Fact Check: Has Tom Hanks converted to Judaism and fled to Israel? Viral dancing video debunked

An X (formerly Twitter) user with the handle @TheOfficial1984 recently shared a video of Tom Hanks dancing. The hazy 24-second clip showed the Forrest Gump actor shaking his legs to the music in the background. Also visible was the logo of CNN along with the word Live on the right-side bottom, with the news headline reading as follows:

“Breaking News: Tom Hanks converts to Judaism and flees to Israel following the release of the Epstein client list.”

Meanwhile, the caption of @The Official1984’s tweet also contained the same information. Additionally, it states,

“Sources say he was greeted with a massive welcome celebration upon his arrival.”

However, readers' context under the post clarified that the Tom Hanks video can be traced back to July 2014, when he danced at a Jewish wedding wearing a Jewish costume. An article by the Times of Israel, titled “‘Rabbi’ Tom Hanks dances on Instagram,” was also linked as evidence, thus making the recent claim false.

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Tom Hanks danced at celebrity manager Scooter Braun’s 2014 Jewish wedding

According to the mid-2014 Times of Israel article, Tom Hanks attended the summer wedding of singer Justin Bieber’s then-Jewish manager, Scooter Braun, in Whistler, British Columbia.

At the ceremony, the Oscar winner donned Jewish attire comprising a yarmulke (a traditional Jewish prayer skullcap) and a tallit (a traditional Jewish prayer shawl) and matched his steps to Montell Jordan’s popular 1995 dance number This Is How We Do It, showcasing his Jewish culture-inspired moves.

In fact, he was captured on camera by Justin Bieber himself, who even shared the same on his Instagram with the caption:

“Haha, Tom Hanks singing “This Is How We Do It” dressed like a Rabbi lol #thatdancetho.”

For the uninitiated, Braun tied the knot with South African entrepreneur Yael Cohen, the founder of F-Cancer, a nonprofit dedicated to cancer research, in July 2014, which was a star-studded affair attended by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sophia Bush, Justin Bieber, apart from Tom Hanks.

It is noteworthy that Braun is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and accompanied Justin on his 2011 world tour to Israel to learn more about his Jewish roots.

Meanwhile, it is also important to note that the 67-year-old Money Pit star was raised as a Catholic for the first ten years of his life, as explained by him in a 1998 interview with George Magazine.

There, he also stated that he was exposed to other religions as well, including Mormon (because of his stepmother), Nazarene (because of his aunt), and Judaism (because of his friends). Hanks also added how he attended Wednesday-night Bible study with his church group for years growing up.

He was also tagged as a “bible-toting evangelical” by the media during the early years of his career. However, he converted to Greek Orthodox Christianity in the late 1980s, around the time he married his second wife, Rita Wilson. Regardless, the Cast Away star has maintained that he goes to church but does not have rigid beliefs about any religion, as per Patheos.

Interestingly, Tom Hanks has been accused of being one of Hollywood’s most notorious pedophiles for years, as per Snopes. Not only that, but last month a claim arose on X that he said he would leave the USA if Donald Trump came back to power.

While it was later debunked as satire, many pro-Trump netizens tried to link him to convicted s*x offender, late Jeffrey Epstein. In this regard, it is noteworthy that Hanks and his wife of 35 years, Rita Wilson, both have been sharing dual American-Greek citizenship since July 2020 and can legally move to Greece.