How a multi-faith, multiracial team of artists is waging a nationwide billboard campaign to fight antisemitism
Eric Gottesman’s billboard, which asks viewers to think about connections between American patriotism and antisemitism, greets passersby in Atlanta, Georgia during the 2023 High Holidays. Courtesy of Eric Gottesman
By Sam Lin-Sommer September 18, 2023
This week, on a street corner in downtown Columbus, Ohio, the Hebrew phrase “Tikkun Olam,” along with its translation, “Heal the World,” is being displayed in crisp white, green and yellow print against a blue background.
The billboard, designed by visual artist Deborah Kass, is one of 12 arresting artworks popping up in seven states, and Washington, D.C., as part of The Highest Form of Wisdom is Kindness, a project aimed at fighting rising antisemitism in the United States. The campaign is the work of art collective For Freedoms, which has enlisted 13 artists — some Jewish, some not — for the effort, among them Kass, Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems.
The Highest Form of Wisdom is Kindness, which launched on September 5th, in time for the High Holidays, takes its name from a phrase attributed to the Talmud. “Jewish study, much like art, prioritizes asking big questions over claiming to have answers,” For Freedoms said in a statement.
Curators Carly Fischer and Eric Gottesman placed the billboards in cities with significant Jewish populations, sometimes where participating artists had personal connections.
The billboards, which will remain on display until the end of September, come six months after the Anti-Defamation League released an audit revealing that the organization received an unprecedented 3,697 reports of antisemitic incidents in 2022. They are not the only billboard campaigns fighting antisemitism; several other organizations such as JewBelong and ShineALight have placed ads to fight antisemitism, with mixed reception.
On Los Angeles’s TCL Chinese Theater, Zoë Buckman and Alex Woz placed the words “USE YOUR VOICE: CALL OUT ANTISEMITISM” in block text.
But most artists took a less direct approach. Above the W Hotel in Boston, photographer Wyatt Gallery designed a digital billboard that evokes a call to prayer more than a call to action, with the word “שׁלום” in Hebrew, its transliteration “Shalom,” and its English translation “Peace,” alternating in large, white script in front of a photo of a sunlit synagogue.
Tanya Habjouqa, a Jordanian-American photojournalist based in East Jerusalem, designed a wrap-around blue-scale billboard on a Washington, D.C., street corner that immerses passersby in water imagery: a photo of Rabbi Haviva Ner-David in a mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath, alongside aqua blue phrases such as “mikveh~womb,” “where difference dissolves,” and “repairing our world together.”
The billboard tells a personal story for Habjouqa, who has spent most of the last 10 years documenting the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Ner-David is her friend, and she invited Habjouqa into a mikvah as part of a practice of offering the bath to people who feel alienated by Israeli society.
Later, when Habjouqa came up with the idea of portraying the mikvah for For Freedoms’ campaign, Ner-David was in full support. She told Habjouqa that, in this time of viral hatred, the spiritual cleanse of the ritual bath is exactly what the United States needs. Habjouqa said that she hoped her design would teach viewers about this concept of renewal while prompting them to slow down and reflect.
Habjouqa, who is of Circassian descent and identifies as agnostic, said that her time covering the struggles of Palestinians has reinforced the importance of fighting all forms of oppression. “Antisemitism is another symptom of rising intolerance,” she said. “It’s all connected.”
Kass said that she is happy to see Jews and other marginalized people supporting each other against hate: “The majority of Americans are being attacked. So let’s get together.”
Though Kass is hesitant to predict a quick and easy victory against something as ancient as antisemitism — “In the scheme of things, what has ever helped?” she wondered aloud — she said that she hopes that her billboard prompts pedestrians and drivers in Columbus to take responsibility for fixing what’s broken, and ask themselves, “What are you going to do to heal the world?”
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