As antisemitic attacks continue to increase across the nation, one nonprofit is bringing attention to antisemitism and the harm it can do by posting billboards.
The billboards, paid for by JewBelong, say “Standing against antisemitism is standing with America” and went up last week. They’ll be up until Sept. 29.
Columbus has two: one at West Broad Street and Hilliard Rome Road (5339 W. Broad St.), on the city’s Far West Side, and the other at Ohio 3/Westerville Road and Morse Road, on the city’s Northeast Side.
The national nonprofit fights antisemitism and is using the billboards — of which the group has over 700 nationwide — to highlight how “poisonous antisemitism is for America as a whole.”
Why the billboards now?
Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in Ohio since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Last year, Ohio saw a 289% increase in incidents compared with the year before, according to JewBelong.
“Jews are the canary in the coal mine,” JewBelong co-founder Archie Gottesman said in a statement. “Antisemitism is a vile poison that has never boded well for societies and its growth is an alarm bell of something terribly sinister brewing in our communities.”