Robert Kraft's Blue Square Alliance gathers sports leaders to combat antisemitism
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Robert Kraft saw the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh — the death, pain and suffering that wrought — followed by a slew of other attacks on Jews that reached a crescendo with the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in Israel. Now he’s answering the call to combat antisemitism and other hateful acts by founding The Blue Square Alliance Against Hate.
That’s because, as Kraft says, there is no room for such violence in the world, and sports can be a vehicle for helping to unite and inspire people to join the battle against hate.
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Kraft: Sports Brings People Come Together
“We think the most impactful group in the country are the sports leagues to get messaging out,” Kraft told Fox News and OutKick in an exclusive interview. “It’s the one thing in America, it convenes people from all backgrounds coming into stadiums or arenas and rooting for the home team, people from every ethnic situation.
“And it’s the one place that people come together. And, unfortunately, I’ve seen the growth of hate in this country like I’ve never seen before. And we need the sports community to speak out and push out, wear the blue square, which is a symbol of unity, sisterhood, brotherhood, bringing people together to push back against hate and speak about love.”
That work by The Blue Square Alliance was on full display on Thursday with a gathering of sports leaders, athletes and professional club owners representing the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and others.
Blue Square Alliance Event At Patriots’ Home
At the event, held at Gillette Stadium, which Kraft built and where his New England Patriots play, the Blue Square Alliance held sessions to help sports leaders better understand the rise of antisemitism in the country and around the world.
There were also sessions about rebuilding the traditional, but lately fractured, partnership of black and Jewish people. There was also a session on how athletes have risen above hate.
“It’s the most important thing for this country that I love, that, you know,” Kraft said, “it’s the greatest country in the world, but we’re losing our way a little bit.”
What did Kraft mean by that?
“I meant, unfortunately, you know I think I’m 35,” the 84-year-old Kraft joked. “But I’ve spent more time on the planet than most of the people in the room. And I’ve never seen a time in America where we have a lack of empathy and listening to the other side.
“Everything is confrontational and divisiveness. And I think social media has contributed to that a lot and we don’t have the right sanctions on it. We need to bring people together and not preach this hatred.”
Blue Square Alliance Monitors Antisemitism
The Blue Square Alliance and Kraft know of what they speak.
The foundation has established a headquarters at Gillette Stadium that is staffed by about 28 people and includes a war room of sorts where a billion – with a B – posted public conversations on Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, and others are social media are monitored in real time and filtered to identify Jewish hate and other hate topics.
The group can tell you patterns that may differ from one college campus to another, from one city to another, from one generation like Gen Z, to another.
“That helps us to know and develop the most impactful, persuasive messaging, because we know what people are talking about and how we can develop messaging that can break the cycle of hate,” said Blue Square Alliance President Adam Katz.
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Mission Is Important To Kraft
Katz says antisemitism speech that is “extremely scary” has been “massively growing.”
“We have seen more in the last two years, more volume of antisemitic hate speech online in the last two years than the whole 10 years preceding that,” Katz said.
And that is why this mission is so important to Robert Kraft.
“It’s why we’re here today,” he said. “After my family, [it] is the most important thing in my life.”