ADDRESSHATE WITH ART
Public Art as a Powerful Response to Hate and Antisemitism
Art is part of our mission
Art has always been a force for change—a visual language that transcends barriers and speaks to our shared humanity. In today’s world, where hate speech, discrimination, and antisemitism continue to spread, public art projects serve as a vital response. They are not just expressions of creativity but acts of resistance, unity, and education. Our mission embraces public art as an essential way to counter hate, amplify voices, and foster understanding in communities that need it most.
Hate, in any form, thrives in silence. It grows in the absence of dialogue and festers when history is forgotten or distorted. Public art, particularly when placed in shared spaces, refuses to let hate go unchallenged. Murals, sculptures, installations, and performances transform physical landscapes into places of memory, storytelling, and action. These projects create environments where people must confront difficult truths and engage in conversations that promote tolerance rather than division.
For centuries, antisemitism has relied on stereotypes, misinformation, and scapegoating. Public art provides a direct counterpoint to these falsehoods by telling the real stories of Jewish resilience, history, and culture. A mural depicting Jewish resistance fighters, a sculpture honoring Holocaust survivors, or an interactive installation that highlights the contributions of Jewish thinkers, artists, and scientists—all of these become powerful rebuttals to the ignorance and malice that fuel antisemitism. They educate without preaching, inspire without alienating, and bring history into the present moment in a way that resonates deeply.
One of the most impactful aspects of public art is its accessibility. Unlike museums or galleries, which require intentional visits, public art meets people where they are—in parks, on city streets, in train stations, and on community walls. This means the message cannot be ignored. It challenges passersby to reflect, to question their own assumptions, and to consider perspectives they may not have encountered otherwise. In an age where digital echo chambers often reinforce division, physical public art breaks through isolation and fosters shared experiences.
Moreover, public art projects are collaborative by nature. They bring together artists, historians, community leaders, and everyday people to create something meaningful. This process, in itself, builds solidarity and understanding. When communities take part in painting a mural or designing an installation, they develop a personal connection to the work. They become invested in its message, ensuring that the fight against hate is not just a passive statement but an active commitment.
Importantly, public art is a reminder that hate is not the dominant narrative. In the face of antisemitic attacks, racist rhetoric, and rising intolerance, it is easy to feel that hatred is winning. But when a powerful artwork stands boldly in a public square, it declares that love, memory, and justice are stronger. It refuses to allow fear to define the space. It ensures that history is not erased and that the values of inclusion and dignity remain visible for all to see.
Our mission is clear: to use public art as both shield and sword against hate. Through it, we reclaim spaces, challenge dangerous ideologies, and create lasting symbols of resistance and hope. By investing in public art, we invest in a future where every individual, regardless of background, can walk through their city and see reminders of courage rather than signs of division, murals of unity rather than walls of exclusion. We believe in the power of art to change the conversation, to disrupt cycles of hate, and to build bridges where others seek to build walls.
Art is not just decoration; it is declaration. And in the fight against antisemitism and hate speech, it is one of our most powerful tools.
AddressHate Inaugural Artist Fellow:
Saype
Beyond Walls x AddressHate:
Art as a Shield Against Antisemitism and Digital Hate
As the last witnesses of the Shoah fade into history, the shadows of the past creep back into the present. Hatred spreads, antisemitism festers, and gestures and rhetoric we once believed confined to the grainy archives of history are revived. Images we thought had been laid to rest now resurface, in high definition, broadcast across the world.
I belong to a generation that knew these last survivors—our grandparents, our friends’ grandparents, the silent elders at family gatherings. They did not need to speak of the horrors they had endured; history was etched in their faces, carried in their silences. And we never doubted their truth.
But time is relentless. One by one, these survivors—who chose life as an act of defiance—slip away. And with them, something fragile fades. Memory wavers, drifts beyond our grasp… until it risks vanishing altogether. Or worse, being rewritten.
Nearly a century after the Shoah, antisemitism has found new ground, fed by the insidious distortions of social media and the convenience of ideological shortcuts.
Half the world looked away. A wall has risen—not of stone, but of indifference. A wall between rightful outrage and lethal complacency.
And it is that same wall of indifference—reinforced by the algorithmic blind spots of our digital age, by the passive complicity of social networks designed to engage, not to enlighten—that allows the unchecked flood of digital hate to spill over each day, targeting the most susceptible. It festers in the same echo chambers, spreads through the same networks, and is amplified by the very technologies that once promised to connect, to enlighten, to bridge divides.
Hatred has always existed. But never before has it been given such a vast and unfiltered stage. And those who trade in fear and division have become its most adept manipulators, hijacking digital platforms to distort reality, rewrite history, and radicalize the lost and the angry. Digital hate spreads unchecked, turning what was meant to be a tool for dialogue into a megaphone for destruction.
It is time to reclaim technology for humanity—to wrench it back from the abyss and place it in the service of truth, of understanding, of peace. Because I know, beyond any doubt, that these same tools can be harnessed for good. Every time I share a work of art, every time I post on my networks, I witness something else: an outpouring of solidarity, a reaffirmation of hope. A reminder that light still exists.
This is why I believe that technology must be reclaimed as a force for resolution, for dialogue, for compromise. These are not lofty ideals; they are the foundation of a peaceful society, the first steps on the long path toward reconciliation. Whether we speak of social networks, artificial intelligence, or the technological advances yet to come, they will be the keys to countering division, combating digital hate, fostering understanding, and building a world where humanity prevails over hostility. The keys to Address Hate.
Beyond Walls Is Not Just an Artwork. It Is a Response.
Beyond Walls is more than an art project. It is a statement. A fight. A global act of resistance. A call to bring together those who still believe in hope and humanity. Because division and hate lead only to the abyss.
Because when history is at risk of being forgotten, when hate once again finds a stage, we must act—not later, but now.
Some will call it utopian. But hope has never belonged to cynics.
The hands I draw reach for one another, find one another, hold one another. They stretch beyond the barriers that divide us—whether made of stone, borders, or the walls we build in our minds.
This is the same spirit in which I conceived the AddressHate logo—two hands working together, uniting their efforts for peace. It is more than an emblem. It is a message. A responsibility. The passing of the torch, ensuring that history is not just remembered but carried forward, shaping a world where hate has no home.
In this spirit of unity, I am honored to stand with AddressHate—to lend my art, my voice, my hands—to this fight against the resurgence of antisemitism. Because art can be a warning. A light. A memory.
Because we owe it to the past, to the future—and to each other—to keep remembering, to keep resisting, and to address hate, together.
-Saype