On the buzzy Netflix reality sequence “My Unorthodox Existence,” alluring, glamorous Julia Haart has quite a story to tell. It is a fairy tale of how she fled her Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Monsey, NY, to make her way in the vogue entire world: launching her very own individual shoe line, turning out to be artistic director at the luxurious fashion manufacturer La Perla and, now, serving as the CEO of Elite World Team — a expertise company which involves Elite Model Management and signifies the likes of Kendall Jenner, Iman and Helena Christensen.
But insiders say that she is painting an unappealing, unfair photo of life in her former neighborhood — as uneducated and so restrictive it left her suicidal.
“Julia’s hanging on to this phrase ‘fundamentalism’ — and sensationalism sells,” stated a former buddy of Haart’s from Monsey. “She states she was held captive, but that is not genuine.”
The present follows Haart, 50, her four youngsters and her next partner, Elite proprietor Silvio Scaglia, and contains a lot of scenes of her railing in opposition to her earlier life in an “extreme” community” — a characterization that an additional old close friend, Roselyn Feinsod, disputes.
(Haart did not wish to remark.)
Meanwhile, design insiders say Haart’s function in the fashion world is also distorted on the series.
“The clearly show is so deceptive. It is a dwelling of mirrors,” mentioned an Elite supply. “When she arrived in, it was all about her self-marketing … She is really great at creating it appear to be like she is an agent of improve and she is excellent at pretending to be all about empowerment. But it’s all publicity for her.”
Julia Haart freely admits that she transformed the two her identify and her persona — more than when.
Born Julia Leibov, she moved as a baby from Russia to Texas and, finally, to Monsey, NY — a middle for Orthodox Jews. That is where by Feinsod very first met her, at yeshiva.
“Julia and her family ended up welcomed by the group,” Feinsod, 50, recalled. “We’ve been good friends since elementary school.”
She disagreed with Haart’s statements on the demonstrate that women have been oppressed in the community.
“Far from getting fundamentalists, we have all been introduced up in a quite open up Orthodox style of lifestyle: We watched Television and movies, we traveled, — and we ended up all educated.”
Feinsod, now a principal at the international accounting organization of Ernst & Youthful, recalled how Haart required to fit into the group even a lot more: “Julia desired a extra Jewish identify and she altered it to Talia when she was in significant faculty. We even produced a naming ceremony for her.”
Haart advised the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in July: “What I would appreciate to see is that [Orthodox] gals have an option to have a true education, can go to college or university, to not get married off at 19 on [an arranged match].”
Haart herself attended the Beth Jacob Jerusalem women seminary, described as a “Harvard of Jerusalem” and a person of the major seminaries in the planet, following significant school. She did not have any secular education and learning.
She married Wharton grad Yosef Hendler — in an organized union — at age 19, going with him to Atlanta, Ga., ahead of returning to Monsey.
Sensationalism sells. She says she was held captive, but that is not accurate.
Former mate of Julia Haart
The few lifted their four young children — daughters Batsheva, now 28, and Miriam, 21, and sons Shlomo, 25, and Aron, 15. Far from uneducated, Miriam is now a scholar at Stanford College, while Shlomo researched law at Columbia.
“We did so lots of fun trips with the kids. Went biking. We put in the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving together,” Feinsod mentioned. “Far from this repressed fundamentalist individual, Julia was a fun man or woman.”
Haart has claimed that she was depressing in Monsey — but has not publicly reviewed the economical woes that befell her.
Amongst 1997 and 2017, according to community documents, Talia Hendler (as Haart was then known) and her then husband racked up $425,510 in financial debt, accruing 13 tax liens and judgments.
Haart has been a lot more forthcoming about the physical and emotional strain of her unhappiness. 1 outdated buddy said Haart advised her she preferred to starve herself to dying simply because she did not consider that any individual cherished her. Haart has uncovered that she weighed just 73 pounds on the working day she remaining her Orthodox lifestyle.
