Modern-day ‘Queen Esther’ Lizzy Savetsky gets real about her Israel activism
The social media star, former beauty queen, New York socialite and proud Zionist talks about her nonstop work and how she’s learned to drop the haters and empower fellow Jews
Reporter at The Times of Israel
NEW YORK — Maybe it’s the upcoming holiday of Purim, or maybe it’s the way that Jewish crowds respond to her whether she’s entering a protest or a gala fundraiser, but there’s undeniably something about New York-based social media influencer and activist Lizzy Savetsky that evokes a modern-day Queen Esther who uses her beauty, voice and position to advocate for the Jewish people.
The Times of Israel caught up with the mother of three over the telephone the morning after she’d made a splash at the United Jewish Appeal Generosity Gala on March 14. Savetsky had chosen to wear a Star of David corset by Israeli designer Galit Levi that was originally worn in 1999 by the Arab Israeli Miss Israel, Rana Raslan, for the Miss Universe pageant — a statement piece that, like Savetsky, got a fair share of attention.
“This event I was at last night — I couldn’t even take a step without someone coming over to me thanking me, saying that they feel seen by my content and that they felt so alone,” said Savetsky, who has some 360,000 followers on Instagram. “It was so meaningful. I try to give people comfort, strength, education, and to help them explain to their friends about the intricacies of what’s happening in Israel.”
It’s important to note that Savetsky herself is no stranger to pageantry — as a teenager growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, she was Miss Teen Duncanville and a runner-up in the 2002 Miss Teen Texas pageant.
“I could not in a million years have imagined that this would be my life path. If somebody would have told me when I was a 15-year-old in the Miss Teen Texas pageant that I’d be devoting my life to standing up for Israel and the Jewish people, I’d have told them they were crazy,” Savetsky laughed, but noted that there’s a lot of overlap between the work she does now as an advocate and her pageant past.
“I realized when I won Miss Teen Duncanville — I was crowned in a VA hospital — I realized wow, I have a crown on my head and I have people listening to what I have to say,” Savetsky recalled. “It was at that moment that I started formulating my thoughts and learning how to speak to people.”
And in doing so, much like Queen Esther of the Purim story, she learned the potential importance of using the platform provided by her beauty.
“It shouldn’t go without saying that beauty and sparkle and aesthetic allure are so important when it comes to delivering a message,” Savetsky said. “People are really drawn to what their eyes see. What I wore last night got people’s attention and opened the door for a much deeper message. I’ve always used pictures and imagery as a way to capture people’s eyes so I can capture their hearts.”
Savetsky fully splashed onto the pages of New York tabloids when she was selected in 2022 to be one of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York in the series of the same name, but said she left the show because of antisemitism directed at her before the show even got filming fully underway.
“I’d had this idealistic vision that I would reach masses of people with my Jewish identity and message, and it became clear to me almost immediately that it wasn’t going to elevate my message, but could really do damage because I didn’t have control over the narrative,” Savetsky said.
“I saw how quick people were to spew hate at me when they found out I was a proud Zionist, and the last thing that I would ever want to do would be to inadvertently create more antisemitism in the world,” she said.
At the end of the day, Savetsky believes that not being on the show and instead continuing to forge an independent social media path has been a better trajectory.
“It’s really important to me to be able to be in control of my message, and of course, being on display in that way, and having all this press about me, I think, in the end, has only helped, because it got more eyeballs on the message,” Savetsky said.
Savetsky leverages her social media presence to foster awareness of issues relating to Israel and to create Jewish pride. This purposeful use of her platform started during the Gaza conflict in May 2021, she recounted, when a friend in Israel asked her to speak up against the tide of antisemitism gaining force on social media.
“A friend of mine in Israel texted me and said, Lizzy, 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,” Savetsky said. “So I decided to post a picture of myself wrapped in the Israeli flag with a caption of why I stand with Israel and why I love Israel.”
The repercussions, Savetsky said, were instantaneous. “Immediately, I was on the receiving end of death threats, and was losing jobs, and was dropped by my management company,” she said. “And I have to say that instead of feeling torn down by that, I actually felt so incredibly motivated — I just had the realization of wow, we really need advocates. I wasn’t seeing anyone in my position doing it, and I felt like I had to step up, and that was the beginning.”
Back then, Savetsky says, she was taking what she calls a “proactive” stance to combat antisemitism online, scheduling content about what it means to be a Zionist or to teach about Judaism, as she’s also an Orthodox Jew. She also regularly conducted speaking events for different Jewish communities throughout the United States and positioned herself as an activist and ardently Jewish and Zionistic voice online.
