Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and his team caused quite a stir this week when they appeared before the Security Council wearing yellow Stars of David reminiscent of the patch the Nazis forced Jews to wear beginning in November 1938. There is an important difference, however: Erdan’s star had the words “Never Again” emblazoned in the middle.

Vowing to wear the Never Again Stars until Hamas is eradicated and the Security Council condemns Hamas, which it has yet to do, Erdan—himself the descendant of Holocaust survivors—explains that

The world remained silent when Jewish infants were incinerated in Auschwitz, and today, it remains silent as Jewish babies in Be’eri and the southern towns face atrocities from the ‘Nazi Hamas.’ The global community’s silence is deafening. [Emphasis added.]

Still, there are those, including the chairman of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, Dani Dayan, who vehemently oppose this manner of resistance, claiming it dishonors Holocaust victims and suggesting the Israeli flag be displayed instead.

The yellow badge symbolizes the historical vulnerability of the Jewish people and their dependence on the mercy of others. Today, the scenario has changed. We have an independent nation and a formidable army. We determine our own fate. Instead of a yellow badge, we should be proudly displaying a blue-and-white flag.

While I was admittedly taken aback at first glance by the Never Again Stars, once I saw “Never Again,” I immediately understood this wasn’t about exploiting or disrespecting or minimizing the Holocaust. Quite the contrary. Erdan’s star actually honors the memory of the Holocaust and its victims: the one unified message that has emanated from their stories and graves for over 85 years is that we must never forget what happened and must never allow it to happen again. Never Forget. Never Again.

Erdan’s star does just that, and it’s actually quite brilliant and passionately powerful. I wish I had thought of it.

Whereas the Israeli flag is a national symbol for all time, it is not a symbol for the moment. After a while, no one pays attention to a flag seen all the time—including the American flag ubiquitous at tea party events. The flag did not convey the message of the Tea Party movement, which desperately needed a common symbol. I believe this is, in part, why the Tea Party movement eventually lost momentum. Most tea party organizers did not understand the essence of social and political movements or the power of symbols.

Dayan makes the same mistake, probably because he spent his career in business and public service, not activism.

Symbols can pack a powerful punch by sending a message and conveying information with one visual cue—a message of unity and solidarity as people all over the country or even the world place it on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and posters, and use it as avatars and hashtags.

Think I’m off here? Within hours of Black Lives Matter making its debut, the group had a flag, t-shirts, emojis, and hashtags with black power fists and black squares for profile images that popped up everywhere. Who could forget when it seemed like everyone on social media changed their profile images to rainbows in response to the gay marriage movement? Look at the power and the resulting impact on our society and lives that the BLM and LGBTQ movements had and in such a short time!

Erdan’s Never Again Star is a fitting symbol for the response to a deadly worldwide movement that supports Hamas and promotes Jew-hatred and extermination. The symbol must convey that we stand against lethal anti-Semitism. The Israeli flag does not do that nearly as powerfully as Erdan’s star.

We have all seen the apocalyptic protests with pro-Hamas hordes in major cities, including New York and London; Students for Justice in Palestine protests that threaten the safety of students; comments by professors, celebrities, journalists, and Democrats celebrating the slaughter; and now, Jewish storefronts smashed in San Francisco. We are all targets of Muslims who, in their own words, promise they’ll be satisfied only when every infidel is dead—that is, anyone who is not Muslim.

To combat this mounting anti-Semitism, we need a symbol that will take away the breath of everyone who looks at it, forcing them to stop and think Why are those people wearing a Jewish star like the one Hitler used? Why does it say Never Again—a phrase associated with the mass extermination of Jews for the simple fact they were Jews? Ah! They’re saying that what is happening now is anti-Semitism. If we don’t deal with it, we run the risk of facilitating its recurrence. No one wants to be complicit in that.

I was recently told about some university higher-ups who were confronted by Jewish students about the anti-Semitism on campus and broke down in tears when shown pictures of the October 7 victims.

That is the impact wearing Erdan’s Never Again Star of David should and most certainly will have on people who aren’t paying attention, people who are too busy to notice, who feel compelled to treat all sides equally, who don’t want to make waves, who think this will all pass, who close their shutters so as not to see, who think Nah, that could never happen here.

Through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, CEO of New England Patriots and Trump Supporter Robert Kraft just launched #StandUpToJewishHate featuring a blue square campaign to download and post. The website is excellent but the blue square as a stand-alone symbol fails to project the immediate significance of Erdan’s star without visiting the website. Nonetheless, both can be used, just as BLM used the fist and the black square.

What can you do?

November 9, 2023, is the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht—a night of bloodshed and terror in 1938 that saw Germans murder 91 Jews, arrest over 30,000 Jews, and destroy 267 synagogues and countless Jewish-owned businesses and shops. Although Hitler had been persecuting Jews since at least 1933, Kristallnacht is commonly thought of as having jump-started the Holocaust. Later that November, it became compulsory for Jews to wear the yellow Star of David. It was not only a means of easy identification and efficient targeting but a way to dehumanize, demean, and alienate Jews.

I suggest that, this November 9, college and grad students of any background who oppose Jew-hatred join in solidarity with one another and wear Ambassador Erdan’s Never Again Star, post it on social media, send it to their respective administrations, Biden, Secretary-General Guterres, friends, etc.

Obviously, we can all do this, but if you know a student who fits the bill, send them Never Again Star of David. They can also buy yellow felt and a blue marker and make their own or make a blue square. Doing this with their friends at their respective schools will feel good, promote solidarity and unity, jolt the public into paying attention, and bring about awareness of SJP and Hamas’s agenda and hatred.

London might have had 100,000 Hamas lovers march like a zombie horde, and I know how intimidating that seems, but remember the millions who did not march and don’t support Hamas. Whether Kristallnacht or October 7, this is just the beginning, and it is time to make a stand.

As an activist, I learned the importance of taking the words and slogans of the opposition and weaving them into your group’s messaging. Taking a symbol of the Holocaust that everyone is familiar with and adding the words “Never Again” serves as a compelling reminder to all, of the very lesson we were supposed to have learned from the Holocaust. It inextricably links yesterday’s atrocities to today’s.

As a Jew and an American, I couldn’t be prouder to wear that star and convey that message.