This 86-year-old Holocaust survivor is a Tik Tok star

People were dubious when I decided to try TikTok to promote my book. I usually was met with an eye roll, a blank look or both. TikTok? That platform where people lip-sync popular songs or turn their eyelids inside out? Yep, that platform.

My nonfiction book “The True Adventures of Gidon Lev: Rascal. Holocaust Survivor. Optimist.” — about the man who is now my partner —  was published independently in the summer of 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19, so there were no book tours or signings. The book was selling slowly, but it wasn’t reaching its target audience: young people who were shockingly ignorant about the Holocaust, according to poll after poll.

TikTok is a strange, sprawling parallel universe of cultures and subcultures that intersect, complement, compete and do battle with one another. For better or worse, it is used by almost 2 billion people worldwide; 25% of users are teenagers; 23% are ages 23-29.

Now there’s Gidon Lev (@thetrueadventures). With 2.2 million views, 420,000 likes and 41,000 followers, the 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, has gone viral.

I think his charisma and quirkiness are key to his popularity. Those qualities make him magnetic to younger people. He’s that “kooky” old guy who you want to be when you grow old.

In addition, TikTok recently has seen more sophisticated content creators with powerful social messages. @Lilyebert was on TikTok before Gidon. She is a 97-year-old Auschwitz survivor who has 1.2 million followers. #learningonTikTok is a hashtag that has performed very well, as has as @Jewishunpacked.

Gidon and I also have an amazing, smart content strategist in Dallas named Kirby Stuart, who got behind Gidon’s message and poured her heart and smarts into his content. We knew that if we could re-create some of TikTok’s most popular memes, we could catch the attention of TikTok viewers. We piggy-backed on what other TikTokers already were doing.

So who is Gidon Lev?

Of the 15,000 children transported through or imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin, fewer than 100 survived. Gidon was one of those children. He spent four years in the camp. He lost 26 family members, including his father, who died on a death march. After liberation, Gidon and his mother emigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y., and, later, to Toronto. In 1959, Gidon came to Israel, where he’s lived ever since.

Of the 15,000 children transported through or imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin, fewer than 100 survived. Gidon Lev was one of those children.

A convert to Judaism, I had never met a Holocaust survivor until I met Gidon in 2017. Originally from California, I made aliyah in 2012, on the heels of great loss. I had lived in Los Angeles for 10 years. So Israel was, to put it lightly, quite a change.

I met Gidon because he was looking for someone to help him write a book about his life. At first, I declined because I didn’t feel qualified. But I was drawn to him by an overarching worry: What happens when the last Holocaust survivors are gone? I had to help Gidon with the book. It was clear to me that his book was imperative.

As I worked on the book and wrote about Gidon’s experiences and the fate of his family, it was impossible not to cast the net more widely and talk about the circumstances that led to the Holocaust, especially given the sorry state of affairs in the 21st century: The sharp rise in antisemitism and nationalism, hate, ignorance and intolerance toward minorities these days is breathtaking.

Our TikTok experience has been good. Books are flying off the shelves, and Gidon receives many heartfelt, earnest messages of love. But he also receives messages so hateful I won’t repeat them here. I must admit that my faith in humanity has taken a beating.

I try to shield Gidon from the worst comments. The most vile reactions have come from those who compare the COVID-19 vaccination to the events that led to the Holocaust. History is repeating, anti-vaxxers say, confident that their comparison is correct. “This is a deep fake,” someone who goes by AlabamaMama wrote. “We aren’t denying the Holocaust,” wrote AmericanPatriot, “we just think the numbers are exaggerated.” This active erasure of antisemitism from history and appalling downplaying of genocide and unthinkable suffering has been hard to bear.

However, the vast majority of comments have been positive, even if many do show a marked ignorance of the Holocaust. But TikTokers are asking questions. They want to learn. They want to #bebetter.

Gidon and I agree that history can repeat — the history of ordinary people looking the other way, being polite or ignoring hateful, angry people spouting nonsense. That’s why we are going to keep right on uploading TikTok posts.

Gidon and I agree that history can repeat — the history of ordinary people looking the other way, being polite or ignoring hateful, angry people spouting nonsense.

Gidon will be 87 next March. Every day that I have with him is a gamble and a gift. He may not be with us for as long as I’d like but, if my luck holds out, I will be around for a few more decades. And I’m not going to stop reaching out and talking about hate and its consequences, whether it’s on TikTok or whatever is the next big social media platform.

Julie Gray is a writer and editor living in Tel Aviv.

Follow Gidon Lev on TikTok at @thetrueadventures