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Tyler Oliveira Denied Entry to Israel

Reuvain Borchardt

Tyler Oliveira, the YouTuber who made videos depicting chareidi Jews as welfare abusers and leeches on society who “invade” communities in New York and New Jersey, tried visiting Israel this week but was denied entry.

And it all might have been due to a couple of Lakewood men who alerted the media that Oliveira was headed to the Holy Land.

On Sunday night, a middle-aged Lakewood resident—who spoke to The Voice on condition that he be identified by the pseudonym Yehuda—was at Newark Airport with his brother for an El Al flight. They were waiting to go through security when they were shocked to see Oliveira in line.

“He was traveling alone, trying to keep a low profile, keeping to himself,” Yehuda recalls. “He was pulled over by TSA, but we went right through. My brother gave him a feste cheppe and said, ‘You see how we went right through TSA? It’s because we have our own Shomrim that got us through.’”

Oliveira, in his video about Lakewood and in a subsequent interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, had bashed Lakewood Shomrim along with other community organizations.

Once past security, several chassidish men began chatting with Oliveira.

“The conversation appeared friendly,” Yehuda says. “I didn’t hear much of what was said except that Tyler said, ‘I’m looking forward to learning a lot on this trip.’ But I was furious that he’s coming to Eretz Yisrael for another hit job.”

Yehuda snapped a photo of Oliveira speaking with the chassidim, and once they boarded, he took pictures of Oliveria walking past him to his economy-class middle seat at the back of the plane.

Yehuda was determined that Oliveira would not be allowed into Israel.

He sent the pictures to his friend Yisochar Savitz, a 27-year-old Lakewood resident with connections to Lakewood media and askanim. Savitz posted it on his WhatsApp status and also sent it to someone in Israel who is close with activist Shai Graucher.

Frum media outlets based in New Jersey and New York quickly took the photos from Savitz’s status and began posting them, with some also urging the Israeli government to ban Oliveira from entering the country.

“I was in the air and I saw that, boom, the pictures had gone viral,” Yehuda says with a laugh. “I look to the back of the plane, and I see Tyler [sleeping]. He had no idea that this stuff was happening.”

Once they arrived at Ben Gurion airport, Yehuda says Oliveira appeared to be nervous. Yehuda’s brother actually went over to a woman at passport control and said, “Are you going to let this antisemite into Israel?”

“But I don’t think she heard,” Yehuda says. “We assumed he would get in, and we left the airport.”

It was only later that Yehuda saw media reports that Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism, had barred Oliveira entry.

And a picture later circulated online showing Oliveira, once again sleeping in a middle seat, this time on the way back to America.

“Anyone who comes here with the aim of spreading hatred will be sent back where they came from,” Chikli said. “This follows the implementation of the new policy I have set: Entry into Israel, or activity within Israel, will not be permitted for anyone who disseminates antisemitic content, supports BDS, or incites against the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The rule is simple: Whoever incites against us simply will not be here.”

It’s unclear why Oliveira had tried entering Israel. Unlike his previous trip to Lakewood to make a video, he did not announce the Israel trip on his X account—though he had tweeted on April 12, amid the uproar over his videos about Kiryas Joel and Lakewood, “You guys think Israel will let me into the country?”

“Anyone who comes here with the aim of spreading hatred will be sent back where they came from”

On Monday, Chikli wrote a one-word response: “No.”

During his interview with Carlson, Oliveira said that he had received supportive messages from anti-chareidi Israelis for his videos against chareidim in America. Perhaps he was traveling to Israel to make a video against chareidim there. Or perhaps he had intended to make it about the government. His intentions were unknown as of Tuesday afternoon, as he had not commented publicly about his trip.

Yehuda and Yisochar say they don’t know whether the pictures they disseminated hours before Oliveira’s arrival had anything to do with his being banned,  “but I’d be thrilled if that were the case,” says Yehuda.

He believes Israel is justified in banning haters.

“Israel’s in a state of war,” he says. “And even in the United States, Donald Trump is kicking out foreigners who speak harshly against the country; he’s not giving them visas. So if it’s good enough for the United States of America to not let foreigners in who are coming to undermine us, I think Israel has a right to do that too. Free speech is a right for a resident of the country, not for a foreigner to come in and spew hatred and undermine the government and the country. Any country that has any kind of self-respect wouldn’t allow such a thing.”

Yisochar says that knowing he might have had something to do with Oliveira’s exclusion is “pretty cool.”

“I didn’t think that within about half an hour it would go so viral,” he says, “but it’s great to know that such a guy had to fly to Israel for 12 hours and then fly right back.”

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