Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Hollywood actor Tom Hanks converts to Judaism and flees to Israel following the release of the Epstein client list.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
What are the Epstein Documents?
Dozens of previously sealed court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein were reportedly made public late on Wednesday (January 3), as a court releases more details of a years-old lawsuit connected to the late millionaire and convicted sex offender known for associating with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and academic stars.
The documents are set to reveal more than 150 names of people linked to Epstein, who died by suicide in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and other charges.
Fact
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Epstein Tom Hanks Israel”, which did not lead us to any relevant news reports stating that the actor fled to Israel. We noticed that the viral video of Hanks dancing was purported to be from a CNN report. We looked up the CNN website, where we did not find any such report, raising our doubts.
Newschecker, however, came across this Times of Israel report, dated July 9, 2014, headlined, “‘Rabbi’ Tom Hanks dances on Instagram”.
“Tom Hanks may have been wearing a bit of a costume, but it didn’t look like he was just acting at having fun at the recent wedding of Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s Jewish manager. In a video posted on Tuesday by the singer, the actor is seen joyfully dancing while wearing a yarmulke and tallit (Jewish prayer shawl). To be sure, the tallit looked like it could have been fashioned from a tablecloth, but that was beside the point,” read the report.
A comparison of screenshots of the viral video (left) and the 2014 Instagram video (right) uploaded by Justin Bieber, confirms it is the same clip that has gone viral. Similar news reports can be seen here, here and here, confirming that the viral video shows Hanks singing and dancing to the 1995 R&B hit “This Is How We Do It” at a Jewish wedding reception in Whistler, Canada.
Result: False
Sources
Times of Israel report, July 9, 2014
Instagram video, Justin Bieber, July 8, 2014
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
