Lately I have been thinking about the 2026 Super Bowl ad that raised awareness about antisemitism in schools and how much I disagree with it. While I was happy to see that the topic has risen to this level of cultural awareness, the implied solution has so far not been very effective and has led to unintended consequences that have hurt my community and others like mine.

The ad depicts a Jewish teenager finding a slur taped to his backpack right before a classmate covers it with the symbolic blue square in solidarity. The intention here was good, but the framing was familiar: Jews seen primarily through fear, vulnerability, and the need for protection. The problem is not that Jewish students need protection. The problem is when protection becomes the only lens through which we are seen, whether in a Super Bowl ad or on campus.

Efforts to address antisemitism at universities often create a strange double standard produced by an overreliance on this understanding. I have repeatedly been told that the priority of my community’s leaders is to keep Jewish and pro-Israel students safe, but that concern has too often resulted in treating us less like equal participants in campus life and more like risks to be managed.

As a student at the University of Exeter involved in organizing Jewish and pro-Israel student life, I........

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