The Jewish Narrative War—And the Brand Fighting Back.

[00:00:00] When 300 million people have seen your work on social media, you know you're tapping into something very important. Im That Jew is a movement to try to help every Jewish person around the world feel more confident being openly Jewish. We've got to speak up. We've been quiet for too long. The Jewish people do not have a brand.

[00:00:25] Im trying to build a brand for the Jewish people. When someone sidejacks your narrative with bad intentions and they're out to destroy you and your reputation and you do nothing about it, then this is what happens. We also have enemies that have endless money and they're very patient. They play the long game. Im That Jew.

[00:00:54] Welcome to the Israeli Trailblazers show where we spotlight Israelis who are bright and contributing to mankind. Im your host Jennifer Weissmann. After years of living in Israel, Im back in America and I see it very clearly. Israel is the most misunderstood country on the planet. Today's episode dives into a global movement that's shaking things up and it's called I'm That Jew.

[00:01:22] Joining us is the advertising powerhouse behind the movement, Eitan Chittayet. He is on a mission to build a Jewish brand. He's dedicated himself to amplifying the Jewish voice and he speaks unapologetically for Jewish people trying to inspire all of us to be vocal and to own our own personal Jewish narrative.

[00:01:47] His advocacy work has been seen over 300 million times. Ready to fill the script? The world woke up after October 7th and life changed. How did that translate into the campaign I'm That Jew? On October 7th, I was in Germany. I was at a friend's wedding in the countryside all on my own with a bunch of really nice German people. I think I was the only Jew around.

[00:02:13] I got the news and of course my family living in Israel was very, very scary. We immediately saw that this is not your typical terrorism event. I mean, a few days to get home immediately on the first day, put out a video saying that we've got to speak up and that it was a message not to Israelis. It was a message to the Jewish people around the world because I've been advocating for the Jewish people as a side passion for around 15 years.

[00:02:38] And I wasn't shocked by the silence of October 8th and until now and the twisting of the truth because I've seen it before in smaller doses. And the message really was we need to be loud. We've been quiet for too long. And the silencing of our narrative, the hijacking of our narrative, which has been pushed for so many years, this is going to be the result. It's going to be absolutely lies on a global scale. And that's kind of what happened.

[00:03:08] And I'm still speaking up. I still live October 7th because, you know, I've been working with some hostage families and working with IDF soldiers and displaced families. And when you're in this space of advocacy, of speaking up publicly, then you're constantly living it. And I've made it a bit of a mission with the work that I'm doing. And I'm that Jew is that work.

[00:03:29] Because when we stop to say who we are, when we hide who we are, when we assimilate too much with our narrative, when we don't make it a point to say, I'm proud to be Jewish and I'm proud of my values. And we just remain quiet over decades. Then this is the result. People don't know who we are. They're being told who we are by other people as opposed to us. So I see it as an existential narrative.

[00:03:54] And it's a narrative because while we invest in so many things and we do, and Israel is an incredible country and the Jewish people are an incredible people. How can it be that we haven't taken seriously the removal of our voices and in many cases by choice and the hijacking of our voices? So I'm that Jew is about us. It's about our identity, our values, who we are, what we say. And it's unapologetic.

[00:04:22] And it's inclusive for every Jew and for our allies who want to stand with us. And it's a forever narrative and one that we must never, ever, ever let go of. For someone who's not aware, how would you describe the campaign, I'm that Jew? Well, it's more than a campaign. It's actually a movement. The inception of I'm that Jew was back 11 years ago. There was the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, France, where Islamic jihadists took down a lot of people in a French satirical magazine because they depicted the prophet Muhammad.

[00:04:51] And they didn't like that. They also killed a few Jewish shoppers in a kosher supermarket. I wrote to my friend in France and I asked her how she's doing because it was very shocking. And she said, you know, I don't tell people that I'm Jewish. I don't tell people I've ever been to Israel. I'm scared. I sat down and I wrote a piece, which I later turned into a film that went viral and actually a letter to her.

