Jewish organization blasts colleges in billboard ad near San Diego State University to combat antisemitism

A Jewish organization is making their message bright and bold in a new billboard campaign posted near San Diego State University and calling on colleges to fight antisemitism.

“Dear colleges, American kids are afraid. Do your job!” the billboard reads in bright pink and white.

The billboards are in support of a nationwide campaign to fight antisemitism on college campuses. 

“It’s very hard to get people’s attention,” Archie Gottesman, co-founder of JewBelong, the nonprofit behind the billboards, told Fox 5 San Diego. 

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Gottesman told Fox 5 that the organization started putting up billboards to fight antisemitism in 2021.

Then, just three years after they began their billboard campaign, the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel happened on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since the attack, Gottesman said the Anti-Defamation League said antisemitic attacks have increased nationwide, including San Diego. 

“It really makes no sense that with a terrible massacre of innocent people comes a rise of antisemitism in America, so what JewBelong did is we doubled down, and we really focused on raising awareness,” Gottesman added.

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Gottesman said their goal is to start conversations and break through the noise. 

“I feel like maybe there could be a better way to really explain what is actually happening,” Chalom Boudjnah, Rabbi at the Chabad House at SDSU told Fox 5. “Is that actually going to help students right now…”

Boudjnah said he has seen harassment and attacks firsthand, including several attacks of vandalism against the menorah outside the Chabad house, which had been vandalized three times in the last two years. 

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“I think being the target with the menorah and antisemitism and everything else, I always feel like maybe resources should be better spent on the people on the ground and supporting the actual students that are going to the campuses,” Boudjnah added.

The latest act of vandalism against the menorah in March left the structure broken on the ground, and it was all caught on tape.

“It was done in a vicious act. You can see where one person, who covered himself up, went straight at the menorah, pushed it down to the breaking point. Really, really vile and hateful,” Boudjnah previously told Fox News Digital.

But despite the attack, Boudjnah said it ignited the passion in their spirit more and that’s when they decided to rebuild the menorah — even with mounting hate crimes and acts of antisemitism happening across the country. 

“It’s been a burden on our community, but we are reminded that we have to stand strong. We didn’t let this ruin anything. Instead, we came together and decided to build something beautiful and strong,” Boudjnah said.