Richard Roberts had a fairly good thought what sort of video Tyler Oliveira was planning to make about Lakewood, his closely Orthodox city in New Jersey.
After studying of Oliveira’s deliberate journey, Roberts, a distinguished and rich Lakewood resident, watched Oliveira’s current add, “Contained in the New York City Invaded by Welfare-Addicted Jews…,” through which the YouTube provocateur toured Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic enclave in upstate New York. The portrayal, which garnered practically 5 million views, was extensively condemned as antisemitic.
However Roberts additionally noticed a glimmer of one thing else within the video. Oliveira had given credit score to Kiryas Joel’s volunteer-run ambulance and firefighting companies — an indication, Roberts believed, that he could be open to listening to one other facet. So Roberts prolonged an invite for Oliveira to fulfill with him.
“I believe if he was your garden-variety antisemite, he wouldn’t give any credit score to us in any respect,” Roberts mentioned in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “So I assumed that perhaps, he’s coming to Lakewood anyway, perhaps I’d give him an opportunity to get the true info, genuine info, from me.”
Roberts invited Oliveira into his residence, the place the pair sat earlier than Roberts’ 10-foot fish tank for a three-hour-long interview earlier this month. Roberts mentioned he ready closely for the interview, anticipating the YouTuber to “ambush” him.
“He was seeking to solid a destructive mild on Orthodox Jews, and he had many angles to attempt to do it,” Roberts mentioned. “He additionally would exaggerate quite a bit.”
By Monday, it was clear that Oliveira had left Lakewood together with his views largely unchanged.
That’s when he uploaded his newest video, titled, “I Uncovered New Jersey’s Jewish Invasion…” It options man-on-the-street encounters and selective interviews that body native disputes over welfare, land use and political affect as proof of a broader “Jewish invasion.” By way of loaded narration, ominous modifying and repeated references to ethnic separatism, he amplifies antisemitic tropes whereas casting Orthodox Jewish communities as fraudulent drains on public assets. The video shortly reached greater than 2.2 million views.
Oliveira portrayed Lakewood as rife with fraud by citing allegations involving Jewish officers lately, together with a rabbi who was indicted in 2017 on expenses of stealing public funds from a college he based — expenses that had been later dismissed. He additionally highlighted the massive household sizes frequent amongst Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish residents, an element that has contributed to the township’s excessive beginning charge relative to the remainder of the state.
Richard Roberts and Tyler Oliveira sit down for an interview in Lakewood, New Jersey earlier this month. (Screenshot)
If the content material was inflammatory, the response was revealing. Oliveira’s back-to-back movies on Kiryas Joel and Lakewood have grow to be flashpoints in a widening ideological battle inside conservative media.
Oliveira, who has greater than 8.8 million YouTube subscribers, first gained virality in 2018 via a collaboration with MrBeast and later constructed a following on stunt and problem movies. Lately, his channel has shifted to what he calls “investigations,” through which he visits communities — from Thailand to Flint, Michigan — to provide exposé-style content material. Typically the movies probe alleged fraud; different occasions they ridicule the individuals he encounters.
His method mirrors that of fellow YouTuber Nick Shirley, whose reporting on alleged fraud by Somali-run day cares in Minneapolis preceded a federal immigration crackdown and earned him an invite to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union deal with.
However whereas Shirley’s work has drawn reward in some conservative circles, Oliveira’s give attention to Orthodox Jews has triggered backlash — together with from elements of the precise.
After posting the Lakewood video, Oliveira introduced that Patreon had eliminated his account. Some far-right influencers seized on the transfer as proof of undue Jewish affect inside conservative politics.
The antisemitic streamer Sneako wrote on X: “Nick Shirley makes a video about Somali daycares, will get pushed by your complete Peter Thiel/MAGA cabal. Elon, JD Vance, Rumble, all glazing benevolently. Tyler Oliveira exposes how Jews in Jersey rip-off tax payers … Nobody says a phrase.”
Nick Fuentes equally accused conservatives of making use of a double customary. “They really consider that the principles simply shouldn’t apply to Jewish individuals,” he wrote.
Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel Faculty District, rejected that framing. “In case you can’t inform the distinction between fraud and harassment, you then’ve simply ‘uncovered’ your self to be an Antisemite,” he posted on X.
The controversy quickly widened. A nicotine pouch firm owned by Tucker Carlson teased on X, “Chat, ought to we sponsor Tyler? 👀” in response to Patreon’s removing of Oliveira. That prompted condemnation from Laura Loomer, the far-right Jewish activist, who accused Carlson of “mainstreaming a era of Jew obsessed podcasters and content material creators.”
For Roberts — a self-described “die-hard Republican” who served as vice chairman of the Israel Advisory Committee for Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign — the episode suits right into a troubling development.
“There’s a serious monetary incentive to be an antisemite, whether or not it’s expressed as anti-Israel or explicitly as anti-Jewish,” Roberts mentioned. “Tucker, Candace and Nick Fuentes … they’re all profiting on it with no conscience that they’re spreading falsehoods.”
Conservative political commentator and podcast host Tucker Carlson speaks at Turning Level’s annual AmericaFest convention in Phoenix, Dec. 18, 2025. (Olivier Touron / AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Throughout the opening of the Lakewood video, Oliveira claims the Orthodox neighborhood has sparked “concern” amongst non-Jewish residents that “their city will quickly be changed into little Jerusalem.” He asserts that Jews have “consolidated political energy,” depleted public college funding and overwhelmed infrastructure whereas prioritizing their very own neighborhood.
All through the video, Oliveira approaches Jewish residents in automobiles and enters native companies, accusing the neighborhood of defrauding welfare programs.
“That is going to make you some huge cash, and it’s going to leap numerous hatred in direction of a neighborhood that’s seeing an increase in antisemitism that hasn’t been seen in years,” one resident tells him. “Each single day, our lives are in danger.”
Oliveira responds: “You say antisemitism, I noticed anti-Goyism,” invoking and reframing the Yiddish time period for non-Jews in a manner frequent amongst far-right influencers.
Roberts described the ultimate product as a “hit piece” that was “feeding an antisemitic crowd.” He mentioned his personal interview was “chopped” to suit Oliveira’s narrative, whereas native activists crucial of the Orthodox neighborhood got prolonged airtime.
Nonetheless, he doesn’t remorse sitting down for the interview. He employed his personal videographer to document the dialog and plans to launch the complete footage.
“Anybody who desires to see can see,” Roberts mentioned. “There’s going to be plenty of issues which might be offered to him that present the fantastic thing about this neighborhood and the way the accusations towards us are simply false, and he simply didn’t trouble to place them in.”
Keith Krivitzky, managing director of the Jewish Federation of Ocean County, referred to as the video a “blatant try and stir animosity in direction of the Orthodox neighborhood in Lakewood.”
“Folks have decisions,” Krivitzky wrote in a press release to JTA. “They will advocate for his or her rights … they usually can name out this man for being a jerk and an antisemite.”
Even after all the things, nevertheless, Roberts mentioned he stops wanting labeling Oliveira an antisemite. He describes him as a substitute as “a provocateur who desires to get clicks.”
“He ought to rightfully know that he’s going to provide fodder to vicious, bigoted, racist antisemites,” Roberts mentioned. “However I don’t assume that he’s targeted on antisemitism in his personal perception system.”
