backpack. When David reaches his locker, we see the note: "DIRTY JEW." The outcome is: endure the insult, suppress the confrontation, and walk away. Turn the other cheek. This commercial does not inspire courage. It says: cover it up and move along. It is the response of the ghetto Jew, not what one would expect of a Jew living comfortably in 21st-century America. Imagine a different David: not a nebbish shrinking at his locker, but a Jew with bulging biceps who pulls out a yarmulke, puts on a Magen David necklace, turns around, and walks straight back down the hall - not to beg for acceptance, but to assert dignity. He might casually knock the guy who put the Post-it on his backpack on his behind, lean down, and put a note on his forehead that says PROUD ZIONIST to make clear American Jews are done turning the other cheek. The writer is executive director of the Jewish Virtual Library.