But since the Hamas-led massacre of October 7 — a day that she spent with her family in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem, being on vacation in Israel for the Sukkot holiday — she finds herself both inordinately busy and inordinately driven.
“Suddenly, we’re all forced to be experts on the history of the Middle East,” Savetsky said of Jewish Americans, noting that “imposter syndrome” is something she herself has had to get over. “I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, I wasn’t particularly religious, and I’d never been to Israel until I went on Birthright.”
But it’s that relatability factor — Savetsky has a warm smile and a welcoming demeanor for anyone she meets — that resonates with her viewers and fills a current need.
“I try to educate my followers with short and digestible videos so that they have the tools to speak up in their own circles,” Savetsky said. “I have seen such an amazing impact in terms of helping people understand that there is no shame in standing loud and proud. The best reaction to antisemitism is to be unapologetically Jewish, in all the small ways that we possibly can.”
“My number one priority, especially since October 7, is to empower my own people to feel like they have the knowledge and the pride to stand up, proudly and strongly,” Savetsky said.
The best reaction to antisemitism is to be unapologetically Jewish, in all the small ways that we possibly can
Savetsky recalled learning about the unfolding massacre on October 7, when thousands of terrorists stormed over the Israel-Gaza border and butchered 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, and abducted 253 more amid unspeakable acts of brutality. The onslaught was timed to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which this year fell out on the Sabbath.
“I looked at my husband and three kids and thought, I can’t get emotional right now, and the second that Shabbat ends, people are going to be looking to me for education and inspiration, and I have to be able to give it to them. I knew my life was about to completely shift. And it did — I landed back in New York on the morning of October 9, went straight from the airport to FOX News, and basically haven’t stopped doing this work since,” she said.
Savetsky has flown all over the US speaking to Jewish groups about advocacy and identity in the face of antisemitism. Her schedule is more than slightly frenetic — “coffee doesn’t even touch me anymore,” she laughs — but she says she understands that the pace is necessary given the need at hand.
“My war is on social media, and I don’t feel that I have the luxury of taking a break, because unfortunately, there’s just not enough of us with loud enough voices to stand up and fight this fight,” Savetsky said. “That’s what keeps me going. If our soldiers can put their lives in jeopardy for all of us, and what I can do is to fight in my way in my small corner of the internet, then how can I not?”
“So many events are happening because everyone wants to be together, in all of these different Jewish communities,” Savetsky said. “The stories I’ve heard from different people about the antisemitism that their communities, and that they and their kids are experiencing, or of lone soldiers that have served in Israel from these communities — these are the stories that I carry with me that really help me form whatever message I share. I feel like I’m getting an anthropological look at our nation’s Jewish world.”
“People are showing up who have never been to a Jewish community event in their life, because they’re so thirsty for meaning and purpose and inspiration,” Savetsky said. “That’s unbelievable. I don’t think there’s any turning back, after what we’ve been through.”
When her husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Ira Savetsky, isn’t in surgery, Savetsky spends non-Shabbat mornings sitting down with him to plan her social media content: “We’re a team — I’m just the face. We’ll talk about what’s happening, figure out what is the priority to be addressed that day, and then I’ll make a video.”
I don’t think there’s any turning back, after what we’ve been through
Her content includes interviews with hostages’ families, synopses of on-campus antisemitism controversies, footage from her recent trip to Israel, and lessons on religion with “Torah Corner,” which is recorded with one of her two daughters, Stella. Savetsky’s content comes across like Savetsky herself — inviting, unassuming and genuine.
“In the past five months, I’ve gained a third of my following, which is wild,” Savetsky said. “And it reassures me — it’s not that I’m doing it for the follower count, but it is reassuring that people are looking to me as a source, as a support and as somebody that gives them the strength to stand up strong as Jews.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Savetsky doesn’t see her job as “converting” those who are antisemitic — rather, she is focused on Jewish empowerment.
“There are people whose minds aren’t going to change, and who don’t care about the facts, and those people, I really just let go of,” she said. “Their hatred is so strong that the truth somehow ceases to exist, and it’s just not worth my energy fighting with them when they’d rather keep their eyes closed. If all I accomplish is making a Jewish person feel proud to be Jewish, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”
The most touching messages she receives from followers, Savetsky said, are from college students: “What they’re going through right now — no college student, no kid that age should be facing being made to feel like they’re targeted just for being Jewish.”
She recounted how gratifying it was for her to help a Columbia University college senior organize a pro-Israel protest, and to speak to him the moment she realized that he was truly scared to do it: “I told him, these are the moments when heroes are made. Realize what you are made of, and you’re going to be able to step into your power like never before.”
