New York – An Upper West Side shul bought a 40-by-40-foot advertisement in Times Square begging for the safe return of three Israeli teens kidnapped by Hamas.
The massive digital billboard, on Broadway between 47th and 46th streets, went live Tuesday afternoon with color photos of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, who were abducted in the West Bank, and the hashtag #bringbackourboys.
“On June 12th, 2014, three teenage boys were kidnapped in Israel, one of them an American citizen,” the giant ad reads. “These boys are not soldiers. They are not fighters. They are not violent. These boys are our sons. Our brothers. Our grandchildren. Our nephews. Our friends. Please help create global awareness.”
Young Israel of the West Side’s Rabbi Dovid Cohen wouldn’t disclose how much he paid for the ad – which airs for 15 seconds twice every hour – but said the space usually goes for $15,000.
“I just think word has to get out,” Cohen said. “Anything to keep the story alive, that’s what we’re going to do.”
So far, it’s working.
“It draws the concern even more here [in New York] because one of them is an American,” said New Jersey resident Anthony Giacoby.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
In the real world, what does this ad accomplish for the kidnapped students?
Wow! This is amazing! Kol Hakovod to this Rabbi Cohen!
that will help
Kol haKavod!!
How about a billboard in front of the white house or maybe congress.
#1: AWARENESS & keep the News on the mind of the people
#1:
Unlike the situation in Nigeria, where the social media campaign is pretty pointless (neither the Nigerians nor Boko Haram care too much about what the public thinks), here the point of the social media campaign is not to pressure Hamas but to pressure Congress and the White House. While it’s pretty clear that Obama couldn’t care less about these boys, his fellow Democrats do care what the public thinks of them, as do Republicans.
Amazing, this is a true example of a “Kol yisroel areivim zeh lozeh”
To #1
of course it helps, soon the whole world will know about it.