Gillette Stadium to host student competition to create best social media campaign to fight antisemitism in sports

The IAC partnered with Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism to put on the event, along with StandWithUs, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Tribetalk, the Jewish Teen Initiative of Boston, the Lappin Foundation, and the Consulate General of Israel to New England, the statement said.
The New England Region of the Israeli American Council’s “Teen Actathon” will bring together about 85 middle- and high-school students from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut who will be split into teams and work with mentors to develop social media campaigns to combat antisemitism, according to a statement from the IAC.
Dozens of teenagers will put their social media skills to the test at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Sunday in a competition to create powerful campaigns against antisemitism in sports.
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The students’ work will be judged by a panel that includes Patriots cheerleader and Jewish activist Eliza Kanner, 2012 NBA Champion Eddy Curry, Maccabi World Union Global Ambassador Eric Rubin and Clinical Psychologist Miri Bar-Halpern of the Boston Child Study Center. The winners will get to choose between a customized Patriots jersey or hoodie, the IAC’s statement said.
“It’s more important than ever, as you know, to help this fight, and we’re gonna do this in the most loving way possible, we’re gonna spread some knowledge, [and] we’re gonna have a really good time,” Curry said in a video promoting the event on X.
The students will also hear from David Friedman, vice president of legal of affairs for the Boston Red Sox, a spokesperson said.
The event comes as colleges in Massachusetts and elsewhere wrestle with a rise in antisemitism on campuses in the months since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces in response.
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The goal for each team is to pick a sports league, team, or player and develop a campaign that they would want to adopt and support, a spokesperson said.
Students competing in the event were recruited from schools and Jewish organizations across southern New England, including the Israeli Scouts, a youth group for Israeli-Americans; Gann Academy in Waltham; the Maimonides School in Brookline; Newton South High School; Brookline High School; and from Israeli-American and Jewish parent groups in Newton, Needham, and the Greater Boston area, as well as Jewish Community Centers in Rhode Island and Connecticut, an IAC spokesperson said.
Kraft founded the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in 2019 and has spoken out about rising antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war. During an interview with CNN in December, Kraft warned that rising antisemitism could lead to more violence against Jews locally and nationally.
“If we don’t do a good job controlling it, I think hate leads to violence,” Kraft said in the CNN interview. “And what we’re seeing going on in this country now is really scary to me, and it’s something we want to work very hard to try to prevent.”
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.