The most controversial commercial aired during this year’s Super Bowl was a segment paid for by Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The ad featured a black student defending a Jewish classmate from anti-semitic harassment by white classmates. The ad, which reportedly cost $15 million to produce, was intended to spotlight rising Jew-hatred in America while building “allyship” between African-Americans and Jewish-Americans. Instead, the commercial was widely bashed by critics as “dated” and “disconnected” for stereotyping its Jewish protagonist as weak.
“The commercial was widely bashed by critics as ‘dated’ and ‘disconnected.’”
The ad was just one of a number of recent calls for renewed unity between African-Americans and Jewish-Americans. As anti-Jewish hate crimes now outnumber those of every other minority group combined in major American cities, activists in both communities are leaning into the “historic alliances” between blacks and Jews to counter the anti-semitism surge.
A new four-part PBS series, Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, for instance, debuted on February 3, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and featuring notable thinkers highlighting past community victories along with solutions to current vexations. The show follows a high-profile panel in January at New York City’s 92nd Street Y focused on forming new black-Jewish alliances—along with forums, dinners, and other cross-cultural initiatives aimed at reminding blacks and Jews how deep their shared histories flow.