This article was produced as part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around New York City to report on issues that affect their lives.
Henry spent 20 minutes carefully typing and dragging black and white images onto his screen in Canva. Just as the instructor was about to put away the printer, the 13-year-old Upper West Sider, jumped up, eager to hold the sticker he had just designed.
Moments later, Henry and his classmates each held a 4” x 6” thermal-printed sticker featuring a Star of David and the text, “Israel is not committing a genocide, Hitler did. Stand up for what is right, not what is easy.”
Henry was one of 35 7th graders participating in a sticker-making workshop led by the Hatikvah Collective at Rodeph Sholom Middle School in May. The workshop taught students how to design stickers, and how to translate their artworks into a form of public advocacy that is easy, cheap, safe and can reach a wide audience. (Because of the age of the participants, last names are being withheld.)
Founded in New York City by Elisha Fine, Hatikvah Collective aims to combat antisemitism and anti-Zionism with creativity. The organization focuses on creating thermal-printed stickers and ‘zines featuring pithy notes and images. Inspired by the Kidnapped Poster Campaign, a movement started by Israeli NYC-based artists to raise awareness about hostages taken by Hamas after Oct 7, Hatikvah Collective posts their stickers on lampposts and crosswalks in New York City.
“Every time you see a lamppost you think about the message a sticker on it portrays,” said Theo, a 13-year-old student and Upper East Side resident, after completing the workshop. His sticker said, “Let’s help each other.”
“We should all help each other and not think negatively,” he said. Theo also admires how stickers can be turned into action. “Signs help [during protests] and they get a message literally above people’s heads,” he said.
Fine, a historian and social worker, said that the organization began as a response to people who began tearing down hostage posters in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack. Gabe Meister, a lawyer and father of two, isthe main artist of Hatikvah Collective. “Posting on social media wasn’t enough,” he said. “I wanted to do something more” for the Jewish community on the days following October 7.
Oliver, 13, said that he didn’t give much thought to the stickers he saw around his Long Island City, Queens neighborhood, but the Hatikvah workshop gave him a new perspective. “Every time I see a protest sticker, I will think about it more,” he said.
He designed a Holocaust remembrance sticker, with “remember” in Hebrew (zachor) written inside a Jewish star with candles surrounding it. When people look at his sticker, he hopes they will remember the Holocaust and “why it was so bad.”
Natalie, a Conservative Jewish Upper East Sider, said that the workshop opened her eyes to different forms of activism. “When people walk around on the streets, they don’t choose to see the stickers, it just happens,” the 12-year-old said. “This means that their mindset could change from just walking around.”
She also designed a Holocaust remembrance sticker, and that she wants people to “feel hopeful that we don’t forget the Holocaust” when they see her design.
Jonah, 13, said the stickers feel like a safe form of activism. “Even if people see me putting up the stickers, are they [really] are going to stop me? If I’m at a protest things could go bad quickly,” he said.
His sticker reads:“Everyone has a place, stand up to Jewish hate.”
He and his friends have been posting the stickers on lampposts and crosswalks around their Upper East Side neighborhood. “I just kind of put them up whenever I’m walking around in the city, and I see them around my school. It feels good to do something,” Jonah said.
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