Jewish Food Influencers Grapple With Politics in the Kitchen

In the vast world of online culinary personalities, the microcosm of Jewish food influencers of Instagram is mostly ruled by a handful of extremely popular accounts. Although they range in cuisine and cooking styles, they all seem to adhere to similar tenets when it comes to their success: approachability, creativity, and a devotion, to varying degrees, to their Judaism.

“I pinpoint mine and others’ success on two things: consistency and authenticity,” said Sivan Kobi, whose Instagram account Sivan’s Kitchen boasts nearly 700,000 followers. “Those two things are crucial to your growth because you can start at it really strongly but, if you don’t show up every day, people forget about you. And if you’re not real to your audience, they are not going to listen or believe you.”

Jake Cohen, who recently reached the 1 million-follower count on Instagram and has leveraged his social media popularity into his TV debut on A&E’s Home.Made.Nation’s Jake Makes it Easy, agrees. “To be authentic is the key,” he said. “Don’t be filtered—don’t put on a show of what you think the world is going to like, but show people who you really are.”

Jewish online food stars’ commitment to honesty, though, has been put to the test ever since the horrific Oct. 7 attacks, and the worldwide antisemitism that has risen in their wake, turned virtually all social media users into political pundits and experts, suddenly putting the very basic tenets of Judaism, and Jews’ right to exist, under the microscope. Even social media accounts unrelated to religion quickly became fierce battlegrounds.

The likes of Kobi, Cohen, and others were abruptly faced with a choice: whether to lean into their Judaism directly and risk potential backlash or, perhaps, push their heritage to the background, attempting to represent themselves as gastronomic gurus first and Jews second.

For Ruhama Shitrit, an Israeli schoolteacher in Boston who set up her cooking account on Instagram long before Oct. 7 but recently approached the 700,000-follower mark, there was no question about what approach to take. “After Oct. 7, I posted a photo of an Israeli flag and wrote ‘pray for my country,’” she recalled. “I lost 5,000 followers in 24 hours. I could have been scared but, instead, I chose to say, ‘This is me and I am not afraid to show my identity.’ I am very resilient. It gave me more strength and energy to continue doing what I’m doing. I want to show the world that we are stronger together as Jews, that’s our strength and power.”

Although not constantly referred to as kosher, Shitrit’s uber-popular recipes clearly skew Middle Eastern, often also relating to Jewish holidays, from a dish of cauliflower latkes to her Moroccan sufganiyot and a skillet shakshuka.

Post-Oct. 7, Shitrit has also had to deal with backlash concerning her “regular” content, and not just posts directly commenting on the Israel-Hamas war. “On my Middle Eastern recipes, people comment that I stole them just like Israelis stole the land they are in,” she said. “I don’t respond to them. It’s a lost argument. I don’t try to convince them. Some of them are bots, so I am not paying attention. If it gets really bad, I’ll block them.”

Although Kobi also tries to tune out the backlash, she has found herself conversing with some users who, at least initially, disagreed with her pro-Israel stance. “I would message some people back and tell them my side,” she said. “I had many conversations: Some folks would reply back to me, some wouldn’t and some were really nice and told me they appreciated hearing my side.”

Overall, similar to Shitrit, Kobi has “leaned into my Judaism a bit more since Oct. 7.” And, like a true Instagram star, Kobi has also found the silver lining in it all. “I got a ton of backlash and still do,” she said. “I had a challah recipe go viral and the antisemitic comments on that reel are a lot—and I was just making challah. But there are also a ton of pro comments. So the plus side is that, as much as it hurts me, the conversations create more engagement.”

Zachary Neman, the food content creator behind the popular account cheffinwithzach, has taken a more nuanced and careful stance since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. “I am definitely not hiding anything but I probably have been more cautious,” he said. “My followers know I’m Jewish because I have said it in the past but it’s not something that’s at the forefront of my online identity and one of the reasons is that, even before Oct. 7, unfortunately, once someone learns that you are Jewish, they might see you in a different light.”

Neman prefers instead to “lead by example” by showcasing his passion for cooking and trying to get his followers into the kitchen while being “a good person.” “Whenever it is appropriate, I’ll show that I’m Jewish and be an ally to my fellow Jews online because I do want to speak my truth and my followers should know where I stand on certain topics,” he said. “But, at the same time, I don’t want to make it the [focus] because it kind of takes away from it all.”

To his own admission, though, Neman’s reserved attitude hasn’t necessarily led to less of a backlash. “I get nasty DMs but I never answer them because I kind of get the feeling that this person who is messaging me is not going to listen to anything I say, even if I pour my heart out to them,” said Neman, who currently boasts over 600,000 followers on Instagram. “So, 98% of the time I won’t respond to hate comments unless I can use them as a learning moment.”

Neman specifically recalls responding to a comment on a recipe video he posted featuring maqluba, a dish with origins in the Levant region of the Middle East: “Someone wrote ‘you Jews are just stealing all the Middle Eastern cuisines’ and I felt it was a good teaching moment because the comment stemmed from ignorance,” he remembered. “So I told this person that [a vast percentage] of Jews in Israel are from the Middle East. The person obviously didn’t respond but a lot of people did in a positive light.”

For Cohen, who wears a very visible Star of David in every one of his videos and doesn’t hide his Judaism on screen, “nothing has really changed” in his approach to the public. Although clearly focused on Jewish food culture, Cohen’s account often diverges from other influencers’ by taking followers behind the scenes of his day-to-day life outside of the kitchen. The chef and cookbook author frequently posts videos and photos from his restaurant outings—many of which aren’t kosher establishments—and his hangouts with NYC friends, several of whom are famously Jewish.

Although he has “definitely dealt with backlash,” Cohen believes “that’s nothing that Instagram filters and a thick skin can’t melt.” He said, “At the end of the day, the worst thing that can happen is that I shy away from my mission of duty because of that backlash.”

That mission, Cohen believes, is intricately related to the essence of Jewish food as ritual. “That’s the magic around it,” he noted. “I think the most important thing is that, whether you are religious or not, whatever world you live in, you can use food as a way to create your own ritual within the realm of this beautiful culture that we have been gifted with every generation. That’s the goal.”

When asked whether being Jewish has influenced his role as an online food personality, Cohen was quick to opt for a different characterization. “I think it has enriched my career,” he said. “When you are able to showcase the concepts of hospitality and ritual through something that people have such pride in—their identity—it will resonate. People will see parallels and those parallels will want to make them engage in their Judaism. For non-Jews, the parallels will invigorate their passion for cooking and community.”