[00:05:10] The inspiration was to strengthen her, to remind her who it is that she is, not that she had forgotten, but what we have to be proud of and how we need to remember that always and speak up for it and to be that Jew who speaks up. And that message is still what I'm that Jew is today, except I've evolved it into a movement to try to help every Jewish person around the world feel more confident being openly Jewish.

[00:05:36] And the reason why it's so important is because it's foundational to who you are as a person. If you cannot be who you are, if you cannot be open about who you are, what a crappy way to live. And that transcends religion or Judaism, but it's value to be able to be who you are. So that is at the very core of what the I Am That Jew mission movement is. And in terms of a campaign, the thing that most people are familiar with, I think, are the posters that I've been making, the banners,

[00:06:05] which are basically taking well-known Jewish people and less-known Jewish people and celebrating them by showing their picture and their name, saying what type of Jew they are. So I can tell you that, for example, Michael Dickinson from Stand With Us is that father of five Jew. You know why? Because he's a father of five. And that's one of the things. Emanuel Shriki, the actress, is that sugar and spice Jew. Albert Einstein is that wild-haired genius Jew.

[00:06:33] That actually does is that it humanizes us. It shows us and reminds us that we are people like anyone else. I mean, it might be different because we're Jewish, but we're just like anyone else. And we are colorful and we are bright and we are bold and we are confident. We are creative. We are hardworking. We are all these wonderful things. We bring the light. And that's at the core of I Am That Jew to say it, to embrace it, to own it.

[00:07:00] And the reason why I think it's so important is because it's foundational for everything else that is Jewish. If we cannot openly own who we are, which is difficult but necessary, then we are weak. And you see how weak we are around the world when we have neglected our voice. But if you make the foundation your identity and the confidence to be open about it,

[00:07:27] then one thing that it does is it empowers the individual because it's a great feeling to say that you're Jewish. The second thing that it'll do is it'll bond you with other Jews. And the third thing that it will do is it will bond you with people who start to see who you really are, who are not Jewish. And the last thing that it does is it enables you to take action because as that foundation grows, then our people grow in confidence. We grow in strength. And then we can tackle anti-Semitism. And then we can tackle campuses.

[00:07:57] And then we can tackle all sorts of Jewish issues because the people on the ground are owning who they are, as opposed to conveniently not owning it because they don't have to, because they've assimilated to the point where they can hide. Laying that foundation down and making it a point to invest in that is, I think, critical. What strikes me as more, and I think you alluded to it earlier, Eitan,

[00:08:23] is that if you don't have a message, someone will create a message for you. We're seeing in America, real time, obviously, I know you've done a million videos on this, the sheer moral confusion of these college students. And it's not just them. Not just people. They really are enemies of the Jewish people.

[00:08:48] There really is a coordinated and orchestrated and funded narrative war that has been going on for many, many, many decades. And we have known it. Jewish leadership has known it. Israeli governments, all of them have known it. The thing is, what have we done about it? We haven't done anything about that. We've built up Startup Nation. We send our kids to Israel, you know, for birthright. We do wonderful things and it's all good. It's all great. It's necessary.

[00:09:15] But when someone hijacks your narrative with bad intentions and they're out to destroy you and your reputation and you do nothing about it, then this is what happens. It's branding 101. One, the Jewish people do not have a brand. Trying to build a brand for the Jewish people because it's necessary. It's a brand that is rooted in authenticity and truth. It's a brand that has stood the test of time.

[00:09:42] It's a brand that is relevant to us and relative to the world, to good people in the world, because we brought so many good things to the world. And it's inspirational. We've never really, as a people, invested in that, which is crazy because we're people of the book. I mean, we delivered the Torah. So we need to remind ourselves of who we are and we need to show the world who we are and to be absolutely confident in it.

[00:10:11] And it's because of the gap, it's because of the neglect that we've lost so many Jewish people as well, because we haven't invested in our own brothers and sisters to know who it is that we are, to know what it is about Israel that makes Israel what it is and what is the connection between the Jewish people and Israel. If you create that vacuum, someone else is going to rush in and fill it. And the worst thing is if it's someone who is committed to your annihilation.

