A viral video circulating online in recent days has ignited backlash across New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities, with critics accusing its creator of trafficking in crude antisemitic tropes to drive engagement.
The video targets Kiryas Joel, a predominantly Chasidic village in Orange County, and was posted by an online influencer who framed the community as dependent on public assistance. The video relies on selective footage and inflammatory language to cast Orthodox Jews as grifters — a depiction mirroring long-standing antisemitic stereotypes.
The same individual posted a follow-up message on social media soliciting tips about Lakewood, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish populations in the country.
Jewish social media figure “Clappy” released a video rebuttal on Friday slamming the deliberate hit job against Kiryas Joel and warning that such rhetoric risks normalizing harassment and hostility toward Orthodox Jews.
Behind the scenes, local community leaders in Monsey and Kiryas Joel circulated a letter in Yiddish urging residents to avoid engaging with individuals filming in the area. The guidance advises community members to walk away from cameras rather than respond, arguing that confrontation often feeds narratives that are later distorted online.
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13 Responses
There is a time and place for government assistance – and that’s exactly what it is – assistance. Not a ticket to go on Hud and then buy a house as an unwed mother. Assistance to help you get a job and become self supporting.
Government support has gotten way out of hand and we all know it. Doesn’t matter the community you’re talking about. Look at the schools, shuls, housing, at some point you know it’s going to come back to haunt us. Sure some services are needed but there is so much waste and overspending it’s ridiculous. The amount of over spending has made us greedy and fat and when the time comes to actually get back to basics a lot of us are not going to be able to deal with it.
The only smart way to respond to such a hit piece, even if this Tyler guy is a straight-up antisemite trash, is to stay humble, show appreciation for any government assistance we do receive, and sort of לפנים acknowledge that you understand from where he’s coming from. Never be confrontational, don’t act entitled, and don’t play the victim. The general public isn’t eager to feel sympathy for us anyway.
Unfortunately our community is so poisoned with this idea to be combative, thinking that attacking this guy will scare him or get you sympathy. Highly unlikely.
I would like to invite clappy to my shul
some ppl call it the happy clappy shul
Accepting government assistance prolongs the Golus as it gives the goyim zechus.
Clapper’s word deserves a lot of clapping! Well said!
Elmer J, how about directing your grievances about public assistance, which I actually agree with you on that, to the NYC, NYS, or any other city and state you live in, as well as the Federal government?!
Religious Jews are a VERY TINY minority and from that tiny minority only a percentage (i dont know whether large or small and neither do you) have public assistance.
There 14 million illegals in the US, the vast majority of them are getting some sort of public assistance.
Roughly 120 million Americans are on some sort of public assistance.
But you have a problem with a hundred thousand, maybe even two hundred thousand, Jews getting public assistance, and claiming it will come back to haunt us. Unbelievable. How is this not anti-Semitic?
Vote Blakeman . It will save us all
Hi Elmers Glue,
The stupidity which you are stating and your unfounded assumptions are ridiculous!
Everyone who grew up in KJ, Willeimburg, Lakewood, Monsey, Boro Park, Crown Heights, etc., knows that the exposé could have been 1000X worse.
While the characterizations Tyler makes in the video are unfair – for example, Satmar davka do work – he only spoke about welfare abuse rather than welfare fraud.
The smartest thing to do at this moment is be grateful it wasn’t worse, put our heads down, and hope it blows over.
The LAST thing we should do is go on the offense like Clappy and other hotheads on social media. This will only stoke the fire, create personal vendettas, and ensure dozens of YouTubers show up in our communities with cameras.
This isn’t the New York Times, which can be bullied with claims of antisemitism. These social media influencers will take that as a badge of honor.
Smarten up.
Our day care centers have children.
Our working families are indeed making way below the poverty line and deserve assistance.
Our businesses are not fake fronts.
Is some of the earnings cash and not reported? Probably. Proper? NO!
But there is no comparison.
If you watch the video you will see that he makes people look bad even if they don’t say a word to him
I agree that it is not for everyone, but if you have the skills and the guts to reverse things on this guy when interviewed, go for it. Ask him
“So what do you do for a living? Is this considered your work? Who do you work for? Did they tell you to only target Jews? Are you trying to portray Jews specifically in a bad light? What are the statistics on which race is the highest beneficiary of government welfare in the US? What percentage of blacks and Hispanics are on welfare? Are you also planning to do a similar documentary on them? Is your objective to expose fraud or just to catch people off guard and portray them in a bad light? What is your agenda? No, first answer my question before we continue…..What is your agenda?
Take your own video of you throwing questions at him and see how he answers.
That anyone thinks this guy is helpful in anyway is sad.
“They hate the Jews because they hate the Jews.”
Yes, we’ve always been a perfect and wonderful people. Anyone that has anything negative to say about us is just a hater.