The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, an organization founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, ran an advertisement during the Super Bowl on Sunday to spread awareness of a rise in anti-Jewish sentiments, which have increased since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
The ad, titled “Silence,” began with Clarence Jones, the draft speechwriter for Martin Luther King Jr., reflecting on what he’d write today “for my dear friend Martin.”
“I’d remind people that all hate thrives on one thing,” Jones said over footage of a burning cross, a swastika, and an antisemitic social media post. “Silence.”
Kraft spent $7 million on the 30-second commercial, according to Front Office Sports, and it is a continuation of the “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported. That campaign began in 2022 in the wake of several high-profile antisemitic incidents.
“When we stand up to silence, we stand up to all hate,” Jones concluded in the advertisement, saying it is those who speak out against injustice that will change the nation.
Kraft told USA Today Sports about his fear over the state of the country. “I don’t recognize parts of this nation. I don’t like where we’re headed. I’m worried about our country right now.”
Kraft, who is Jewish, listed several violent attacks in the country in which antisemitism was involved.
“None of this should be happening in the United States of America,” he said. “We’re the greatest country in the world, but it’s starting to look like Germany in the 1930s to me.”
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Israel has continued its assault in Gaza since Hamas’s surprise massacre last fall. The country has refused calls for it to scale back its attacks, even as many humanitarian organizations have pleaded for help for Palestinians in the region.
Hamas’s attack and Israel’s military response have led to an influx of antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world, causing controversy within the federal government, on college campuses, and on social media.
