Julia Haart brings inspiration to the table at Migdal Ohr UK’s lunch - The Jewish Chronicle

Non-profit organisation Migdal Ohr UK honoured the strength and resilience of Jewish women at its International Women’s Day lunch, where attendees were joined by My Unorthodox Life star Julia Haart for an afternoon of inspiring presentations commemorating female courage in the face of adversity.

Haart, the American fashion designer, entrepreneur and author best recognised for starring in the Netflix reality series My Unorthodox Life, shared the moving story of how she escaped her strictly Orthodox Jewish community in New York, inspired by the fierce curiosity of her independent-minded youngest daughter, to pursue a career and life of her own.

“My entire life I didn’t feel like I belonged in my own body because what I was taught was that to be a woman, a good woman, to have God love you, you had to be invisible,” said Haart, 53, in conversation with the award-winning journalist Sarah Jossel at the luncheon on Monday.

“Women in my world were only defined in relation to men. If you were quiet and unassuming and listened to your husband and you didn’t make any noise and you didn’t argue, you were a good woman.”

Sarah Jossel interviewing Julia Haart (Photo: Vinnie Kiss)[Missing Credit]

Haart explained how her daughter Miriam’s childlike inquisitiveness about the gender disparity in Orthodox Judaism opened a well of doubt that eventually led to her walking away from the community.

Once she left at the age of 42, Haart had a stratospheric career trajectory despite her lack of experience, bursting into the fashion industry with a successful shoe brand, becoming creative director of lingerie line La Perla and co-owner and CEO of the talent and media agency Elite World Group (EWG), which has become a billion-dollar enterprise under her leadership.

Speaking about her relationship to Judaism and Israel now, Haart said she didn’t feel an emotional connection to the Jewish state until October 7, when “feelings that I had no clue that I had rose up, and I was so enraged”.

She visited Israel in December 2023 and spent New Year’s Eve in a bunker, but was moved to discover that, “15 seconds after the missiles were done, all of Tel Aviv came out and were just dancing in the street. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was really something truly extraordinary to see people who have been tortured, harmed, who the world is attacking even when they’re the victims... and they’re dancing and they’re celebrating life.

“I am now the biggest fan of Israel you could possibly find. I love Tel Aviv more than any city on earth, and I’m not going to stop yelling until it’s safe,” Haart said.

Times journalist Sarah Jossel (left) and CEO of Migdal Ohr Amit Fraser (Photo: Vinnie Kiss)[Missing Credit]

Migdal Ohr UK, Israel’s largest educational network that provides programming and services to disadvantaged children across Israel, is currently working to empower young women through Afikei Ohr Girls Youth Village, a project supplying at-risk girls with education, care essentials and opportunities to build a brighter future.

Jossel, who mc-ed the women’s day lunch, said: “Since October 7, I think so many of us have been living in fight or flight – we walk into a room and sometimes think: ‘If they know I’m Jewish, would they be treating me the same way? We’re all feeling quite on edge, so it really is a joy to be in this room surrounded by women who are on the same page.”

Ukrainian singer Goldy (Photo: Vinnie Kiss)[Missing Credit]

The lunch also featured a performance by Ukrainian Jewish singer Golda Amirova and a speech by Natalie Sanandaji, a Nova Festival survivor and public affairs officer at the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

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International Women's Day