If you’ve been around social media any length of time – especially on right-wing Twitter/X – you’ll have probably seen this image reproduced:
This is the potted biography of one Yari Rappaport who claimed to be the ‘Chief Editor of The Jewish Web’ and comes from ‘The Jewish Web’s’ website. (1)
The question is: is this real or fake?
The answer to that I think is the latter: it is a fake.
The reasons for this are simple enough:
A) ‘The Jewish Web’ is a WordPress website that only has one post from 17th May 2016 which is about the internet meme ‘Ebola-chan’ and nothing else. (2)
B) The post on ‘The Jewish Web’ about ‘Ebola-chan’ is written in a style that is clearly parody and/or satire and contains none of the usual references I’d expect from a jew shrieking about ‘anti-Semitism’. (3)
C) ‘Yari Rappaport’s’ WordPress handle isn’t something like ‘Rabbi_Rappaport’ but rather ‘EbolaChanAcolyte’ (4) indicating that ‘The Jewish Web’ was created purely to post about ‘Ebola-chan’ and not about jewish news despite the website’s appearance.
D) If you do a reverse image search for Yari Rappaport’s image/photo you find out that it tracks back to a now deleted online art portfolio called ‘Diamond Jews’ from 2013 on Behance (5) which was the work of one Kevin Schäfer from Wolfsburg, Germany who posts on Behance under the name of ‘DerKevin’. (6)
E) The use of the image on the internet tracks back to a Reddit account named ‘a_carnivorous_ocean’ who used this then very obscure image on 25th March 2016; only eight days after ‘The Jewish Web’ is set up and the first and only post made. (7)
Now all these reasons go to one conclusion: that the Rappaport quotation is fake that was meant to be parody/satire but because of how ludicrous, unbelievable, ‘miraculous’ and generally stupid ‘Holocaust Survivor’ stories almost always are. It has meant that parody/satire could be – and has been – mistaken for a sincere claim.
It just goes to show you both that we need to be intellectually rigorous but also that believable parody/satire mistaken for a true claim can have a propagandistic impact hugely out-of-whack with its very modest origins.
References
(1) https://jewishweb.wordpress.com/author/ebolachanacolyte/
(2) https://jewishweb.wordpress.com/
(3) A good example paragraph 3: ‘Just what are these zealous Trump disciples saying that is so offensive? It appears that they believe this innocent little girl is a type of goddess. A goddess who exists for the sole purpose of spreading Ebola within the promised land and the rightful home of Jews across the world, Israel.’
(4) https://jewishweb.wordpress.com/author/ebolachanacolyte/
(5) http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles22/308719/projects/4384945/216939279cb5f02b039723b5957c134e.jpg
(6) https://www.behance.net/derkevin/appreciated
(7) https://www.reddit.com/user/a_carnivorous_ocean/
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