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(JTA) — Siggy Flicker, a former Actual Housewife of New Jersey, says she typically finds herself apologizing when she hangs out along with her pal Donald Trump, a fellow actuality TV star turned Republican activist.
“We’ll speak in regards to the nation and the way a lot we love the nation,” Flicker instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company this week. “And I’m all the time expressing to him, ‘It’s simply so upsetting to me, I’m so sorry, Mr. President, for the liberal American Jews.’”
More often than not, she mentioned, that thought will get shared in personal conversations: Flicker, who now lives in Florida and is a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Membership, mentioned she’s dined with the previous president and flown on his personal aircraft. However this week, the sentiment exploded into public view after Trump shared a graphic that Flicker made for Rosh Hashanah on his social media platform.
“Only a fast reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel since you believed false narratives!” mentioned the graphic, which Trump posted on Sunday, close to the top of the vacation. “Let’s hope you discovered out of your errors and make higher decisions shifting ahead! Comfortable New Yr!”
The publish instantly ignited criticism of Trump, who has accused left-leaning American Jews of “nice disloyalty” prior to now. A spread of Jewish organizations condemned the publish, which highlighted his document on Israel as president, and a few referred to as it “offensive” and “harmful.”
Flicker, the Israeli-born daughter of Holocaust survivors, dismisses the issues and says she was proud to see the previous president share her work.
“Who cares in the event that they discovered it offensive,” Flicker instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “The underside line is Donald Trump is main within the polls. Donald Trump shouldn’t be an antisemite. Donald Trump is a lover of the Jewish folks and the State of Israel. And on the finish of the day, if the liberal Jews are gonna get triggered they usually discover it offensive, who cares?”
Trump’s publish provided new prominence for the position that Flicker is enjoying within the effort to return him to the White Home. With a few of his previous Jewish advisors, together with his personal daughter and son-in-law, seemingly retaining their distance from his marketing campaign as he faces 4 separate indictments, Flicker has emerged as one thing of an unofficial Jewish ambassador for Trump — espousing views which can be far outdoors the norm for American Jews.
On her Instagram account, she lambasts President Joe Biden, who obtained a big majority of Jewish votes; warns of the arrival of migrants, a difficulty with Jewish historic freight; and quotes Tucker Carlson, the previous Fox Information host who echoed the antisemitic “Nice Substitute” conspiracy principle.
There was a time, not way back, when Flicker mentioned, “I don’t like unfavorable,” and added that she needed to “convey mild” to the cutthroat world of actuality TV. Born in Israel in 1967 — her full first title is Sigalit — Flicker is the daughter of Mordecai Paldiel, a Holocaust survivor who served as director of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the many Nations division for greater than 20 years. She has lived in america since childhood and, as an grownup, crafted a profession as a matchmaker and relationship coach.
She was the host of a courting present, “Why Am I Nonetheless Single?!” which ran on VH1 for one season beginning in 2011. Starting 5 years later, she appeared on two seasons of “The Actual Housewives of New Jersey.” Previously a resident of Tenafly, a New Jersey suburb with a big Israeli inhabitants, Flicker now lives in Boca Raton, Florida full-time.
She has additionally written a ebook on courting and has co-hosted a podcast. Flicker’s second marriage, in 2012, made information as a result of her first husband and the daddy of her two kids served as finest man.
It was across the time of her stint on “RHONJ,” beginning in early 2016, as she tells it, that she first noticed Trump’s attraction. (She was on the present for 2 seasons earlier than quitting in a transfer that an nameless supply instructed Web page Six was a response to antisemitic bullying.) She instructed JTA that she was a Democrat earlier than then however noticed Trump, a fellow actuality TV star, as a recent various.
“I mentioned to myself, ‘Wow, lastly a non-politician who’s an amazing businessman,” Flicker recalled. “I’m going to offer him a attempt.’”
Seven years later, Flicker is a sworn Trump devotee. She mentioned she and her husband have grow to be private associates with the previous president in recent times, attending to know him by means of a mutual acquaintance, Alina Habba, who’s certainly one of Trump’s attorneys.
Since 2020, Flicker has been the spokeswoman for Jexit, an activist group fashioned in 2018 to influence Jews to desert their historic affinity with the Democratic Get together — whose candidates recurrently obtain a strong majority of Jewish votes. She first obtained concerned in Jexit after assembly its founder, Michelle Terris, and realizing that their sons had been associates at Pennsylvania State College.
“She’s actually a drive and he or she is a real figurehead for our motion as a result of she’s a authorized immigrant,” Terris instructed JTA.
Jexit — which was loosely impressed by an identical group for Black People referred to as Blexit, based by the Black conservative activist Candace Owens — hosts prayer breakfasts, rallies and is planning an upcoming journey to Israel for a cohort of interfaith leaders. Certainly one of its objectives is explicitly to advertise “Judeo-Christian values,” an idea some critics say subsumes Jewish custom inside a promotion of Christian messages.
“Collectively we’re gonna make Judeo-Christian values nice once more,” Flicker mentioned. “We’re not counting on the liberal Jews.”
Jexit’s programming director, Sofia Manolesco, instructed JTA that about 5,000 persons are on Jexit’s mailing checklist. In a follow-up electronic mail, Terris mentioned that after a “tough calculation,” their membership totals “50+ thousand.” The group has fewer than 10,000 Instagram followers; Flicker has greater than 600,000.
The truth that Trump’s Rosh Hashanah publish was written by a Jewish girl who works for a Jewish group doesn’t excuse it, mentioned Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“That is in his title, so it doesn’t matter who wrote it, that is attributed to him,” Soifer mentioned. “It doesn’t matter that Jexit claims to be a Jewish group.”
Soifer referred to as the publish’s claims “inherently antisemitic” and mentioned, “A Jewish particular person can say offensive and even antisemitic issues as nicely, in the event that they so select.”
Along with her stances on Jews and Israel, Flicker holds a wide range of conspiracy-driven views which have grow to be more and more commonplace on the far proper. She instructed JTA that the 2020 election was stolen; that the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was primarily made up of “folks dressed as Trump supporters” and was much less extreme than the destruction ensuing from nationwide racial justice protests in 2020; and that Jews and Black folks largely supported Trump forward of the 2016 election till the “deep state” and “radical left” realized they “couldn’t management him.” (She has beforehand mentioned she was not in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.) She additionally referred to Biden repeatedly because the “resident” — a time period meant to suggest that he’s not a reputable president.
Her group additionally repeats falsehoods in regards to the 2020 election. The Jexit web site nonetheless features a flier for a 2020 native “Cease the Steal” occasion in Miami, and Flicker mentioned, “100%, Jexit believes the 2020 election was stolen.” She additionally texted JTA a meme that learn, “January sixth might be remembered because the day the federal government arrange a staged riot to cowl up the actual fact they licensed a fraudulent election.”
Flicker is assured Trump will win subsequent 12 months — “no matter what the deep state and the unconventional left do,” she mentioned. She solely needs that the majority American Jews may see the sunshine.
“It’s the number-one query that I get: ‘How do you are feeling about your personal folks funding their very own demise?’” she mentioned. “And I’m like, ‘It’s heartbreaking to me.’ However you realize what, at this level, you bought to wake them up and inform the reality.”
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