Tomer and Yossi, the duo of JewCrazy. Two Orthodox Jews with the moves like Jagger! Courtesy of JewCrazy.If I’m on TikTok, I typically search for two things: humor or dance. When it first started, the app was generally a platform for comedians, dancers, and everyday content creators. In the past two years, however, the content on TikTok has expanded and moved in the most unpredictable of directions. It has, in general, become a lot darker, featuring occasional, extremely upsetting content. This past Patriot Day, for example, I went on the app and as I swiped up and up, I was engulfed in archival video after video of the World Trade Center in flames. A few weeks ago, I came across one follower whose content consisted of her secretly recording her boyfriend verbally abusing her in their home. Like any social media, there are no “rules”, per se, and some people use the app like a personal diary. Anyone is free to do what they want, but for me, when it comes to TikTok, I just want to be entertained. Comedy and dance are all I want, and @JewCrazy brings all the laughter and grooves.
Their names are Tomer and Yossi, the Orthodox duo of JewCrazy, and my final wish before 2023 is for them to star in a feature film, preferably with dance! These guys are hilarious, completely sarcastic with their humor and jabs at Jewish stereotyping. They also have the moves like Jagger. Funnily enough, I recently saw a Jewish comedy where the “joke” of the film was that Jews can’t dance. Tomer and Yossi even joke about this in some of their videos. Well, they’ve proven this myth wrong! Dressed in their traditional Jewish attire – tallit, tzitzit, and kippot – these guys literally take to the middle of the streets and flawlessly flow with the music.
Both brothers-in-law and living in close proximity, Tomer and Yossi describe their brand of humor as content “with a Jewish twist”, but I would take it one step further and say they crush Jewish stereotyping with absurd sarcasm. The friends poke fun at the antisemitic and “whisper-down-the-lane” rumors and conspiracy theories about Jews with outrageous videos, even responding to their own negative user comments they receive in their videos. A simple taste of their humor is in their logo alone, a funky-looking, really cool combination of Jewish symbols like a kippah, shofar, tallit, etc. In one video, Tomer and Yossi explain the meaning behind each symbol.
“We got the horns because all Jews got horns,” they sarcastically say.
“We got the ‘snip snip’ for your tip-tip,” they say about the scissors in their logo.
“We got a lot of cash because we know all Jews are ‘rich,’” they joke again, regarding the centuries-old belief that Jews are avaricious dangers to society.
I admit that I didn’t quite know the meaning of the space laser on their logo and had to do some investigating. When I Googled “Jewish space laser”, what came up were the comments GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene made in 2018 where she said that the California wildfires may have been caused by a space laser. Eventually, #JewishSpaceLaser started trending on Twitter, presumably spurred by one of many far-right extremists who continue to believe that Jews are secretly nefarious. JewCrazy takes these ridiculous ideologies and makes fun of them.
Tomer and Yossi’s popularity is the least bit small-scale. The duo’s TikTok account has close to 460,000 followers, while their Instagram has over 18,000. Their merchandise, which you can browse through on JewCrazy.org, is endless. Shirts, hats, yoga mats, etc. Whatever you want, they have it! Ironically, and this is probably the case for many TikTok and new media content creators, Tomer and Yossi didn’t expect their page to blow up like it did.
“We’ve always been making videos before TikTok ever came around,” says Yossi, in an interview with the Schmuckboys podcast. In fact, the first TikTok he ever made was just one of him with his grandmother. The Jewish side of JewCrazy was never a goal from the start.
“When we first started,” Yossi explains. “We didn’t want it to be that obvious that we were Jewish because we felt like we would have a disadvantage from people watching it and maybe tuning out because they saw that we were Jewish.”
Together with his brother-in-law, Yossi just went along with the TikTok trends without homing in too much on his religion. The two of them, like many people on the app, were just having a fun time, occasionally adding some Jewish humor to their videos. The more they included some “Jewish flare” to popular TikTok trends, however, the more followers and comments they received. How unexpected it is that JewCrazy started out thinking that too much Jewish content would limit their popularity. Now, the religion itself has turned them into TikTok sensations.
There’s no denying, on the other hand, that Tomer and Yossi have experienced some backlash, particularly when escalated violence broke out in Israel during May 2021. Many of their videos ended up banned, and the duo had to personally reach out to a TikTok community manager to reverse the restrictions.
“We’re out here to make content that’s inclusive,” said Yossi, in an interview with NBC News. “Don’t ban us for being Jewish.”
Indeed, that was a turbulent month…a turbulent year, as well. I’ll just say that of all the dozens and dozens of JewCrazy’s videos, I haven’t seen any “controversial” or triggering content. These guys are just hilarious, and they happen to be Orthodox Jews. They never engaged in political debate, and to be honest, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy or understand their content. This isn’t a “Jewish-viewers-only” type of account. Tomer and Yossi may teach you a little bit about Jewish holidays, like Tu BiShvat, but it’s not a serious education lesson. The duo tries some fruits like persimmons and dragon fruits, commonly eaten on this holiday, but they have a laugh about it, occasionally gagging on some food. They may wear their tefillin all the time and talk a little about its significance, but then they’ll strike a pose or break out into a dance while wearing them. (In one video, they do it on the subway! No fear, whatsoever.) They may light the Hanukkah candles, but then in the next shot, they’re spinning a giant dreidel to the tune of pop music.
Their mocking of Jewish stereotypes is easily prevalent throughout their videos. In one video, titled “Secret is out”, they sarcastically “confess” that Jews are money-hungry, have horns, and own space lasers, all set to the tune of Hot Chelle Rae’s “Tonight Tonight”, one of the most popular songs used in TikTok. In another video, they pretend to be greedy Jews running a bank. They poke fun about the rumor that Orthodox Jews aren’t allowed to curse in one video, while in another, they dispel any belief that Jews aren’t supposed to drink.
I could go on and on. My favorite thing about content creators like JewCrazy is that, like many other Jewish TikTokers, they disprove any stereotype about Judaism with humor and fun. We are all living in crazy times, times when far-right extremists or anyone, in general, are bringing back centuries-old, dangerously disparaging myths about Jews. Hatred spews more hatred, and I think we can all agree that enough is enough. There may be dark days, but we can hope we see more comedians like Tomer and Yossi on our phones, just two people having some fun and putting an end to these ridiculous stereotypes.
(I mean, Jews are supposed to have horns? HORNS?! Seriously? Who created this rumor?!)
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