Home fitness giant Peloton, which turned its screen-equipped spin bikes into a status symbol and its instructors into stars with global followings, has in recent months faced allegations of antisemitism from two different directions.
On one side, a former Jewish executive is suing the company, claiming he was fired after raising concerns internally about discriminatory treatment of Jewish employees. On the other, a group of about 30 Jewish subscribers and Israel supporters was recently invited to meet with senior company officials in New York following complaints over anti-Zionist content posted by instructors associated with the brand.
The lawsuit was filed in January by Victor Didia, who joined Peloton in 2019 and served as a senior manager on the company’s engineering team. According to the complaint, the dispute began in October 2024, when Nadav Julius, an Israeli-American employee who reported to him, said he feared for his safety amid the rise in antisemitism since October 7 and asked to work remotely. Didia approved the request and forwarded it for authorization by his superiors, including Peloton Chief Accounting Officer Saqib Baig.
Didia alleges that, during a discussion of the request, Baig said: “I’m Muslim, I was Muslim on September 11, it was hard, you have it easy.” Didia further claims that Jewish employees were treated differently from others and that attempts to establish an official employee group for Jews were rejected. According to the lawsuit, managers explained that “Jewish is not an ethnicity, it is a religion,” even though the company had groups for Black, Latino and Asian employees, people with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ employees and women.
Didia also alleges that in early 2025 when he was interviewed as part of a separate internal investigation, he told human resources about the remarks attributed to Baig and what he described as antisemitism at the company. He says the issue was played down, the matter was closed without explanation and Baig was not disciplined. According to Didia, their relationship later deteriorated.
Soon afterward, Didia began previously approved parental leave following the birth of his child in May. The leave was supposed to continue through the end of September, but in August, while he was still on leave, Peloton informed him that he was being terminated. The company presented the move as part of layoffs, but Didia claims he was the only person on his team to lose his job. He is seeking, among other things, lost wages, damages and punitive damages over alleged discrimination, retaliation and violations of his protected leave rights.
The company denies the claims
Peloton presents a different version of events on nearly every key point. In its defense filing submitted in March, the company denied that Baig made the statement attributed to him and emphasized that Julius’ request to work remotely was in fact approved.
Regarding the claim that Jewish employees were not allowed to organize, Peloton says an internal group called “Jewish @ Peloton” has been active at the company since 2023.
Peloton acknowledges that Didia told an internal investigator about the remark attributed to Baig, but denies that the plaintiff complained about “antisemitism at Peloton.” The company also confirms that Baig was not disciplined, but says there was no justification for doing so and denies the lawsuit’s allegation that he was promoted as a result of the episode. According to Peloton, he remained chief accounting officer while also taking on additional responsibility in the commercial unit.
The company also offers a broader account of Didia’s dismissal. In a document filed by the parties in court in June, Peloton said Didia’s position was eliminated as part of a companywide restructuring and reduction that affected more than 100 employees. It said another senior manager and a senior director in the same unit were also laid off.
The post that caused a stir
The company added that day-to-day responsibility for Didia’s team was transferred to a Jewish employee who was also returning from parental leave at the time. It further argued that the decision-makers who eliminated Didia’s position did not know he had raised any issue concerning Baig.
The case is still pending after mediation between the parties in May ended without an agreement.
Instructors post anti-Israel content: ‘This is not the first time’
Against that backdrop, Peloton is now also facing customer protests over Adrian Williams, one of the company’s prominent instructors.
Williams posted an Instagram story in collaboration with Ayat, a Palestinian restaurant chain in New York that has previously drawn criticism for using the slogan “From the river to the sea” on its menus. In the story, Williams was shown presenting a menu page under the heading “Discover Palestine,” featuring a map labeled “Palestine” over what was described as “former Israel.”
Following the criticism, Williams deleted the post. In a statement afterward, he wrote that the post had “achieved the opposite effect” of what he intended and added that he was “listening and learning.”
Julie Paris, a regional director with the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs and a longtime Peloton subscriber, said it was not an isolated incident and that other instructors had previously posted anti-Israel content or shared accounts associated with such messages. She and other customers launched a complaint campaign on social media and called on Peloton to enforce its rules against hate and discrimination for instructors.
At Peloton, the term “members” refers to subscribers who pay for access to classes and content, whether through the company’s bikes, treadmills and other equipment or through the app alone. The service includes thousands of live and on-demand workouts, ranging from spinning and running to strength training, yoga and Pilates.
The instructors broadcast from Peloton studios in New York and London to users around the world, and some have over the years attained a status closer to that of social media influencers and celebrities than conventional gym trainers. For many subscribers, they appear in their living rooms almost daily, and that relationship continues on Instagram and at events where fans come to meet them. Williams, for example, has more than 315,000 Instagram followers and serves as a paid “ambassador” for BMW and Lululemon.
A member group called Official Jewish Peloton Riders, with more than 3,600 members, has complained about a lack of Jewish content on the platform and even organized a solidarity workout for the hostages under the hashtag #BringThemHomeNow. Peloton has since expanded its offerings to include Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah and Jewish-American heritage classes.
Following the complaint campaign, Peloton invited Paris and 29 other participants to a meeting with company executives in New York and hired a mediator who spoke with participants before the meeting.
The participants called on the company to clarify the social media rules that apply to instructors, explain how complaints against them are investigated, provide antisemitism training and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which includes certain forms of discriminatory criticism uniquely directed at Israel.
Popular Peloton instructor Adrian Williams
(Photo: Peloton)
Paris described the meeting as substantive and said participants felt they were being heard. Peloton, she said, promised to continue the dialogue and respond to the group, but so far has not announced any policy change or concrete steps against the instructors.
“We want Peloton to succeed,” she said. “We just want it to do better.”
The company did not respond to ynet’s request for comment, but Peloton has previously taken public action in response to antisemitism. In October 2022, after a series of antisemitic remarks by Kanye West, the company announced that it would indefinitely stop using his music in new classes and would stop recommending older workouts featuring his songs to subscribers.
On Oct. 18, 2023, the company issued an official statement saying it stood with its Jewish employees and members, opposed terrorism and violence and “stands against antisemitism” as well as Islamophobia.