Owing to a nearly 40-year age difference, the two did not attend the school at the same time, however.
On April 16, 2024, a Reddit post claimed that U.S. rapper, comedian and actor Lil Dicky, whose real name is David Burd, attended the same high school as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu.
Since at least 2020, reports have circulated online that the two men share the same alma mater, Cheltenham High School, located in an affluent suburb about 10 miles north of Philadelphia.
This claim is true, although their attendances did not overlap. While Lil Dicky, who was born in 1988, graduated from the school in Elkins Park in the mid-2000s, Netanyahu, who was born in 1949, attended during the 1960s.
According to the school's website, Lil Dicky, who went on to create and star in the FXX sitcom "Dave," graduated in 2006. The school district also posted about the TV show on Facebook in 2019.
A 2015 Reddit post showed Lil Dicky in the Cheltenham yearbook:
(Reddit user bspoke)
Netanyahu, who was born in Tel Aviv, accompanied his family to the United States during a portion of his high school years due to the career of his father, historian and encyclopedist Benzion Netanyahu.
Various sources confirm Netanyahu lived in the U.S. from 1956-58 and again from 1963-67. In the 1960s he attended Cheltenham and lived in Elkins Park before returning to Israel for his military service.
From an article published in The New Yorker in 1998: "Along with their parents, Iddo, Yoni, and Bibi moved to Elkins Park, a Philadelphia suburb, in 1963, and went to a local high school. Each of the sons, in turn, went back to Israel for his Army service while their parents stayed in the United States. Yoni was the first to go, and he stayed in close touch with his brother through hundreds of letters."
In 2015, The Philadelphia Inquirer released Netanyahu's high school yearbook photo from 1967, noting that the future politician left school around the time of the Six-Day War in June 1967 and joined the Israel Defense Forces to fight against a coalition of Arab countries in the Middle East. He missed out on the graduation ceremonies and his yearbook. Per the Inquirer:
According to the yearbook, Netanyahu was active on the debate team and in the chess club while he attended Cheltenham. He played left wing for the soccer team and [classmate Chuck] Langerman joked, "That was the exact opposite of his political views."
Based on verification from numerous sources, including Cheltenham High School's official website, the claim that Lil Dicky and Netanyahu attended the same high school is true and highlights an intriguing connection between two men from vastly different backgrounds.
Snopes has published other stories about notable public figures attending the same school, including actress Jada Pinkett Smith and rapper Tupac Shakur, and actor Tommy Lee Jones and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.