Influencers Without Roots in Masculinity Turn to Extremely Anti-Semitic Claims – Mother Jones

From left to right: Dan Bilzerian, Nick Fuentes, Sneako, Tristan Tate and Andrew TateMother Jones; Zuma; Wikimedia

A number Prominent figures on the right and far-right are once again on the rampage with anti-Semitism, this time joined by Instagram personality Dan Bilzerian, a poker player and lifestyle influencer who previously made his name posing with women on large boats. Bilzerian and two other masculinity influencers—accused human traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate—have increasingly pivoted to criticisms of Israel that promptly devolve into anti-Semitic claims clearly rooted in the blood libel, a medieval conspiracy theory about Jews murdering Christians.

Bilzerian is widely known as the “King of Instagram,” where he shows his 32 million followers what a lifestyle that involves yachts, hordes of bikini-clad devotees, and exotic locations looks like. In recent weeks, however, Bilzerian has been spouting wild conspiracy theories about the Israeli government, telling one podcaster that he believes the government “knew about 9/11” (probably beforehand) and “had JFK assassinated.”

Last week, Bilzerian was among those who shared a viral meme on Twitter/X claiming to show English translations of the Talmud, a foundational Jewish religious text, and “proving” that it exists to justify the abuse and murder of non-Jews. These claims, which have been debunked many times over the centuries, appear to stem largely from ancient anti-Semitic texts, such as one from 1892 The Talmud Unmasked. In addition to being made up of outrageous lies — for example, the claim that Judaism permits the rape and murder of non-Jews — the meme cites a supposed book of the Talmud that the American Jewish Committee identified as “completely fictional” in 1939.

“Antisemites trying to target the Talmud are almost as old as anti-Semitism,” explains Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, the social media editor of Chabad.org, the online home of the Chabad Lubavitch branch of Orthodox Judaism. “You have places in the dark corners of the internet where people have taken bits and pieces that are completely made up, or taken out of context. They have the same spelling mistakes and used made-up terms in Hebrew.”

The meme vastly oversimplifies what the Talmud is: a complex text, composed of thousands of pages of summaries of oral tradition, opinions of rabbis and sages, teachings, conversations, and debates. While some practicing Jews spend years trying to understand its mysteries, anti-Semitic memes presume it is a literal rulebook that modern Jews live by, rather than a compilation of religious and ethical arguments written between the third and sixth centuries.

The Talmud, Lightstone adds, was written “in a language that is inaccessible to the common man today.” Even when it was written, in a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew, it was “incomprehensible to the non-Jewish world,” making it even more attractive to anti-Semites who sought to imbue it with meanings that would demonize Jews and frame it, as Lightstone puts it, as “the things that Jews don’t want you to see.”

Bilzerian isn’t the only far-right influencer, where anti-Semitic rhetoric has been on the rise as prominent conservatives like Candace Owens and Stew Peters have been making increasingly public claims about Jewish people. While often veiled in perceived criticism of the Israeli government’s invasion of Gaza, that’s not always the case. Last week, for example, Owens shared posts about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was murdered in Georgia in 1915 by a lynch mob that alleged he was guilty of rape, a claim most historians dispute. She stated without evidence that Frank was related to the founder of a cult “that practiced ritual incest and pedophilia.” (Owens has previously expressed an obsession with Frankism, a long-dead heretical Jewish cult from the 1700s that practiced sexual rituals but had nothing to do with Leo Frank at all.)

Owens is joined by the Tate brothers, who she interviewed in Romania last year about the human trafficking allegations against them, and who recently spoke to her again for interviews. This week, the Tates were searched for a second time at their Romanian compound, this time reportedly over allegations of having sex with a minor. After his release, Tate retweeted a post by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, which read: “Just 2 days after Andrew Tate said ‘the Matrix’ is really just the Jewish mafia, his house was searched and he was arrested again.”

Other masculinity influencers, like Rumble personality Sneako, celebrated its release. “Welcome home,” he tweeted, tagging the Tates. “Tell the truth, no matter the cost.” Later that same day, he added in another tweet that “The Matrix is ​​Israel.”

Post something for too long, whether it’s misogynistic rants, photos of women in bathing suits, or Andrew Tate’s ubiquitous photos of himself smoking cigars, and your audience can get bored and start to drift off. For Andrew Tate and Bilzerian, focusing on the Israeli attacks on Gaza provides not only novelty but a semblance of moral high ground that such influencers typically don’t; their anti-Semitism also provides a new enemy that could prove useful as the Tates’ human trafficking case progresses.

Chabad, the movement Lightstone is part of, encourages less religious Jews to learn more about their religious traditions. And while he’s disgusted by the meme, he hopes it, and the people like Bilzerian who spread it, will prompt someone to take the time to look at the actual text.

“The Torah and the Talmud are there to bring truth and light into the world,” he says. “All this hatred is darkness and a distraction from that goal.”