Stamford resident Natasha Konstorum was driving along a Chicago highway last October when she encountered a message 48 feet wide and 14 feet high, a bright fuchsia billboard exhorting motorists, “End Jew Hatred.”
Even before the murderous Hamas attacks on Israel, the U.S. was experiencing a shocking increase in antisemitic rhetoric and acts, and national organizations had already begun to communicate concern and calls to action along the country’s highways. With the Oct. 7 atrocities top of mind, Konstorum returned to Stamford with one mission: to bring the outsized messaging about rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment to Connecticut.
By early December, Konstorum and a grassroots group of volunteers, Digital Campaign Against Antisemitism, had raised $4,500 in the Stamford community, enough money to mount its first digital billboard along I-95.
Now known as Stand Jewnited, the group has partnered with sponsor nonprofit organization United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan and Darien (UJF), to rent a series of billboards in 20 locations along I-95 in Connecticut and New York, I-91 in Connecticut, and other locations in New York, featuring rotating ads which promote pro-Jewish and pro-Israel messages.
“What started with United Jewish Federation making posters and fliers to help raise local awareness in the community about the attacks in Israel in October suddenly became so much bigger,” said UJF CEO Diane Sloyer. “By December, the Digital Campaign Against Antisemitism was launched with UJF supporting a group of grassroots activists by purchasing digital advertising space with billboards that feature messages that inform, educate and resonate with our diverse communities.”
The Stand Jewnited team of volunteers are mostly software engineers (and one construction engineer). “We do it together because we know that we cannot stay silent and we need to defend our people and our rights,” said Galina Landres, a Stand Jewnited member who immigrated to Stamford from Belarus in 1987 with her husband, two children and three grandparents. “As refuseniks, we ran from government-sponsored antisemitism in the Soviet Union. So this is very important to me personally.”
Several nonprofit organizations in the U.S. have run billboard campaigns before Oct. 7 and in the wake of the attack, among them jewbelong (they of the ubiquitous fuchsia signs), Shine A Light, and Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Both UJF and the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County (based in Bridgeport) are sponsoring independent local campaigns along I-95 near Stratford Avenue in Bridgeport, whose City Council passed a controversial ceasefire resolution for Gaza in January (upheld in April).
According to data collected by the technology embedded in the UJF-sponsored billboard, 2.3 million drivers saw Stand Jewnited’s message in the first four weeks.
In February, Konstorum was again inspired when she viewed a Super Bowl ad sponsored by Robert Kraft for the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Stand Jewnited turned to UJF and UJF’s parent organization, Jewish Federations of North America, to create a 30-second video with the message, “Antisemitism Can End with You.” In March, the groups worked with National CineMedia and contracted with AMC Theatres to show the video during previews on all screens and in all lobbies at AMC theaters in Port Chester, New York and at multiple AMC locations in Stamford and Norwalk.
“We never anticipated getting into such a long commitment, but the campaign has become part of the movement against antisemitism,” said Konstorum, who immigrated to Stamford in 1990 from Saint Petersburg in Russia. “We are privileged to represent the UJF and the Jewish community of Stamford and beyond, continually sharing simple yet powerful messages: ‘Say No to Antisemitism, Support Democracy, and Stand with Israel!’”
Why billboards? “As jewbelong posted on one of its signs, ‘Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. But you’re not a billboard,’ and that’s exactly what we are doing,” Konstorum said, “reminding people that antisemitism is not OK and that we must stand for democracy and with Israel, the only democratic outpost in the Middle East.”
Stand Jewnited and UJF continue to fundraise in order to keep spreading the word. The campaign works with three billboard companies, each with a different policy regarding acceptable messaging around supporting Israel and standing up against antisemitism.
In addition to the statistics on the number of passersby viewing each digital billboard, the group gets feedback from community members who encounter the signs. “One commuter who sees the billboard signs on her drive to work said it best,” said Sloyer. “She said, ‘It gives me so much strength for the day. I am very grateful for these reminders that I do have a community and support.’ The Digital Campaign for Antisemitism is yet another example of how UJF is making an impact every day, both locally and across Connecticut. But we couldn’t do it if it wasn’t for those who generously gave and continue to give.”
To learn more about the Digital Campaign Against Antisemitism, visit www.ujf.org/digital-campaign-against-antisemitism. To view Stand Jewnited’s 30-second video, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo1VY8sJlSU.
Cynthia Mindell is a staff writer at The Jewish Link
