From Bully Survivor to Jewish Activist, Brandon Farbstein Is a Giant

Gen Z activist and motivational speaker, Brandon Farbstein, 25, was born with an extremely rare form of dwarfism called metatropic dysplasia, which stunted his skeletal growth. According to the National Institutes of Health, less than 5,000 people in the United States are estimated to have this disorder.

Farbstein, who is three feet and nine inches tall, revealed to Aish, “Every single day of my life I go out in a world that isn’t built for somebody like me, and I almost have to convince society that I’m a human being.”

Farbstein gave his first TEDx talk when he was 15 years old and he realized that his message was universal, even if his story wasn’t. His experience of feeling invisible and alone but finding hope by shifting his perspective has resonated with millions of people.

At 18, Farbstein authored his first children’s book, “Ten Feet Tall: Step Into Your Truth and Change Your Freaking World,” to empower young people.

On April 8, 2025, Penguin redistributed “A kid’s book about SELF-LOVE,” which offers advice like how you should treat yourself like your own best friend, and that you have the power to change your thinking. Farbstein commented, “I couldn’t choose how people responded to me, or the looks that I would get, or the laughter and the snickering, but I could always choose my thoughts.”

Farbstein said he wished he could have read this book to his eight-year-old self. “If I could have given him one page of this book, I know for a fact he would have felt less alone.” This was the age when Farbstein became aware that he was different from his peers, who he saw growing taller while he had to miss six months of school for a second set of leg surgeries.

Traumatized through Bullying

When he was 11, Farbstein remembered feeling “at a point in my life where I thought there was no point, there was no purpose of me being on this earth.”

During his freshman year of high school in Richmond, Virginia, he experienced cyberbullying that was traumatizing. Farbstein’s classmates uploaded distorted pictures and videos of him onto social media to “make it look like my nose was huge…editing so I looked deformed.” He said they “included disgusting graphic threats saying, ‘Nobody is ever going to love this ugly creature. He should just go kill himself.’”

The posts received hundreds of retweets, and Farbstein was devastated to find that classmates who he was friendly with followed the accounts. One post stated, “This midget should have been gassed in the Holocaust. Hitler didn’t do his job.”

An honors student, Farbstein left school in November of his junior year and finished his classes online because he “was so terrified walking in that building every single day not knowing who was behind it.”

Through therapy and “a lot of deep inner work” Farbstein learned how to take his power back. He is grateful for having a family he could trust to support him. “If I didn’t have that, I literally would have ended my life because of what I’ve been through,” he said.

Taking Action

Farbstein’s pain motivated him to take action. By the time he was 18, his advocacy work to have anti-bullying courses taught in schools resulted in two laws in Virginia being passed. Since 2017, bullying prevention and empathy and emotional intelligence have been part of the K-12 curriculum throughout the state.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, touring Israel

Farbstein’s mission is to Elevate Empathy®. He is a board member of the nonprofit Digital4Good, which empowers teens to utilize social media for positivity. He is also a founding partner of the Builders Movement, launched by philanthropist and businessman Daniel Lubetsky, to overcome the toxic “us versus them” mentality and choose humanity.

In July 2022, Farbstein received recognition as a LinkedIn Top Voice for disability advocacy. Last month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) honored him with the Hero Against Hate award for combating discrimination and promoting empathy.

“I feel like all of my life experiences have prepared me for the last year that we’ve been having, especially on the antisemitism front,” Farbstein stated.

Childhood Friend of Hersh Goldberg-Polin

A cause close to his heart is advocating for the release of Hamas hostages. Hersh Goldberg-Polin was Farbstein’s beloved childhood friend. They went to Aleph Bet Preschool in Richmond, Virginia together, and Hersh’s mother, Rachel, taught Farbstein’s mother, Sylvia, at the Weinstein Jewish Community Center. Farbstein stated, “I know for a fact if our roles were reversed, he would have shouted from the top of the tallest building until he had no ability to speak anymore to fight for my release.”

With Rachel Goldberg-Polin

While on a trip to Israel for social media influencers in May, Rachel came over to Farbstein to tell him how she fondly remembered his sister calling her applesauce ‘strapplesauce’ because she added strawberries to it. Farbstein had not seen Rachel since he was five years old. Syliva elaborated, “Brandon was in awe that even in the midst of such unimaginable trauma, Rachel had the ability to recall such a small moment from over 20 years ago. Rachel has the remarkable ability to make others feel like they matter.” Farbstein added, “Such a small moment like that meant everything, because it shows you the love and the epitome of light that she is.”

He said that Rachel and her husband, Jon, inspire him to “show up in as much light as I can for other people, so that it’s a domino effect and they could do the same.”

Jewish Leader

Last month, Farbstein returned to Israel, where he met with President of Israel Isaac Herzog to discuss his newly appointed role as one of 150 Jewish leaders chosen to join Herzog’s global “Voice of the People” council. Launched last year, the initiative addresses challenges faced by the Jewish community, and encourages unity and resilience. Farbstein’s focus will be fostering Jewish and non-Jewish relations.

Brandon with President Herzog as part of the Voice of the People conference (Credit Voice of the People)

Farbstein’s own experiences have not led him to harbor hate and mistrust in his heart but rather to seek out our allies in the Jewish community. “We can’t do any of this alone,” he explained. “Especially in the last year, we’ve been forced to find our people. And I’m not just talking about surrounding ourselves with other Jews, but really the allies (who say), ‘I may not know what it’s like to be in your shoes right now, but I stand with you and support you in whatever you need.’”

Featured image: by Judy Heumann

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