Chabad just put up ‘Born to Be a Yid’ billboards all over NYC

If you’ve been anywhere near the Third Avenue Bridge or the Staten Island Ferry Terminal this summer, you’ve probably seen them: two kids in yarmulkes and tzitzit cracking up mid-play, or a couple under a chuppah, groom mid-stomp on the glass. Above it all, in big letters: “Born to Be a Yid.” Below it, a link to Chabad.org. According to a press release from Chabad-Lubavitch, there’s a whole story behind those billboards.

Per the release, the campaign is meant to encourage Jews to embrace their identity with pride and takes a deliberately different approach than campaigns centered on fear or security concerns. Chabad says the idea is rooted in the teachings of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who taught that the strongest response to antisemitism is investing in Jewish identity and Jewish life rather than engaging with haters directly. That philosophy traces back to a line from the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: “Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, who directed the campaign, is quoted in the release saying the public already knows how scary things have felt lately and that this billboard is meant to feel confident and joyful instead of alarming.

The release also addresses the word choice: “Yid” has long been used affectionately among Jews, even as it’s also been weaponized as a slur elsewhere. Seligson says using it here is intentional: Jews talking to other Jews, with everyone else welcome to listen in.

Per the release, copywriter Avi Webb and designer Chana Snyder led the creative direction, with photography from Zalmy Berkowitz and Mendel Grossbaum. An anonymous donor covered an estimated $200,000 in billboard space, with businessman Yossi Popack and Chabad of the UAE also cited as contributors. The release states billboards are currently up near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal (seen by an estimated 70,000 daily commuters) and the Third Avenue Bridge (an estimated 80,000 daily), with a Times Square digital billboard and expansion to Florida both described as forthcoming.

This isn’t Chabad’s first time using citywide ad space to make a point: in the 1980s and early ’90s, Rabbi Joshua Metzger ran similar holiday-themed campaigns on buses, billboards and in newspapers around New York.

So next time you’re stuck in bridge traffic, at least there’s something up there worth staring at.