January<\/a>\u00a0JewBelong, a nonprofit group
\ndedicated to combating\u00a0antisemitism, launched an out-of-home ad campaign in New York\u00a0City\u00a0with the provocative message, \u201cTotally willing to hide my Jewish star for a free bus
\nride.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nBut\u00a0in mid-campaign last week, the outdoor agency that\u00a0placed the campaign\u2014SOMO\u2014abruptly cancelled\u00a0it.\u00a0JewBelong,
\nwhich has run similar campaigns in 42\u00a0states,\u00a0said it was the first time one of its efforts had been\u00a0pulled early\u00a0without its consent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
advertisement<\/p>\n
advertisement<\/p>\n
The message was scheduled to\u00a0appear atop
\n4,000 taxis travelling in Manhattan\u00a0through March 10.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a\u00a0JewBelong\u00a0spokesperson, the\u00a0ad\u00a0agency\u00a0informed\u00a0it of the\u00a0decision after
\nconversations with\u00a0a trade group\u00a0representing\u00a0a\u00a0portion\u00a0of the city\u2019s yellow taxi fleet owners.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
An executive with that
\ngroup\u00a0indicated\u00a0that\u00a0it had received complaints about\u00a0the campaign.\u00a0And there were\u00a0also\u00a0concerns, the executive said,\u00a0that the campaign was\u00a0perceived as a
\nthinly veiled dig at\u00a0a proposal by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to\u00a0make bus rides in the city free of charge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0JewBelong\u00a0spokesperson stressed that there was no
\nreference to Mamdani in the campaign. She said that the agency offered the group the opportunity to provide alternate copy for the ads but declined. The campaign was then pulled.<\/p>\n
SOMO could not
\nbe\u00a0immediately\u00a0reached\u00a0for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JewBelong\u00a0founder Archie Gottesman\u00a0stated, \u201cWhy are Jewish voices being silenced in New York City at the very moment antisemitism
\nis surging?\u201d The campaign, he added, \u201cwas created to garner attention and start a conversation about the compromises many Jews feel pressured to make about visibility and identity amid
\nrising antisemitism. Pulling it sends a chilling message that speaking out against hate is acceptable, until it makes someone uncomfortable. We refuse to be silent.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan\u00a0Greenblatt,\u00a0CEO of New York-based Anti-Defamation League\u00a0stated,\u00a0\u201cIf acknowledging that Jewish New Yorkers
\nsometimes feel compelled to hide visible symbols of their identity is considered controversial, that should alarm all of us. The problem\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0the billboard. The problem is the climate
\nthat made the message resonate in the first place. Pulling this campaign is misguided and deeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there are no plans to revive the taxi campaign, static billboards will
\ngo up in Bronx and Queens on March 2 with messages: “Standing against antisemitism is standing with America,”\u00a0and “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In\u00a0January\u00a0JewBelong, a nonprofit group dedicated to combating\u00a0antisemitism, launched an out-of-home ad campaign in New York\u00a0City\u00a0with the provocative message,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64,62493],"class_list":{"0":"post-149164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news","13":"tag-the-agency-handling-the-campaign-cited-complaints-from-the-public-and-what-was-perceived-as-a-thinly-veiled-swipe-at-new-york-city-mayor-zohran-mamdani-03-02-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/media.mediapost.com\/dam\/cropped\/2026\/03\/01\/taxitopjewbelong_1dtdgkr_IYMF3au.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n