Brandeis faces backlash for ad claiming school is 'anything but Orthodox'

A recent advertisement from Brandeis University highlighting its Jewish roots has backfired with some Orthodox students and Jewish leaders.

The ad, which took up a full double page of the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, along with the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, declared that “Brandeis was founded by Jews. But, it’s anything but orthodox.”

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”It’s a natural mistake to make,” the ad read. “After all, Brandeis was founded by American Jews in 1948, including Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews. But when we say that Brandeis is anything but orthodox, we’re referring to its character.”

The ad campaign was designed by the New York-based company DeVito/Verdi. Ellis Verdi is a 1977 graduate of Brandeis University. 

The campaign drew the ire of several observers. Dovid Bashevkin, a rabbi and director of education at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, the youth wing of the Orthodox Union, tweeted out his disapproval of the ad.

“[W]ith all that *actual* Orthodox Jews face I find this seriously distasteful…..This kind of pun might be cute on a podcast or a JCC or even a Federation meeting. Not a cute pun as an advertisement in the New York Times.” he wrote. 

The rabbi explained that part of why he found the turn of phrase in the ad “this upsetting is that actual acceptances for Orthodox Jews at many of these colleges has cratered.” 

When asked about the backlash by Campus Reform, Julie Jette, interim senior vice president of marketing and communications for the university, explained the university’s choices and argued for its ongoing commitment to Orthodox Judaism.

“Brandeis is engaged in a branding campaign that is highlighting Brandeis’ Jewish roots and values as well as the fact that we have always been welcoming to students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds.” Jette wrote.

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“This Sunday’s ad headline was a play on words meant to highlight Brandeis’ unique story and history of innovation – as do the other ads in the campaign. Brandeis is deeply committed to our Orthodox community members, and the ad was intended not to offend but to underscore both the diversity of our community and our unusual origin story. The ad discusses with pride how Brandeis was founded by American Jews of all denominations.”

One Twitter user, however, said there was a clear double standard regarding which groups are fair game to joke about and which are not.

“The distasteful feature is that in the era of hyper sensitivity about ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’ especially at universities, 1 tiny minority group is considered fair game to be the butt of a joke, the user wrote. “They would never, ever mock Muslims (global population > 1bn) or blacks this way.”

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