About

Spiritually Israeli is a slang term used to identify trends, products and activities, among other things, that some perceive as 2020s Israeli culture and tastes. The term was most often used to describe trends in consumerism that were co-opted by people as culture and taste due to internet and influencer influence. Notably, the 2025 consumer fads as part of the Labubu Matcha Dubai Chocolate meme were dubbed "spiritually Israeli." The term was used as a critique of consumerism and Israeli culture, which many online perceived as vapid and consumer-based. That perception was roughly founded online and in memes by the I'm an Artist From Israel and This Is My Art meme, which focused on a TikTok video from an Israeli artist whose art was considered by some viewers as culturally empty. Use of the term "Spiritually Israeli" coincided with critiques of Israel and the Israeli people over the 2023-2025 Hamas-Israel Conflict.

Origin

On January 5th, 2024, Israeli artist Albert Levi posted a video to his TikTok^[1] account @albertart that had text overlay reading, "I'm an artist from Israel and this is my art 🤍🇮🇱💙." Levi is first seen in military attire and then seen in his studio showing the viewer his paintings, including a blue horse, a sports car, a lion, a parrot and a woman screaming and smiling. Over seven months, the video amassed over 195,300 plays and 16,500 likes.

The video sparked a memetic trend of pairing Levi's video caption with other image macros, evident in viral posts on X.^[2][3]

In the following weeks, users followed an "I Am a X From Y and This Is My Z" phrasal template, based on the video, in which they replaced the country, medium and occupation.

On May 26th, 2025, X^[4] user @SoUAM3BoN648794 replied to a tweet that was about the Matcha Rave in Dubai video. The user replied, writing, "This type of thing is spiritually Israeli," gaining over 9,300 likes in four months.

Spread

In the following days, more tweets^[5][6] used the term Spiritually Israeli related to the Matcha Rave video.

On June 27th, 2025, X^[7] user @thomposting tweeted, "Love Island is spiritually Israeli," referring to the reality TV show. Over three months, the tweet gained over 35,000 likes.

On July 1st, X^[8] user @authenyo tweeted a screenshot of a TikTok video with a caption, "Yes, you can be anti-capitalist while also enjoying Labubus and Blank Street matcha." @authenyo wrote, "Just saw the most spiritually Israeli video of my life," gaining over 2,700 likes in two months.

On July 17th, 2025, TikToker^[9] @addyrall0 posted a video of himself with the caption, "Sydney Sweeney has to be the most spiritually Israeli celeb I can think of," gaining over 10,300 likes in two months.

On August 30th, X^[10] user @ponar15 quote-tweeted a post announcing that actress Sydney Sweeney and entrepreneur Scooter Braun were rumored to be dating, captioning the tweet, "Spiritually Israeli relationship." Over six days, the post received over 179,000 likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References