In a sign of the times, billboards have been placed along highways in Los Angeles and Philadelphia to address the rising tide of antisemitism in the United States.
“Who’s behind this chaos?” reads one. Another says, “Did you miss your flight when this airport was shut down by an anti-Israel mob?”
Three billboards were put up in Los Angeles during the last week of July, and two in Philadelphia were erected the first week of August. Both are scheduled to stay in place through most of the month.
The nonprofit US Forum for Israel is funding the bicoastal signage with support from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISGAP, also a nonprofit. The two entities coined the term the “Hate Brigade,” which appears on the billboards.
Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, says the message is to stand up for the nation’s values. “We are trying to raise awareness and bring attention to who’s behind the chaos—the anti-democratic and hate-filled chaos,” he told JNS. “These are very un-American things.”
He said anti-American forces have spilled from the college classroom to tent encampments and onto the streets—and that’s where the message needs to be sounded.
The Pennsylvania signs rise above the Vine Street Expressway, a major east-west thoroughfare that was part of the city’s original street plan laid out in 1682 by William Penn and Thomas Holme. More than 100,000 vehicles travel the expressway daily, according to a Dec. 19 report issued by the City of Philadelphia.
The California billboards stand in prominent locations outside of the Los Angeles International Airport, which was shut down last year by anti-Israel protests associated with Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The airport was ranked in 2022 as the sixth busiest in the world for passenger traffic.
