Antisemitism watchdog group CyberWell has raised concerns over a new social media trend that uses fitness-related humor to promote negative stereotypes about Jews, according to a report released last week.

The organization said the trend portrays Jews as “greedy, dishonest, aggressive, and ‘money-obsessed’” while presenting the content as jokes shared by fitness influencers.

According to CyberWell’s report, participants in the trend place rope attachments around their heads to imitate the sidelocks worn by some Jewish men. The posts are often paired with antisemitic captions, including the phrase “Promised 3,000 Years Ago.”

The report said the trend promotes the false antisemitic claim that Jews take ownership of things that belong to others, with gym equipment serving as the focus in these posts.

CyberWell also highlighted the reactions in comment sections, saying users frequently amplify the antisemitic messages through Holocaust mockery, coded language, and other forms of hatred. The organization warned that these online spaces can create “echo chambers” where anti-Jewish prejudice becomes normalized.

“This new trend in open gym antisemitism is a direct result of social media platforms’ failure to apply their content moderation policies to AI-generated content packaged as jokes,” CyberWell Founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor said in a statement.

“The gym has become another public setting where Jews may feel less safe and less welcome due to an online climate that rewards open hostility toward Jews. Platforms must address antisemitism that is disguised as humor and coded cultural references that turn longstanding prejudice into widely shared content.”

CyberWell said social media companies previously struggled to remove antisemitic material when it was presented as humor, allowing hateful messages to gain “a layer of plausible deniability.” The group said this helped such trends expand and evolve into new versions.

The report noted that platforms have since improved enforcement efforts, with a greater share of flagged antisemitic content being removed compared to earlier periods.

CyberWell argued that the spread of antisemitic online trends into real-world environments, including gyms, demonstrates the speed at which digital hate can influence public spaces.

“The normalization phase, when harmful content is dismissed as comedy, is when early intervention matters most,” said Cohen Montemayor.

Founded in Israel in 2022, CyberWell uses technology to monitor online antisemitism and publishes reports documenting trends and responses.