Who I Am

My name is Anna Berg, and I was born and raised in Sweden, and then spent 8 years in San Francisco, where I got my MFA degree in Advertising Design. After a few years back in Sweden, I decided to make Aliyah, and moved to Tel Aviv, Israel in April 2014. I’ve been working as an art director and graphic designer for the past ten years or so, and in my spare time I’ve always been passionate about advocating for Israel, and to fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, both online and in real life.

How It Started

During the war (Operation Pillar of Defense) in November 2012, and after watching biased news report after news report in the Swedish media, I felt that I needed to do something more hands-on to protest, than just write angry posts online. So, I decide to organize a rally outside of Aftonbladet, a biased major newspaper, in Stockholm. I had never organized anything like this in my life, but with the help of Facebook, a few speakers that were willing to speak free of charge, and a megaphone that we rented, we managed to get a small, but passionate crowd to join us. In -17 degrees, we stood outside the newspaper’s main offices, freezing but proudly waving our Israeli flags and telling them how we felt about their reporting from the war.

It was a wonderful feeling to organize this from scratch, to invite the speakers and guests, and then actively protesting something we were all so upset about. It was also great with the feedback from the people that showed up, saying that they were so happy that finally someone were doing something actively about this issue. It seems that most Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations have chosen, and still choose, to stay silent. This is when I realized the need for people to get involved, to protest and to connect with other people feeling the same way. Based on the rally’s name, “Enough is enough! Manifestation for Israel and against biased news reporting”, I started a Facebook page at the end of 2012, trying to find a way to continue fighting and connecting with people with similar minds and ideas. Five years later, the page has grown into a very active page with almost 20,000 likes. It has become part of me and it’s always on my mind – when I’m not working my day job as a graphic designer, I’m working on this – writing, sharing important news regarding Israel and Jews in the diaspora and connecting with people around the world. In addition, I’m blogging for The Times of Israel, and I’ve organized two successful online petitions, and one additional, much bigger rally, in Stockholm in June 2013. In 2016 I also started the Enough Is Enough Store, selling my own design with an Israeli and a Jewish theme online – the idea is for people to wear and share their Jewish and Israeli pride with nicely designed t-shirts, iPhone cases, bags etc. You can find some media coverage of the above here.

One of my favorite things was organizing an online event called “Dear Mr Zuckerberg” in the spring of 2014. I started it in order to bring light to all the anti-Semitic and Israel-hating pages on Facebook, that despite their so called “Community Standards” and despite many people reporting them, were not removed. The idea was to collect signatures online by creating a Facebook event, and then send the signatures and protest to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would get such a huge response and media attention. In the end I collected almost 20,000 signatures, and the event was talked about both in Israel and abroad. It was amazing to get so many signatures, but even more amazing to connect with so many people around the globe. I remember posting a Shabbat greeting, and instantly receiving hundreds back from all over the world: in that moment I realized the power of social media and what a wonderful, vibrant, global community we are. People want to get involved, but many don’t know how, or are afraid too.

My Dream

My dream is to make this into something I can do full-time, together with a few other passionate individuals and with active volunteers around the globe. I want to start a grassroots movement and a network for people to be able to become more hands-on in fighting anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the BDS movement. There are a lot of organizations trying to do this, but I honestly feel that many have failed, are too bureaucratic and have a fear to be politically incorrect. Many Jewish organizations (and I have this experience first hand from Sweden) are afraid to openly support Israel, and even ask people to not bring Israeli flags to the few events that are organized against anti-Semitism. While the BDS are quick to act, and have volunteers available at a moment’s notice, our side take forever to react, often missing important opportunities to get our voice heard. I truly feel that we, as a community, can’t stay silent anymore. We have to stop hiding, and start to get out there and start protesting – and we need to get more organized so more people actually show up to protest. We need to collaborate more, network and get people involved. Whatever is being done, it is not fully working, and I hope to at least be a small part in changing this.

I want to start a small agency, and this is what I need help with getting off the ground. I think one of the reasons why my page and writings have received such positive feedback, is because I write from my heart – I don’t care if what I say is politically incorrect to some – I always speak my mind. My favorite motto is: “I’d rather die standing, than live on my knees” (Stéphane Charbonnier, Charlie Hebdo). I think people can relate to this, and are ready to get more seriously involved in this fight, that just get more urgent and more important for every year that passes. I want to create online in-your-face campaigns (and if possible, in other media as well), using my background in design and advertising. I want to organize more rallies and petitions, festivals celebrating Israel – and I want to reach out to campuses around the globe and create the tools and resources needed to fight the anti-Semitism that keeps growing at the universities. I want to build a network of volunteers that can be at every BDS event to counter protest.

My goal is to work from Tel Aviv, but make this into an international effort. I want to find a few passionate individuals to do this with me. I want to create something like Stand With Us, or WZO, but smaller, less bureaucratic, more hands-on, fearless, quick to act and with more volunteers involved on a regular basis. I want to also work using guerrilla marketing: find cheap and effective ways to reach out, and to create actions against every action by the other side. And I need your help to do it! I need your help to get started! I’ve been doing everything so far on my spare time, but I’m only one person and there’s only 24 hours on a day. In order to get this started, I need more resources and more time to do it, and I’m asking for your help to do this.

I Need Your Help

If you believe in my idea, if you also think that we can do more and better in this fight, if you want to be an important, contributing part in creating this, I hope you’ll reach out and help me. I’m welcoming feedback, ideas and volunteers because I know that I can’t do this on a bigger scale on my own. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my Facebook page, or via e-mail: anna_bergh@yahoo.com.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

/Anna