Like the Golden Girls but with three Jewish guys and Phoebe
The naches and broigus of the week
Angry billboards, Super Bowl ads: Does Judaism need a rebrand?
Does Judaism need a rebrand? In the wake of Oct. 7—against a backdrop of rising Jew hatred, rampant anti-Zionism and more antisemitic conspiracy theories than ever before—some would argue we do.
It’s through that lens that Avi and Phoebe have noticed a number of organizations shift their marketing strategies. Speaking to the broader public, we’ve seen JewBelong, once a quirky series of hot-pink billboards spouting pithy lines about Jewish inclusion, suddenly start shouting increasingly aggressive slogans about gas chambers and Hamas. Meanwhile, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by billionaire Robert Kraft, is airing a multimillion-dollar anti-antisemitism commercial during the Super Bowl.
Even within our own communities, dozens of organizations—most recently the Union for Reform Judaism—have undergone rebrands, changing logos and colour schemes away from blue, white and black.
But who are these marketing efforts geared towards? What are they trying to say? And are they actually going to change anything?
Arno Rosenfeld, the enterprise reporter for The Forward, and Lex Rofeberg, the co-host of the podcast Judaism Unbound, join for a lengthy discussion about the relevance and impact of Jewish marketing.
Jewish refugees ~from~ Canada? Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the limits of legitimate antisemitism concerns amidst the comeback of Donald Trump
I moved to Canada from the United States in 2015. Given that most people I meet know me to be a new arrival but aren’t thinking about exactly when I’d arrived, I have gotten a lot of the following: You moved here because of Donald Trump, right?…