Comic Menachem Silverstein was “canceled” by a viral video that claimed his pro-Israel set emptied a Chicago club. The only problem: it wasn’t him in the video, and the mass exit had nothing to do with the Middle East.

If you’ve ever wondered how far the anti-Israel mob will go to ensure no Jew escapes its online wrath, the answer came just one day after the new Jewish year of 5787 began. That’s when Menachem Silverstein, a writer and comic with whom I share Los Angeles-area prayer circles, powered his smartphone back on and found his world turned upside down.

Silverstein, a rarity in the stand-up world — an Orthodox Jew and ordained rabbi who performs with kippah and tzitzit — told me on a recent Zoom chat that “like any good Jew, I prayed deeply to G-d on Rosh Hashanah for a happy and successful new year. Of course, that included more people finding my comedy. But when I turned on my phone after the Chag and realized I was having the biggest viral moment of my career — being cancelled by millions on social media — I thought, yeah, no. That’s not exactly the prayer outcome I envisioned.”

Fame, or infamy, in the viral war that has engulfed Israel and Diaspora Jews, toes a razor-thin line depending on who’s making the post. As Silverstein adds: “Everyone was texting me: ‘What the hell is going on? Is this you all over social media? Are you okay?’ Jewish, non-Jewish, it didn’t matter. I even heard from a Yemenite Muslim who I hadn’t spoken to since October 7th because we had a falling out. I was like: ‘If he’s messaging me, something is very wrong!’”

And it was. A repost on X from an account named Truthseeker had splashed a video announcing that “comedian Menachem Silverstein says, ‘I stand with Israel,’ and the crowd walks.” “I can see the video was shot at the Chicago Laugh Factory,” he continues. “But I hadn’t performed there since February. And when the camera goes to the comic onstage, it’s clearly not me!” Silverstein says the post was originally shared on Al Jazeera ‘s English and Arabic channels and then reshared across every platform, “and I had nothing to do with the video.”

Thanks to AI, it got worse. When users headed to Grok asking “Who is Menachem Silverstein?” the response was: “A Jewish comedian who typically opens his show with: ‘I stand........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)