[00:10:40] And it's a very real thing because these universities, as you spoke of, it wasn't an accident. These people have been put there. They have been funded by enemies of the Jewish people. And now they're doing the damage. I'm with you. And just to get into this a little bit deeper, it strikes me as strange to have Qatar be one of the key negotiators in the release of our remaining hostages.

[00:11:08] Deeply buried in tunnels, chained up. The wolf is in charge of the hen house here. When you see how much money Qatar has funneled to American universities, it's shocking. How do you feel about that? And it's not just Qatar. I realize that. You see, it's not shocking to me because when you live in a world where there are no consequences for bad people, and that has been the case for many years already, then this is what happens. People are shocked about the upside down world that we're living in.

[00:11:37] But look, I'm a branding guy. There is perception and there is reality. And what they have done is they have manipulated the perception of so many things. You know, you look at Al Jazeera, you look at this situation. We have to do whatever it is that we can to get our hostages back. That's not even a question. But there needs to be accountability. There needs to be moral clarity.

[00:12:05] We're hearing this within our echo chamber ad nosem and rightly so. But the fight is to get the world to see that. And that is why our voice and our narrative and our story and our values and what we stand for and the proof that we can provide is so necessary. Now, that doesn't mean that people will listen to it.

[00:12:29] They won't right now because they've been brainwashed already because society is corrupt in a way. But we need to start from the beginning and we need to do it one person at a time. That's the work. And that's why I'm dedicating myself to this. And I'm doing it for my children because it's essential. If the people don't do what needs to be done, it's not going to happen. So I'm doing what I need to do. And there are many others doing what they need to do as well. You know, it seems like when you talk about it's not just on the college campuses.

[00:12:57] The legacy media in America, where I'm based, is so shockingly disinterested in the Jewish reality, in the messaging, in the story of Israel being the only democracy in the greater Middle East. I just saw an interview Leslie Stalded with one of the hostages who was released. And she actually, Eitan, she actually, did you see it? Did Hamas have food?

[00:13:27] That's the one you saw, yes? Mm-hmm. Do you think that they were trying to starve you? She's like, do you think that they didn't offer you food because they didn't have it? I mean, the media is complicit. Now, I don't think that these people are necessarily evil people, but they have been educated over the course of many, many years with a false narrative. And when you leave that unchecked, this is the price.

[00:13:51] You know, I remember when I was a soldier in the IDF, I would see going into Arab towns that when there was a skirmish that was going to potentially erupt, the streets were peaceful. But the cameras would set themselves up. And I'm talking about tens and tens of cameras and video cameras and journalists. And they'd sit there and they'd point their cameras and they'd just wait. And then lo and behold, the people would turn up and then they'd start throwing rocks. Why?

[00:14:19] Because the media likes a good fight because fights sell. So there's that as well. It's got to change because it's going to be bad for everyone. And when they say what starts with the Jews doesn't end with the Jews, you know, if the real victims here, and it's not to say that Palestinian people are not suffering. And it's not to say that many Palestinians are not victims. They are. But we know who they're victims of.

[00:14:45] And while Israel is not perfect, what they're really victims of are samasnikim, the people from radical jihadists that are keeping them where they are. But people need to really see that and not for media to enable the continuation of this cycle of violence. The truth is coming out. We just have to keep at it.

[00:15:10] Do you feel there's been a positive shift in perception about Jews and Jewish identity as a result of I'm that Jew? Yeah, I think inwardly people are starting to wake up. And that's a good thing. I think that the owning of your identity, the ownership of your narrative, the ownership of who you are is something that, as we said before, if you neglect that on an individual level and you neglect it on a mass level, then people are seeing the consequences of that. And that's why people are speaking up.

[00:15:40] The biggest fear is what happens when things go back to normal? What happens when the war is over, when we, God willing, get our hostages back? Do we quiet down? Do we go back to normal with the narrative? And I'm that Jew is meant to continue that narrative because the time to speak up is certainly during a conflict, but really the time to speak up is always. So yeah, I'm that Jew is having a positive effect.

[00:16:06] I get thousands and thousands of messages of people asking me to continue. There's merchandise that people can buy and wear. Where can people buy your sweatshirts and your mug? Oh, thanks. Well, there's only one place that you can get them. It's one authorized seller and it's sweetpoppylane.com. Sweetpoppylane.com. It's all there.

