MARCH 2 • 2023 | 33

D

rivers going west on Eight Mile 
Road near the Lodge Freeway 
in Detroit may be startled to see 
a large bright pink billboard that asks 
“Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. 
But you’re not a billboard.” The tagline 
at the bottom is “jewbelong.com.”
Similar billboards appeared on 
highways in Macomb County last year. 
The one on I-94 in Clinton Township 
had a longer message: “We’re just 75 
years since the gas chambers. So, no, a 
billboard calling out Jew hate isn’t an 
overreaction.”
These billboards are part of a 
national campaign — one of several 
Jewish advocacy efforts of JewBelong.
com, a nonprofit organization 
established in 2017 in New Jersey. 
Its co-founder is Archie Gottesman, 
formerly the chief brand officer of 
Edison Properties in New York and 
the marketing guru behind Manhattan 
Mini Storage’s well-known billboards.
Her goal was to use marketing and 
branding techniques to increase Jewish 
knowledge and observance within 
the Jewish community and to combat 
antisemitism — a growing challenge 
in the U.S. JewBelong uses ads, signs, 
billboards and its educational website 
(jewbelong.com) to disseminate 
information about Judaism and 
increase awareness of antisemitism. 
The billboards targeting 
antisemitism, some with the hashtag 
#EndJewHate, have been posted in 
multiple American cities. Some of the 
messages are available for printing as 
posters and signs through downloads 
on the JewBelong website.
Staff members of the Jewish 
Community Relations Council (JCRC/
AJC) and the Anti-Defamation League 
(ADL) of Michigan are familiar with 
the antisemitism billboards. Rabbi 
Asher Lopatin, executive director 

of JCRC/AJC, says, “I 
think they’re great. They 
are raising awareness of 
antisemitism, which is very 
important. As Jews, we feel 
vulnerable, and they may 
connect with all the good 
people out there to say 
‘let’s work together to fight 
hatred.’”
However, Rabbi Lopatin adds that he 
doesn’t know how effective they are. 
The JCRC/AJC focuses on building 
relationships among people, which is 
very effective, he says.
Carolyn Normandin, regional direc-
tor of ADL of Michigan, 
attributes the campaign to 
the rise of antisemitism. 
“Anything that gets people 
talking about a problem 
is good,” she says, adding 
that the message is a way 
of standing up to antisemi-

tism. Normandin has heard some crit-
icism of the tone of the billboards but 
hopes that it generates “open dialogue. 
We need a lot of partners to fight 
antisemitism.”
An advertising campaign like this is 
expensive. Harvey Rabinowitz, owner 
of Media … Period, is a veteran adver-
tising media planner and buyer, based 
in West Bloomfield. He estimates that 
the cost of the Eight Mile Road bill-
board could be $1,700 to $4,000 per 
month with up to 50,000 cars potential-
ly driving by daily.
However, he points out the limita-
tions of outdoor advertising — the 
preferred industry term for billboards. 
Drivers typically have time to read 
and absorb only eight words, which is 
limiting for a “difficult subject” such 
as antisemitism, he says. Outdoor 
advertising is an example of “reminder 
media” that usually supplements other 
communications, Rabinowitz explains. 

Rabbi 
Asher 
Lopatin

Carolyn 
Normandin

SHARI S. COHEN 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Billboards 
in Metro 
Detroit Target 
Antisemitism

YEVGENIYA GAZMAN

The billboard 
near the Lodge 
Freeway in 
Detroit

JewBelong.com calls out hate 
JewBelong.com calls out hate 
with outdoor advertising.
with outdoor advertising.