42 | OCTOBER 3 • 2019 

Arts&Life

profi
 le

I

f you’
re a fan of Real 
Housewives of New Jersey, 
you know exactly who Siggy 
Flicker is.
If you’
ve never seen an episode 
in your life, you’
ll want to get to 
know her. Because she’
s much 
more than just Real Housewives 
of New Jersey (RHONJ).
You can get your chance on 
Wednesday, Oct. 16, when she 
will speak at Temple’
s Israel’
s 
Sisterhood Opening Program.
Known for her enormous 
heart, and possibly even bigger 
personality — which has no 
problem standing up to any 
troubles that come her way — 
Siggy first dazzled her way into 
the public eye as a relationship 
specialist and a matchmaker, 
with 20 years of experience, on 
her VH1 reality show Why Am I 
Still Single?
She’
s guested on Good 
Morning, America, Dr. Phil and 
Wendy Williams and written 
columns for Marie Claire maga-
zine and more. (Fun fact: Siggy’
s 
divorce from first husband, Mark 
Flicker, was so civilized that he 
was best man at her wedding to 
her current husband, “lid-to-her-
pot” Michael Campanella.)
After turns on Seasons 7 and 
8 on RHONJ, she emerged from 
the franchise transformed — and 
dedicated to being a champion of 
Holocaust education and a voice 
against anti-Semitism.

FAMILY HISTORY
Sigalit Paldiel never knew her mater-
nal grandfather — he was killed in 
the Israeli War of Independence. Her 
Sephardic mother, Rachel, “broke her 
water in an Israeli bomb shelter,” Siggy 
says, “while my dad was fighting in the 
Six-Day War. His unit was responsible 
for liberation of the (Western) Wall in 
the Old City. And that’
s how I was born.”

Siggy’
s dad, Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, 
was born in Antwerp and escaped the 
Germans as a child in Evian, France, 
with his family. He grew up to be a 
Holocaust scholar and professor who ran 
the division of the Righteous Among the 
Nations at Yad Vashem in Israel for more 
than 24 years.
“He was personally responsible for 
honoring 18,000 Righteous Gentiles — 
including the priest in Evian who helped 

his family over the border to 
Switzerland,” Siggy says. “I 
grew up knowing the meaning 
of history.”
Siggy’
s father’
s family was 
eventually reunited by way of 
Borough Park, Brooklyn, before 
he joined the Israel Defense 
Forces. There, he met her Israeli 
mom, who ultimately became 
a U.S. citizen and raised her 
own family in Cherry Hill, N.J., 
before they all returned to Israel 
again. But the independent Siggy 
decided to return to the U.S. on 
her own to attend Monmouth 
College in New Jersey.

A TURNING POINT
Eventually landing on RHONJ, 
Siggy accused a fellow Housewife 
of anti-Semitism on Season 8 
when she directed this whopper 
at Siggy during an argument at a 
fashion show: “But, Siggy, Hitler 
would have not killed me. Does 
that make him a good person?”
“Something woke up inside 
of me and I decided, ‘
This is it,
’
” 
Siggy says. “My kids and husband 
were never fans of me being on 
the show, and I felt like it was 
staged, and production was tell-
ing the girls to continue targeting 
me. I felt like I was being butch-
ered 14 hours a day. 
“
And I wouldn’
t keep quiet 
about it,
” she adds. “I’
m too 
authentic. I posted my resigna-
tion online, listing the reasons I 
was leaving. They asked me to take it down. 
I refused.
“From that, the lion inside me roared. 
It was a moment in my life that I had to 
choose a road — keep quiet or stand up. 
All those years when I was growing up, 
on Shabbat, my dad would tell stories. I 
would say, ‘
Lamah, lamah? Why do we 
need to hear the same stories?’
 He would 
say, ‘
If we don’
t tell stories from the past, 
we have no future.’

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SIGGY FLICKER

Voice

From reality star to advocate,
Siggy Flicker takes on anti-Semitism
and Holocaust education. 

LYNNE KONSTANTIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

E
S
o
w
a
f
A Powerful

