(image from Jewish Federation of British Columbia)<\/i><\/p>\n
In anticipation of the FIFA World Cup, a series of billboards has been put up across the Greater Vancouver Regional District \u2013 across both Canada and Millennium lines, on billboards spanning from Vancouver to Surrey,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows, and at transit hubs from Richmond to North and West Vancouver.<\/p>\n The billboards feature messages including:<\/p>\n \u2022 Supporting Jews shouldn\u2019t require a PR campaign, but here we are.<\/p>\n \u2022 You don\u2019t have to be a Jew to protect Jews.<\/p>\n \u2022 Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. But you\u2019re not a billboard.<\/p>\n \u2022 Whether you call it football or soccer, antisemitism is a foul.<\/p>\n \u2022 You don\u2019t need a whistle to call out antisemitism.<\/p>\n The campaign is designed to be impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n \u201cAntisemitism is rising not only globally, but right here in British Columbia,\u201d said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of British Columbia. \u201cJewish people are experiencing increased harassment, vandalism, exclusion and threats in everyday spaces. Too often, that reality is minimized or misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n The aim of the campaign is to encourage reflection and dialogue on shared responsibility in addressing hate and exclusion. The billboards are not about provocation for its own sake; they\u2019re about breaking through the silence.<\/p>\n The campaign launched June 8, for its run to coincide with the FIFA World Cup. Sport is intended to reflect fairness, respect and belonging. However, real sportsmanship isn\u2019t passive. It requires active participation, including speaking up and calling out harmful behaviour and supporting one another when it occurs. The campaign asks audiences to consider questions of inclusion and belonging in public life. It asks: Who feels safe, welcome and included in our city \u2013 and who does not? The messages are intended to encourage dialogue in homes, workplaces, educational settings and community spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are asking for honest engagement with what responsibility looks like when hate is not abstract,\u201d Shanken said.<\/p>\n The billboard initiative was made possible through a strategic partnership with the nonprofit JewBelong and PATTISON Outdoor Advertising and is a direct response to the rise of antisemitism. Following Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish communities in British Columbia and across Canada have experienced increasing incidents of harassment, exclusion and vandalism in public and institutional spaces.<\/p>\n In 2025, Federation, in partnership with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, conducted a community survey to assess the lived experience of antisemitism in British Columbia. Key findings included:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 85% of respondents reported that antisemitism has \u201cincreased a lot,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 93% reported feeling less secure than they did prior to Oct. 7, 2023,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 62% reported experiencing at least one antisemitic incident, and<\/p>\n \u2022 46% reported experiencing multiple incidents.<\/p>\n These findings reflect a widespread perception within the community that antisemitism has intensified in both frequency and impact. Jewish Federation of British Columbia invites the public to engage with the campaign and consider the role of civic responsibility in addressing hate and exclusion. Learn more at\u00a0jewishvancouver.com\/combatting-antisemitism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 Courtesy Jewish Federation of British Columbia<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (image from Jewish Federation of British Columbia) In anticipation of the FIFA World Cup, a series of billboards has been put up across the Greater Vancouver Regional District \u2013 across both Canada and Millennium lines, on billboards spanning from Vancouver to Surrey,\u00a0 Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows, and at transit hubs from Richmond to North and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[801,4280,2447,24919,3649,24920,3314,584],"class_list":["post-49202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-antisemitism","tag-ezra-shanken","tag-fifa","tag-jewbelong","tag-jewish-federation","tag-pattison-outdoor-advertising","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}