TEL AVIV – CyberWell, a nonprofit and trusted partner of Meta (Facebook, Instagram and Threads), TikTok and YouTube working to combat online antisemitism, is raising concern with partner platforms over a viral social media trend that presents antisemitic stereotypes as fitness related humor under the label “gym humor.”
The trend features individuals placing a triceps rope on their heads to mimic “payot,” the sidelocks worn by some Orthodox Jewish men and boys, while claiming gym equipment was “promised to them 3,000 years ago.” The videos repeat stereotypes portraying Jews as greedy, entitled or focused on money, often using familiar cultural references. Some are set to “Hava Nagila,” making Jews the clear target of ridicule. Framed as satire and amplified by hashtags such as #gymhumor, the content appears casual but contributes to the normalization of antisemitism at scale.
When CyberWell first flagged the AI generated precursor to this trend, commonly referred to as “Promised 3,000 years ago,” platforms were hesitant to apply community guidelines because the videos were presented as jokes. This framing slowed enforcement and allowed the content to spread and evolve.
“This new trend in open gym antisemitism is a direct result of social media platforms’ failure to apply their content moderation policies to AI generated content packaged as jokes,” said CyberWell Founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor. “The gym has become another public setting where Jews may feel less safe and less welcome due to an online climate that rewards open hostility toward Jews. Platforms must address antisemitism that is disguised as humor and coded cultural references that turn longstanding prejudice into widely shared content.”
The videos also include staged scenarios in which Jewish caricatures monopolize equipment, push others aside or fixate on small amounts of money. These repeated patterns reinforce harmful stereotypes in a format designed for easy imitation and rapid spread.
CyberWell’s monitoring found that comment sections often go beyond satire, including Holocaust distortion, conspiracy narratives and in some cases praise for real world violence, including references to attacks such as the Bondi Beach massacre. After early platform inaction, the “3,000 years” trope became a common way to “joke” about Jews online and offline.
The trend has also moved into physical spaces. Recent footage showed a Jewish woman being harassed on the streets of New York by an individual using the same “3,000 years” trope. What began as AI assisted satire has appeared in real world interactions, showing how quickly normalized online hate can carry into everyday settings.
While sustained reporting by CyberWell has contributed to improved enforcement, including removal and labeling of violating content, early delays in addressing antisemitism online can have lasting effects.
“The normalization phase, when harmful content is dismissed as comedy, is when early intervention matters most,” added Cohen Montemayor. “Generative AI allows rapid variation and subtle changes that help harmful content avoid detection. Platforms must invest in proactive moderation, expert informed guardrails and consistent enforcement to prevent emerging trends from becoming embedded and leading to real world harm.”
The gym trend reflects a broader shift in antisemitic content that combines humor, visual cues and algorithmic amplification to repackage old prejudice for new audiences at speed and scale. Enforcing existing policies against dehumanizing stereotypes and religious harassment is essential to limiting the spread of online hate into offline environments.
CyberWell is an independent, tech-based nonprofit combating the spread of antisemitism online, operating globally. Its AI-technologies monitor social media in English and Arabic for posts that promulgate antisemitism, Holocaust denial and promote violence against Jews and their allies based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
Its analysts review and report this content to platform moderators while indexing all verified posts in the first-ever open database of antisemitic social media posts, cataloging it openly for transparency at app.cyberwell.org. Through partnerships, education and real-time alerts, CyberWell partners with social media platforms and digital service companies to help them enforce their policies more effectively, promoting proactive steps against online Jew-hate. For more information, visit: https://cyberwell.org/.
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