This past Sunday, people across the country came together for one of the most celebrated unofficial American holidays… the Super Bowl. It is one of my favorite days of the year because of my love of sports and competition. However, the Super Bowl has held a little extra importance for the past two years (and it is not just because the 49ers were in last year's game.)

It is well known that many advertisers use the Super Bowl platform to promote their goods and services since so many people are watching. According to early reports, an estimated 126 million sets of eyes were watching the game.

A few years ago, as we were witnessing the rise of antisemitism and hate taking place in and around the country, I was thinking about how incredible it would be if someone from within the Jewish world would realize how impactful a 30-second commercial could be to draw more attention to the impact the hate Jews have been facing was having on society.

As you may have noticed, during the last two Super Bowls, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (the organization founded by Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots) and the one behind the "blue square" campaign), has paid for two commercials. This year's commercial featured Snoop Dog and Tom Brady and focused on the stupidity of hate. They displayed this by shouting several reasons people often use to justify why they hate someone else.

While I am incredibly heartbroken that the hate has gotten so bad that a commercial like this needs to be aired, let alone made, I am glad that it has elevated people's awareness of this issue. We must continue to make more and more people aware of the state of hate, rally people together, and have them stand up to express their outrage that this is taking place.

In a USA Today interview published before last year's Super Bowl, Kraft shared that he wanted to use the ad to ensure Americans understand how virulent antisemitism is right now and that beating back all of that hate will require a unified effort from all Americans.

I am not naïve to think that just because there have been commercials on TV calling out hate and antisemitism, it is going to disappear magically. But I think it's important to recognize that to tackle the hate epidemic; we must hit the issue from all sides and increase awareness in various ways. History has shown us that the more we "pull back the curtain" on an issue and make people confront it, the greater the chance we have to slow or turn the tide against it.

I applaud Robert Kraft and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism for their ongoing effort. Maybe next year, an organization like JewBelong will consider doing a commercial similar to their pink billboards. Of course, I prefer that by next year, no anti-hate commercial needs to be shown, but in all likelihood, that will not be the case.