Yes, and, Brett Stephens

Hold the Shpilkes, AND Keep Fighting the Narrative War

Brett Stephens gave a powerful speech on February 1, 2026, at the 92nd Street Y in New York. It was an in-our-faces call to change the way we Jews are reacting to the increase in antisemitism that is happening all around us. You can watch his speech here and hear an excerpt of an interview with Stephens where he discusses his comments.

I found this talk educational and inspirational, and I agree with much of what Stephens said. At the same time, I disagree with some of his important conclusions and action steps. Here I offer a complementary perspective. “Yes, and” Brett Stephens.

Summary of what Brett Stephens said

Stephens says that antisemitism is “history’s most unwitting compliment,” and that hatred of Jews is actually “resentment marinated in envy.” He says we need to “stop being surprised, stop being aggrieved and indignant, stop being wounded,” and then he goes on to say we need to “stop caring.” We need to see this hatred as a “badge of honor,” and use it to our advantage. We Jews have always been “counter-cultural,” for example, our monotheism was original in speaking for a common moral code. Jews have often said “no” to neighboring cultures’ norms, and hearing “no” can cause rage in the people who hear it.

He says that Jews should not try to apologize or appease. Instead, he says, we should focus our efforts on building the strength of our community. We have spent too much time trying to “get a seat at the table,” and that when that happens you should “build your own table.”

Stephens believes that the money the Jewish community is spending fighting antisemitism is largely wasted, which I agree with. He points out that we shouldn’t waste our time trying to change the minds of antisemites, because that’s impossible, and I also agree with that. However, he makes what I believe is an unsustainable leap from this point: He says that the overall fight against antisemitism is not worth fighting, because it is “unwinnable.”

Where I disagree - a marketing perspective

Brett Stephens is certainly more of an expert in history and geopolitics than I am, but I have expertise in marketing that can guide us on this issue.

One of the first steps in any marketing communications effort is to understand who your audience is and who your audience isn’t. Stephens is right that antisemites are not our audience, and that we should not waste our time trying to persuade them. Fortunately, most people are not antisemites.

There are millions of people who are either neutral or somewhat predisposed to our cause. Are these people worth persuading? Certainly. Consider how many people were not criticizing Israel and the Jews on October 6th, 2023, but shortly thereafter were convinced Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, and shouting loudly enough about it to affect the policies of governments throughout the world. Our adversaries were able to communicate effective stories that converted these people, and our communication efforts were, at the same time, either absent or feeble. We could have prevented many of these people from becoming Jew haters, and shame on us if we don’t try to prevent the next crop of Jew haters from emerging.

Also, Stephens’s point that the fight against antisemitism is “unwinnable” is, I believe, misguided. What does it mean to win? This is not a Super Bowl-type winner-take-all contest. This is an ongoing battle, where we can chip away at antisemitism and blunt its impacts. At all times, we have the agency to affect the balance of power in the narrative war.

I agree that most of the money spent combatting antisemitism has been ineffective and wasteful. But does that mean there is no way for us to communicate more effectively in the future? I’ve written extensively on this topic, and you can start here to read my thoughts.

Most marketing sucks. That doesn’t mean good marketing is impossible.

We have small numbers, and outsized impact

To defend his contention that the fight against antisemitism is unwinnable, Stephens makes the oft-repeated argument that our small numbers make winning impossible. After all, how can 15 million Jews combat the hundreds of millions of Muslims, left-wing activists and right-wing ideologues who hate us? There are more people tapping out Jew hatred on keyboards than there are Jews in the entire world, so how can we possibly fight back?

This ignores an entire history of Jewish, and more recently, Israeli, successes. We have always been relatively small in numbers, and have always had an outsized impact on the world. Our religion was that of a small tribe, and led to religions now followed by billions of people. Our moral precepts have influenced much of world society. Our ingenuity has spawned industries and created discoveries that have changed the modern world for the better. And Israel has demonstrated that a small country on the leading edge of technology can compete well above its weight.

This last point is particularly relevant to the fight against Jew hatred. The narrative war is fueled by digital communications, and Israel has demonstrated an uncanny ability to leverage digital technologies to create an outsize impact. Why do so many hi-tech companies either have important operations in Israel, and/or have purchased Israeli start-ups? Because the small country of Israel is a world power when it comes to digital technologies. The Jewish world could be as effective on narrative battlefields as Israel is on military battlefields, but only if we put our capabilities and talents to good use. With better organization, strategy and execution we could leverage our small size to fight a much more effective flight on the narrative battlefields.

Don’t be scared, but don’t ignore the dangers

Yes, we should not hyperventilate and react with anxious indignation every time we encounter antisemitism. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be strategic - and effective - in this fight. We can hold the shpilkes, and still keep our resolve.

We should focus on Jewish pride, not Jewish victimhood. We should understand that Jew hate is often “resentment marinated in envy,” but we should not ignore the dangers of Jew hate.

Stephens himself points out that we cannot “lose our instinct for danger.” He says that many previous Jewish communities learned that “their zenith was one step away from their precipice.” So how can we possibly not care about antisemitism, and not bother to fight back against it?

The narrative war is no longer a side show. We no longer have the choice Golda Meir outlined in 1969: “If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we’d rather be alive and have the bad image.” Now we can be dead with a bad image. Actually, we can now die because of a bad image.

Yes, and

Thank you Brett Stephens for encouraging us to look forward, and to build on our Jewish history, talents, and pride. Yes, you make many powerful points.

And, you stop short. Your argument does not lead to the conclusions you make. We need to do the positive things you recommend, and also fight the narrative war with more prowess.

We can do both things at once. So far we haven’t been performing well on narrative battlefields, but we certainly have the agency and the capability to turn the tide in this all-important fight.