‘I'm not being paid, I'm not running away’: Lizzy Savetsky tells ‘Post’

The 39th World Zionist Congress had become the morning's biggest headlines across Israeli media, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son being positioned for a senior role in the World Zionist Organization.

"We were all in that zone," Savetsky explained about the split between delegates debating resolutions in the main auditorium and the backroom negotiations where "everything was kind of falling apart at the seams." She only learned about the Yair Netanyahu controversy after leaving the venue well after midnight. "It's gonna take a couple of weeks for things, the pieces to get put back together."

"I'd never even heard of it," she said of Project Esther. "Nobody from the Israeli government has ever offered me a dollar for anything that I do. I have never even so much as taken a reimbursement when I've been invited to their events for a taxi ride, for a coffee, nothing."

In a video response to the accusations that she referenced during the interview, Savetsky had spoken against a decision by various Israeli media outlets to run an article issued by The Jewish Telegraph Agency, without requesting her comment. "They all have my number because I've spoken to all of them in the past, so I find it quite bizarre that not one of these publications reached out to me to verify the accusations."

The legal implications make the accusations particularly serious. "If I was taking money from the Israeli government without being registered as a foreign agent, which I am not, I could literally go to jail. It is illegal."

Her management company dropped her in 2021 when she pivoted to Israel advocacy – "not because they were antisemitic or anti-Israel, it was because I was no longer marketable. They couldn't sell me to any brands because I was too controversial." She does get paid for public speaking engagements, "just like any other public speaker would be paid," but her daily advocacy videos come from "just the depths of my soul, from my heart."

Savetsky's transformation from fashion influencer to Israel advocate began during the 2021 Gaza conflict when Hamas rockets triggered an Israeli response. "I was shocked to see how immediately upon Israel's response, so many of my peers on social media in the fashion space and the lifestyle space who had never been to Israel, had never been to the Palestinian territories, immediately demonized Israel."

A friend in Israel texted: "We really need your voice right now – we're being pummeled on social media by all these big-time celebrities and we don't have a voice."

The cost was immediate – she lost about 30,000 followers and her management contract. By October 7, 2023, when she was in Israel with her family and spent the morning in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem, people knew "this is what Lizzy does. She speaks up for the Jewish people."

The conversation turned to New York, where progressive State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani appears headed for victory in the mayoral race. Mamdani, who Savetsky noted was at a rally in June where "he led a free Palestine chant," has refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" and is "best friends with Mahmoud Khalil," the Columbia protest leader whom the Trump administration has been trying to deport.

"If Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor, it will get more uncomfortable for Jews in New York City. That is the bottom line," Savetsky stated. But she rejected calls for Jews to flee: "I am not a fan of people saying if Zohran Mamdani wins, I'm running, I'm moving."

She predicted wealthy residents might leave due to his tax policies, potentially bankrupting the city. "God willing, basically bringing New York down, he will bring New York down. And this has nothing to do even with antisemitism."

Still, the long-term picture concerns her. Discussing a recent cemetery visit after losing a close friend, she shared a conversation with her husband Ira about burial plans. "I want to be buried in Israel because I don't want my progeny to have to come to a ghost town where Jews used to live to be able to pay their respects to me."

"I don't know how much more time we have to be safe," she said. "I'm gonna stay and fight for right now. I'm not going anywhere... But we're gonna have to be vigilant. And I, you know, 10 years, it could be less."

She referenced the biblical Exodus, noting tradition says 80% of Jews didn't leave Egypt: "They chose comfort over truth." On Jews supporting Mamdani: "We have tikkun olam'd ourselves into oblivion because we have been so concerned with helping every other marginalized group that we have neglected ourselves."

Asked about her role commenting on Israeli politics as an American Jew, Savetsky was clear: "As an American Jew, it is my job to support Israel and the leadership unequivocally... I would meet with any Prime Minister."

Her daughter, almost 13, "all she talks about is wanting to move to Israel and join the army." While acknowledging it's "extremely scary to have your child in the army," Savetsky called it "what greater honor than to know that you're putting everything out there, everything on the line for Am Yisrael."

"My only weapon I have is my voice," she said. "That's what I'm doing."

Bouskila closed the interview by acknowledging Savetsky's work: "I've seen everything you've done for the country of Israel. I've seen how many times you flew in here, paid for it yourself and devoted your last two years for the state of Israel, for the Jewish people."

"I just love what I do," Savetsky responded. "And I feel so grateful every day. So grateful."

"The country is very lucky to have you," Bouskila said.

"I wouldn't exist without it," Savetsky replied.