It was 11 p.m. when the siren warning of another Iranian missile launch sounded across Tel Aviv. Maya Wertheimer was in the shower. She quickly wrapped herself in a towel and ran to the safe room, where her husband, Asaf Zamir, and their two children, Asia, 6, and Noah-Eitan, 18 months, were already waiting. To her surprise, two strangers were there with them.
“Asafi and I live on the ground floor,” she recalls of the incident, which took place before the ceasefire. “A lot of times, when we see people running and looking for shelter, we invite them into ours. That night, Asaf had gone out to take out the trash when the alert started. He saw a couple running in panic and invited them in. When I realized they were there, we just whispered to each other, ‘Hi, hi,’ because the kids were asleep. So there you are, standing naked in a towel next to strangers in total silence for 10 minutes.”
How did the children react to the situation?
“Noah is still a baby, not at an age where he can understand, but when Asia asks questions, we try to soften reality as much as possible. One day during the war, there was a particularly loud boom and she asked, ‘What was that?’ Asaf said, ‘One of the neighbors slammed the door like crazy,’ and I continued his story, ‘How can they slam doors like that?’
“When a siren starts, I act like Maria von Trapp from ‘The Sound of Music.’ I studied at Nissan Nativ acting school for three years, and it all came down to this moment: looking at my children and saying, almost singing, ‘Kids, we need to go into the safe room now.’”
But Wertheimer has not always managed to stay calm during wartime. During Operation Rising Lion, she experienced anxiety that led to a deep crisis with her husband. “It was like an earthquake in our relationship,” she revealed in January on a podcast.
What exactly happened?
“I’m usually not someone who panics in stressful situations, but in those moments I felt we were in real danger, like a lioness protecting her cubs. I told Asaf I wasn’t willing to stay in Tel Aviv and that I wanted us to move to my parents’ house in Caesarea. Asaf said, ‘You can do whatever you want, but I’m not leaving.’”
Because as deputy and acting mayor of Tel Aviv, he couldn’t leave the city?
“Of course. Asaf feels an enormous sense of responsibility. This is his mission. He and the municipality do incredible work: opening and organizing shelters, arranging mattresses, and turning schools into housing for so many families. For him, it was, ‘I’m here for the residents.’ But I felt like he was looking at his partner, the mother of his children, and my anxiety was simply invisible to him. In that moment, he didn’t pause to see me, to contain me. It broke him that I was asking that of him.”
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When a siren starts, I act like Maria von Trapp from ‘The Sound of Music.’
(Photo: Tal Abudi)
Why didn’t you just go with the children without him?
“That’s exactly what we did, and that’s what led to the crisis. We were apart for eight days, and it was awful. Neither of us knew how it would end. It was a crazy crisis.”
What helped the couple get through that difficult period was couples therapy, which they had begun four years earlier. “A lot happened,” she says, explaining what led them to seek professional help at the time. “I was probably depressed after Asia was born. Then we moved to New York because of Asaf’s job,” she says, referring to his 2021 appointment as Israel’s consul general in New York. “And my father got sick."
"Assaf and I have been together for more than a decade, and think about how much has changed in 10 years. I always say: How is it that we change our clothes, our phones, our cars, but changing who we are isn’t considered legitimate? Sometimes, Asaf would tell me, ‘This isn’t how I knew you.’ True. Because we change and grow, and the wisdom is knowing how to grow and develop together.”
How did therapy help you in the current crisis?
“It really helped us see the other person and understand what our difficulty was, i.e., this feeling of, ‘How come my best friend, my love, my partner, doesn't see me?’ Therapy helps us understand that our relationship is rooted in love, even if we sometimes express love differently and see things in different ways.
“And indeed, in the recent war (Operation Roaring Lion), the moment the first alert sounded, Asafi immediately said, ‘My love, what do you need from me? I’m here.’ And I immediately said, ‘My love, I don’t need anything. I can be with the kids. I know you need to be at work.’”
