Jewish influencers take JC readers behind the feeds

Dov Forman believes that in the digital age, “everyone has a seat at the table” – or, in Sacha Baron Cohen’s case, in the bath.

“Before October 7, TikTok used to ban anyone who was Holocaust-denying or distorting, if you reported them,” said Dov, a best-selling author and Holocaust education advocate. “[TikTok] had dozens of big Jewish accounts who were trusted reporters for them, including me, Sacha Baron Cohen and many other people.”

The recent UCL graduate went viral in 2020 after sharing his late great-grandmother Lily Ebert’s Auschwitz survival story on his then-unvisited platform, @dovforman. Today he posts informative videos on Jewish history to a global audience of over two million followers.

“We used to go on calls once every month with [TikTok]. Sacha Baron Cohen used to join when he was in the bath sometimes,” the 22-year-old said. “[TikTok] used to be quite attentive and would listen to what we had to say. Then they stopped giving us actual people that we could speak to, and it became bots.”

Last Thursday, four Jewish content-creators converged at South Hampstead Synagogue for a JC panel discussion on the realities of Jewish life Behind the Feed, moderated by social media editor Michelle Wolodarsky. The event’s drinks reception was sponsored by Kedem Europe.

In agreement with Dov was chef Josh Halmer, who, after going viral for a video about cooking pork as a Jewish student in culinary school, uses his platform @falmer.uk to share educational snippets on diasporic delicacies. Josh, 26, found that October 7 had warped TikTok’s digital landscape. “Out of all the platforms which I post on, TikTok is the one where I see the most antisemitism. I was in Israel and spoke to somebody to works at TikTok in Israel, who was saying: ‘It’s unbelievable’, and all the creators that were there said the exact same thing.”

Dov added that TikTok’s neglect and the subsequent growth in radicalising content had created an unholy union of misinformation. “I get messages from people probably seven, ten, 15 years old, saying the most terrible things about the Holocaust and about Jews,” he said. “It is 100 per cent a direct link to what they’re seeing on TikTok and Instagram.”

“There’s a clear discrepancy on Instagram,” said Chaya Raichik. The American comedian and mother-of-three uses @chayaoflondon to deliver witty skits on Jewish daily life to a following of over 100,000 fans. But her audience can be swiftly diminished by the preferences of the algorithm. “After October 7, a lot of people have been pushed into being a representative of the Jewish people, whether they liked it or not…When I’m posting something that’s not Jewish versus something that is, the Jewish content or content about Israel always gets shadow-banned,” she said. “This is not a conspiracy, this is fact. A cooking video will get 500,000 views, and the very next day, I’ll post something about being Jewish, or Israel...and it’s 5,000 views.”

“Another problem is that my block list is just getting longer and longer,” Chaya added.

JC social media editor Michelle Wolodarsky leads a panel discussion with Jewish influencers (l-r) Josh Halmer, Chaya Raichik, Karen Cinnamon and Dov Forman (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)[Missing Credit]

For Karen Cinnamon (@karen.cinnamon), the founder of leading wedding platform Smashing the Glass and a “Jewish joy-maxing” lifestyle influencer with over 300,000 followers, it is more difficult when the hate comes from closer to home. “I couldn’t care less about the haters. Block and move on,” she said. “What bothers me the most is Jewish people being judgemental towards different ways of being Jewish.”

Josh confirmed he gets similar judgement from the Jewish community– for his chicken soup recipe. “In the Jewish community…we know how we like our food,” he said.

Rather than conform to social media trends, each Jewish content creator chooses to prioritise community and integrity.

“Yes, you can hide comments [on TikTok], but it doesn’t really do anything,” Josh said. “I say what I like, and I get shadow-banned, but c’est la vie.

“You build a community, and there’s so much love and so much positivity,” said Dov, whose great-grandmother received “tens of thousands” of cards on her 100th birthday.

Dov stressed that given the ripple effects that occur on social media, content creators should not obsess over audiences’ shifting engagement.

“You don’t need to chase to educate millions of people,” he said. “If you are trying to fight the narrative and to combat antisemitism, you don’t need millions of views. You only need to impact one person.

“We saw it during Covid. If you had Covid, you could get up to three people who could give it to another three. And before you knew it, your Covid could impact a million people. It’s the same with education.”

Besides his target audience being “68 per cent middle-aged Jewish mums” sizing him up as a potential son-in-law, Josh said his content had a wide reach. “I have loads of non-Jews as well who want to learn about Judaism, and surprisingly, loads of pro-Palestinian people as well, who comment hate but also seem to engage and enjoy [the content].”

Dov has collaborated with TikTok to combat antisemitic misinformation, producing an in-app hyperlink feature.

“We made sure that every single video that ever mentions the Holocaust on TikTok has a box at the bottom which says: ‘Find out more about the Holocaust.’ And that was an idea that me and a few others put to TikTok. We developed it with the World Jewish Congress and others, and it still exists,” he said.

Chaya added: “It’s so funny you should say that. They just added that to Instagram too.”

@dovforman

@karen.cinnamon

@chayaoflondon

@falmer.uk

@thejewishchronicle

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Jewish influencers take JC readers behind the feeds

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