TikTok star Josh Zilberberg dishes on his Canadian Jewish roots

If you haven’t heard of Josh Zilberberg, you're clearly not one of his nearly 2 million followers on TikTok, nor one of his 438,000 Instagram followers. Certainly Zilberberg himself never expected this when he started posting videos about life as a 27-year-old living with his parents during the pandemic.

Yet Zilberberg has quickly ascended to social media stardom. He burst onto the scene from his bedroom in his parents' house in Markham last year by posting hilarious, fast-paced, bite-sized videos in which he deadpans a 10-second, rapid-fire monologue joke that invariably ends with what's become his tagline: "Thank yew." On his feed, you'll hear him unload self-deprecating one-liners about his dancing skills, body image, dating troubles and being gay.

But one thing he’s never talked about publicly—until now—has been his Canadian Jewish roots. Zilberberg joins today to discuss his rise to internet stardom, his new job as an influencer and how he hopes to fight anti-Semitism online.

What we talked about:

• Follow Josh on TikTok @josh.zilberberg and find his merch at fanjoy.co
• View the government's readout of Justin Trudeau's conversation with Yair Lapid at pm.gc.ca

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.