Robert Kraft pledges an additional $100 million to combat antisemitism

The NFL’s New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has pledged a matching $100 million donation to his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCA), giving it $200 million to help run for decades, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

“This is a foundation that can’t run for the next two to three years, it has to run for at least a couple decades,” Kraft said. “I’m not sure its work will ever be done.”

Kraft, 82, matched the $100 million donation of the Norman R. Rales and Ruth Rales Foundation after committing $25 million earlier this year, which helped run the “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign during the NFL season.

Kraft’s FCA was created in 2019 to support Jewish Americans against hate groups and the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel have caused a new surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas protests aimed at Jewish communities worldwide.

The $200 million will pay for TV and ad campaigns, according to the report.

The Rales family foundation led by Joshua Rales was put in action in 2018 after Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue shooting. Rales’ father was raised in a Jewish orphanage in the U.S. before a successful business career.

“Hate doesn’t stop with antisemitism,” Rales said. “Hate is greedy and tries to devour everything in its path, and it needs to be stopped. And that’s why we put up this kind of money because the amount of resources that are going to be needed to make the inroads and to bring people into the fold are going to be substantial.”

Kraft pointed to the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, violence and shootings at the Tree of Life and 2019 in Poway, California, inspired the FCA.

“Those three events had a real personal impact on me,” Kraft said.

The Anti-Defamation League recorded the most antisemitic incidents in 2022 since it began tracking in 1979, according to the Journal.

Kraft lamented the rise of support for Hamas terrorists among antisemites and anti-Zionists worldwide, especially on U.S. college campuses.

“We have so many young people organizing and supporting terrorist groups,” Kraft lamented.