[00:16:28] One question that really nags at me all the time is, can you see a world where Israel is considered a force for good and a contributor to mankind? Based on the size of the country. Yeah. The contributions to mankind are just off the chart. And yet it's always lost. Do you see a world where that will really change? Not unless we get mass funding to invest in narrative.

[00:16:58] I have a branding agency and I work with companies all the time. If you don't have a story to tell, which is a true story, then no one knows. No one's going to know what you're doing. You just have to look at the way that Israel, how it invests in its speakers in defending Israel. There's no real investment there. You need to look at Jewish leadership who are doing maybe wonderful things with Jewish causes and Israel relations.

[00:17:27] But not in terms of narrative, not in terms of telling the story, not in terms of making sure that people know who we really, really are. That requires making that decision to do it. It requires passionate people working on it. It requires people of the highest standards working on it. It requires a lot of money to do it. It requires long-term vision. And unless that happens, nothing's going to change.

[00:17:57] I'm not saying that I don't believe it will. I'm hoping it will. But we also have enemies that have endless money and they're very patient. They play the long game. And as you know, we don't. So a lot of things have to change. Isn't that frustrating? They're playing the long game and making sure that not only our schools and universities in America, but within government, within small local municipalities,

[00:18:21] they are aligning themselves with Palestinian, pro-Palestinian flags. The government has come out and just recently done some media campaigns supporting that. I don't see them doing that with Jews. And there's plenty of Jews that live in New Jersey. So it's a very strange lack of messaging, as you say. And I'm... Well, I think it's going to take time. I mean, Jennifer, these things take time.

[00:18:49] And the people pushing that narrative, it didn't just happen this year. It's the result of decades of work. So it is possible, but it requires a decision. My faith in the Jewish people is that we're really smart and we're really passionate and we have no choice. And in many ways, we're quite brilliant. When we decide to put our minds to something, we go for it. And I think that that's what a lot of us are doing. But it needs to happen at the higher levels.

[00:19:18] It needs to happen at people who wield real power, who have the ability to put down money and people who get it. The Jewish community has to come together around this. There is no other option. If we don't, then nothing will change and it'll only get worse. Onward, onward. You know, we're at war. How many people have you reached with your movement, do you think? It's almost 300 million organic views of the work online.

[00:19:46] But online is a vehicle to get the message out there. But it needs to happen on the ground. The idea is to inspire people to be active on the ground. I'm a brand builder. I'm doing what I know how to do and I've got the passion. But if you're a journalist, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a lawyer, if you're a manufacturer, if you're in the travel industry, if you're in whatever it is that is your profession,

[00:20:14] it's so important to get active because of the numbers, because we're outnumbered and we're behind the curve. But the idea is to have it seen and then to inspire people to own their identity in their real world, in their communities, at the office, with their colleagues, at friends' houses who are not Jewish. When you're able to take I'm that Jew, like, for example, wearing a shirt or having a sticker

[00:20:40] on your phone, then what I've discovered and a lot of people tell me and also what I've experienced is that people kind of like they stop here and say, well, what does that mean? I'm that Jew. And that's a conversation starter. And that's when it starts to happen. That's when you get to say who you are. Well, I'm Jewish. Well, I've never met a Jew before. Or what does that mean? And well, what about Israel? Then you get to talk. And it's a little uncomfortable, sore.

[00:21:07] But look at how bad it is when you get too comfortable. That's why we're here. So we need to get uncomfortable again. And it doesn't matter how many millions of views the work is seen online. It needs to translate into offline. That's the purpose. That's the goal. I hope that people express themselves as I'm that Jew and start their own conversations. Eitan, thank you so much for your time. I've really enjoyed it. And thank you for the opportunity.

[00:21:37] Thanks for tuning in to the Israeli Trailblazers show. If this episode lit a fire, please share it, post it. And don't forget, please rate it and subscribe. Because it helps more people discover the magic of Israelis who contribute to mankind. We'll be back in two weeks. Until then, I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman.