Illustration by Louis Keene (Photos: Getty Images, iStock)

By Louis Keene
November 12, 2024

Nothing brings the Jewish community together online like a wildly original and incredibly outlandish anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. People still remember the happy days of Jewish space lasersa Marjorie Taylor Greene special still pressed for comedic juice three years later. Despite the best efforts of conservative commentator Candace Owensthe greatest anti-Semitic minds have since been unable to produce such a rich prompt.

Until this week, when a dire warning from an angry loser about a Jewish government takeover — or maybe a Jewish government National treasure plot – provided a unifying post-election balm:

HAPPENS IN REAL TIME: The Constitution is replaced by the Talmud.

– Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) November 12, 2024

“THIS IS HAPPENING IN REAL TIME,” read the tweet from avowed Holocaust denier Stew Peters: “The Constitution is being replaced by the Talmud. »

I’d never heard of Peters before, but he has like 700,000 followers on X, so apparently it’s my fault; according to the ADLhe is a “prolific anti-Semite” who rose to prominence during the pandemic, when he released a film claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine was snake venom. His Monday tweet – apparently related to President-elect Trump’s cabinet appointments – was not the first time he posted an article about the Talmud; Peters claims it promotes a “sick gender ideology” and condones pedophilia.

None of the Jewish accounts citing Peters for the dunk seemed to care about amplifying it (although it’s worth noting that as a Twitter Premium user, he gets paid more when his posts get more engagement). How could they resist? Peters had held up the ultimate bait: an age-old anti-Semitic trope couched in a fantasy that fires the Jewish imagination, and what’s more, an opportunity for Jewish Twitterers to laugh at themselves when the real joke is – well – on someone else.

The responses were a mix of Talmudic deep cuts, well actuallys and very important clarification questions: “Wait”, Rabbi Josh Yuter asked“Babylonian Talmud or Jerusalem Talmud?

Mentions of Peters were flooded with Daf Yomi shibboleths. “I can’t wait for the Supreme Court to rule on whether a sukkah with an elephant in place of a wall is kosher,” wrote Jewish insider‘s Lahav Harkov, recalling a actual Talmudic discussion. “Wait until they arrive at Yevamos” read a responsereferring to the treatise on levirate marriage.

“We the people demand full payment of damages for an ox that breaks a fence. » https://t.co/ZknFctsIWB

– Eli Lebowicz (@EliLebowicz) November 12, 2024

Others have pointed out some practical problems created by replacing a 4,543-word document with a vast collection of laws, debates and histories that spans some 5,400 words. pages. “Those little bound copies that people give to kids are going to get a lot bigger. » one user pointed out. Regardless, a closer analogue to the Constitution, Rabbi Avi Schwartz notedwould be the Shulchan Aruch, the 16th century code of Jewish law.

Certainly, many responses supported Peters. And at least one conspiracy theorist had access to X’s Community Notes feature, which allows certain users to offer fact-checking comments that, if approved, appear directly below posts. “The Constitution is not replaced by the Talmud,” reads one such note. “This is not necessary, since AIPAC is in complete control of American politics.”

But Jewish responses easily dominated. Most of them welcomed, albeit jokingly, the idea of ​​an American Talmudic society. “No wool and linen together for you Americans!” » joked A. “We will have an eruv from sea to sea!” » promised another. An impasse in Congress? We call it Beit Hillel versus Beit Shammai From now on. And forget the 2025 project: here we are Project 5785.

“I can’t stop laughing. It’s anti-Semitic but it’s also so stupid! an X user named Ruth Abrams I summarized. “At least it reminded me to open the daf for today.”