New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on Monday launched a $25 million ‘Stand Up to Jewish Hate’ advertisement campaign through Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, an organization he founded.
The campaign will feature television stars like NBC’s The Voice, the Kelly Clarkson Show, and Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen’, Associated Press reported.
“This little blue square represents the Jewish population in the United States – 2.4%,” Kraft, who comes from an Orthodox Jewish family in Brookline, Massachusetts, told the outlet. “But we’re the victims of 55% of the hate crimes in this country.”
Launched sometime in 2019-2020 by Kraft, Foundation to Combat Antisemitism aims to raise awareness across the US on the rising number of incidents of antisemitism.
In 2020, the foundation made its first major donation of $1 million to the World Jewish Congress to help combat antisemitism in Europe. The foundation also regularly partners with a range of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The ‘Stand Up to Jewish Hate’ campaign has been launched keeping in mind a target audience of non-Jewish Americans, per Matthew Bergerm, the executive director of Kraft’s foundation.
He said that the adverts will be featured during the NFL draft and the NBA and NFL playoffs and prominent influencers will be promoting it on social media soon.
Regarding the adverts, he said that the foundation will be working with its creative team to project scenarios in the life of non-Jewish Americans “that would be specifically impactful and showcase what antisemitism looks like.”
