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Losing Our Fear of Good News

Including good news in our arsenal means associating Jews with success and our haters with failure. After all, shouldn’t the hater merit the stench of a loser?
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March 6, 2025
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One of the side effects of spending many years in the advertising business, as I did, is that certain thoughts percolate in your mind whether you like it or not. They often relate to winning and losing.

This thought in particular has been bothering me: Why is it that the more money and resources we put in our fight against antisemitism, the worse it gets? If this fight against Jew-hatred were a business, we’d be in Chapter 11. Instead, we just add new chapters.

I’ve been part of those chapters, and for good reason. If my people are attacked — whether on a college campus or in the media or anywhere else — my first instinct is to fight back. It’s a fight that infuses my life with meaning.

There is, however, a weird downside to that fight. By necessity, we must constantly talk about what we’re fighting against: the hate. We talk about it so much, in fact, that we rarely ask ourselves: Are we losing something with all this hate talk?

In advertising, we distinguish between what we say and what we communicate. So, when we talk about the hate against Jews, are we unintentionally communicating that Jews are worthy of hate? Given that things keep getting worse, is it possible that all that noise about hate is only drumming up more hate?

We need to open our minds to the possibility that the louder we make our fight, the happier we make the haters. Nothing brings them more satisfaction than the prospect that our incessant talk about fighting hate will backfire; that it will encourage more people to wonder whether there’s something “special” about Jews that is worth loathing.

Which brings us to another great principle in advertising: “We’re so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it.” Jews have become expert at measuring public opinion against Jews and terrible at molding it.

One reason is that we rarely share good news about Jews. We’re so caught up fighting the bad news we seem to be afraid of good news.   

But good news is our superpower. It’s what girds our confidence and completes our story. It’s what nurtures our resilience and gives us hope. We’ve survived for so long not by highlighting our victimhood but by striving for success. 

Jew-haters would love nothing better than to keep Jews in the mud of bad news — to frame us as people who must constantly defend ourselves, people always fighting a losing battle. 

It’s a popular expression these days to “manifest” one’s aspirations. Whatever we’re looking for — a soulmate, career success, better relationships, etc. — we try to manifest that reality with the right mindset.

Jews have done very well reinforcing the perception that Jews are hated. Maybe it’s time to manifest a reality that makes Jews look not like victims but like winners.

Like, for example, the reality that the great majority of Americans are actually fond of Jews. Or that most Jews are doing very well and even thriving as proud Jews, proud Zionists and proud Americans.

Being victims doesn’t mean we need to act like victims. Antisemitism has gone up, yes, but who says we must amplify that reality? Why not manifest a reality and adopt a body language that make us look strong rather than weak?

Losers talk; winners win. This means Jews should focus only on fights we can win. Complaining and condemning are not victories; winning a court case is. When Jew-haters break the law or harass Jews, or when universities fail to protect their Jewish students, we win when they pay a price. When we correct lies in the media, or when we fight for more security, we also win. Those are no-brainers.

What is not a no-brainer is to include good news in our arsenal– to associate Jews with success and our haters with failure. After all, shouldn’t the hater merit the stench of a loser?

In short, the haters will never turn into losers until we turn into winners. And it’s high time Jews started winning. I learned that in advertising.

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