But even how and when she left the community is murky. On her show, Haart substantially recounts how she left Monsey the day after Batsheva, then 19, wed — fleeing with daughter Miriam in tow to set up her individual shoe line.
“They ended up undertaking to her what they had performed to me — making an attempt to drive her down and mould her into that flat person that they could disappear,” Haart told the New York Times of Miriam.
The “day after” timeline has turn out to be a touchstone in Haart’s mythology. “Here’s the mad point — the way that Julia portrays it, she just left following Batsheva’s marriage and disappeared,” reported a Haart pal from Monsey, who insists at the very least 7 months passed prior to Haart formally still left, and that she still came back again for visits. “There was no quick remarkable issue that transpired.”
Haart’s aged Monsey friends have been disheartened by her new narrative. “We had been shocked as we read through interview right after interview … with Julia ‘taking a stand towards fundamentalism’ and describing a fictitious transition from a life with no radio, television, newspapers, journals or bars,’” Feinsod wrote in a LinkedIn essay.
“Between Julia’s ingesting problems and the economical pressure, I think a little something snapped and she in some way blames religion for every little thing,” the unnamed Haart pal told The Write-up.
Even with getting no manner education and possessing formerly labored as a spiritual-school instructor, in 2013 Haart launched her individual shoe line underneath her freshly adopted name of Julia Haart.
“She started out her shoe line with this Orthodox financier who was [also] Ivanka Trump’s funder,” the pal explained.
Haart and Yosef divorced in 2019, but have remained friends and he has appeared on the exhibit.
Her shoe line took off and she collaborated with the luxury vogue dwelling La Perla in 2016 — quickly becoming named the brand’s innovative director. It was the ultimate outsider transfer and one particular that stunned the field.
A former La Perla staff told The Post that Haart was “in about her head” when she began and reported that quite a few people gossiped about her marriage with then-operator Silvio Scaglia. A Haart insider reported the two met soon after she commenced her work.
Scaglia, who has given that improved his title to Silvio Scaglia Haart, divorced his to start with wife Monica Aschei in 2018, marrying Haart in 2019 — the exact calendar year he appointed her CEO of Elite, which he owns. (He sold La Perla in 2018.) The pair now are living in a $55 million condominium in Tribeca.
In 2019, Haart was caught up in a lawsuit amongst Females Administration, which is owned by Elite World Group, and rival design agency Elite United states of america. The go well with claimed that Elite Usa poached stars, such as Behati Prinsloo, from Women of all ages.
Elite United states of america, on the other hand, stated the versions have been determined to flee Girls, which they claim was racked by “gross mismanagement” — alleging that Scaglia experienced set his “dangerously incompetent” then-girlfriend, Haart, in charge, the submitting mentioned. The Haart insider mentioned that the scenario in issue took area in advance of Haart arrived at Elite Earth Group. The circumstance is nonetheless ongoing.
In the meantime, according to a previous Elite staff, “Haart was obsessed with acquiring a exhibit and wished to be the Jewish Kardashian.” The previous worker additional that it did not appear good when the organization was also “laying [people] off during the pandemic.”
The Haart insider said that additional of her small business backstory will be exposed in her memoir “Brazen,” to be published by Penguin in March 2022.
Haart’s former Monsey friend claimed that she was “in awe” of the designer when she was young but now is just bewildered.
“I final noticed Julia at Yosef’s engagement bash, I experienced not seen her for years,” the former pal recalled. “She known as me in the car on the way property and mentioned, ‘You really don’t need to be in the local community anymore, you do not need to have to be in a box.’ I reported, ‘What are you speaking about? I went to college or university, I worked!’
“I do imagine that she believes her personal buzz,” stated the previous pal. “She has to do every thing to perfection, there’s something ingrained in her. She experienced to be the most effective Jew until finally she still left the community.”
Further reporting by Kirsten Fleming