Gym-goers mock Jews in sick social media trend and joke their equipment was ‘promised 3,000 years ago’

The trend is helping normalise anti-Jewish hatred, racism monitoring group CyberWell has said.

[Missing Credit]

CyberWell, a nonprofit organisation that works with major social media platforms to combat online antisemitism, said the trend repackages longstanding stereotypes “portraying Jews as greedy, entitled or focused on money”.

The organisation said the content “appears casual but contributes to the normalisation of antisemitism at scale”.

CyberWell said the trend spread widely because it was initially presented as “gym humour”, making it more complicated for platforms to enforce their hate-speech policies. The group said many videos have since been removed or labelled as violating community standards.

The phrase “promised 3,000 years ago” originated as an internet meme mocking the Jewish connection to Israel and the biblical concept of the Promised Land. It later evolved into an antisemitic slogan frequently used to target Jewish and Israeli content creators on social media.

[Missing Credit]

The phrase has also been directed at public figures including Israeli actress Gal Gadot. The American Jewish Committee has said the slogan “pushes the tired conspiracy that Jews get special treatment or have secret power” or wield hidden influence.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “This content breaches our strict rules on antisemitism and has been removed.”