Between 50 and 100 weddings
It is hard to define Wertheimer’s profession. On Wikipedia, for example, she is described as an actress, model, social media personality and TV host. When asked to choose one word, she immediately says, “comedian,” adding: “From a young age, I learned that humor was my way of communicating with the world.”
In recent years, Wertheimer’s energetic screen presence has been hard to miss, whether in campaigns for BuyMe (digital gift card platform) and Yad2 (ads website for buying and selling second-hand products), in the comedy-drama “Shababnikim,” which recently arrived on Netflix, or on the hit reality show “New Love,” which she has hosted since 2022 and whose fifth season ended last month. She can also be seen in another comedic role, in the new children’s series "Or v. Paz" airing on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. for cable communication companies "HOT" and "yes" viewers, based on Dana Elazar-Halevi’s popular book series.
Wertheimer helps people find love not only on screen but also off it. During the Iron Swords war, she launched a matchmaking initiative on her Instagram page, connecting wounded soldiers and fighters with potential partners. It was a huge success. “I know dozens of weddings came out of it,” she says. “I don’t know the exact number, but I assume between 50 and 100.”
Were you invited? Did you go?
“I got a lot of invitations, and of course it moved me very much, but I didn’t go. Beyond the fact that it would have filled my schedule, and as you know, I’m fine financially, it would have bankrupted me,” she says with a laugh.
This might be the place to note that Wertheimer is also a descendant of one of Israel’s wealthiest families. She was born and raised in Kfar Vradim, the eldest daughter of billionaire Eitan Wertheimer and the granddaughter of industrialist Stef Wertheimer.
You’ve said before that your parents also raised you fairly strictly.
“I was raised in a very German-Jewish way. My parents were afraid we would grow up spoiled and without an appreciation for money, so by 14 we had to work, by 16 we had to pay for our driver’s licenses, and right after the army we had to leave home and move into a shared apartment. I saw all my friends’ parents wanting them to stay at home, and I was being kicked out at 20 and a half. It was really insulting. It felt like, what, they don’t love me? It’s clear to me that I’ll behave completely differently with my children.”
You recently said in an Instagram video that you grew up in a home where “no one takes care of you or feels sorry for you,” and that it initially affected your relationship with Asaf.
“It’s not that they didn’t take care of us, but there was no room for victimhood. In my early 20s, I took myself to the hospital with appendicitis because my mother said, ‘It’s all in your head.’ Asaf, by contrast, grew up in a home where a temperature of 97 degrees meant you were sick and immediately got soup, care and ‘my sweetie’ and ‘my darling.’ At the beginning of our relationship, when Asaf was sick, I would say, ‘You’re fine,’ and he thought I didn’t love him. But to me, that’s what people who love you do when you’re sick. Today, in any case, when someone in our house is sick, I definitely use his love language.”
If during the Iron Swords war, Wertheimer played matchmaker, in the current Roaring Lion war, she helped people looking for homes with safe rooms. Again, she did so through her Instagram account, which currently has 641,000 followers. Last month, in a survey conducted by the TV program she ranked No. 1 on the list of Israel’s most trusted influencers. She says she did not exactly celebrate the title.
“As part of that survey, they also published a negative list of those who were ‘least trustworthy,’ and that really bothered me,” she says.
Still, do you understand why you received the honor?
“Look, I really believe in integrity, honesty and sincerity. I’ve always viewed my online activity as a marathon, not a series of sprints. I believe that if one woman buys something I recommended and it isn’t good, she’ll be upset with me and probably never buy anything I recommend again.”
You can also afford to turn down a lot of collaborations. It’s much easier for you to say no.
“True. Although I do take money for collaborations, a lot of money. But I definitely turn down many of them, do fewer things and also earn much less than the other women on the list. Not only because of my background, but also because Instagram isn’t my main job.”
First published: 06:43, 05.02.26