The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s mission is to help address hate against Jews in the United States specifically.​ Since its inception, it has focused its activities on positive messaging and partnerships, motivating and equipping non-Jews to be defenders and upstanders for Jews. ​

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Despite these efforts, U.S. antisemitic incidents were escalating. Knowing the problem has existed for thousands of years, we needed a novel solution in creative strategy and form to effectively change minds and behavior at scale, moving people from apathy into action.

Our objectives: 1) Raise awareness and understanding of antisemitism in the US; 2) Galvanize Americans to stand up on behalf of the Jewish community experiencing hate, and create a groundswell of support and empathy.

For our first campaign, we contextualized the small size of the Jewish population vs. the size of hate against them. We used a blue square to takeover 2.4% of screens everywhere. It appeared, unannounced, during a live broadcast of The Voice. Our messaging followed, explaining Jews are 2.4% of the population, yet victims of 55% of religious hate. The Blue Square appeared across networks, OOH, and social - going from just a visualization of the problem to a symbol of advocacy already on every smartphone.

After Oct 7th, our new campaign “Neighbors” launched during The Oscars, a night that celebrates beautiful stories. “Neighbors” recounts an actual event. Just 12 days after October 7th, as a young boy began his Bar Mitzvah, the synagogue received a bomb threat. The members were given safe shelter to continue their services in a nearby church. A true story that inspires action through empathy.

How can 2.4% fight 55%? The answer is not alone.

While stopping Jewish hate was impossible, encouraging people to stand up against it wasn’t.

We created custom research algorithms to score levels of antisemitism. Between allies and haters, we identified an audience, ~44% named “The Apathetics”. They didn't see themselves as antisemitic, but were the silent majority. We couldn’t let them be just bystanders. We needed to turn them into allies.

Then…October 7th changed everything and our campaign needed to adapt. Acts of Jewish hate in the US increased 388%, and Jews and their allies were under attack. We built on our underlying ‘bystanders into allies’ strategy with pivots. We found misinformation driving more skepticism on the statistics. The data that our strategy was built on became subjective. Simply illustrating the size of the problem wouldn’t breakthrough. Our new work needed true human stories to bridge moral and political divides.

We set out to shine a light on a problem people didn’t see.

And we did.

41% increase in agreement antisemitism is a major problem.

(Attitudinal shift among “The Apathetics” directly linked to our campaign)

We created massive reach and action.

-1,765+ earned media stories

-7.4B+ media impressions

-23,000+ unsolicited donations

-Shared by key opinion leaders - 96M+ followers

-Over 5M+ Blue Square pins requested and distributed

And with antisemitism exploding, we needed to create more allies.

We have.

33% increase in likelihood to stand up against Jewish hate.

(Behavioral shift among “The Apathetics” directly linked to our campaign)

The campaign message reached the U.S. Senate Floor, and even helped to pass ‘End Jew Hatred Day’ in Congress.

We are continuing to build on our underlying ‘bystanders into allies’ strategy, deploying the blue square asset as a powerful symbol of support and standing up to Jewish hate.