Madonna, Brad Pitt, Mark Zuckerberg, Jake Gyllenhaal, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel and others are just some of the famous clients of Israeli designer Eli Halili, who over the past two decades has established himself as one of the most sought-after jewelry designers in the United States. His raw gold creations, set with gemstones and ancient coins, have become favorites of clients looking for jewelry that is more than material — works that carry time, identity and meaning.
Even Jacob Elordi, one of Hollywood’s most prominent young actors, regularly wears a gold ring with an emerald stone on his pinky, both at public appearances and in daily life. His bond with the piece is so strong that he even persuaded the heads of Cartier, for whom he serves as a global ambassador, to pose at last year’s Venice Film Festival wearing a Halili ring. The photo was posted on Cartier’s official Instagram page.
There was also a surprising phone call from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who contacted Halili to commission an intimate, meaningful piece. “I thought someone was pranking me,” Halili recalls. “It seemed strange that Zuckerberg would call me directly. Since I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, he left a voicemail. I called him back and we spoke at length. He’s a lovely person. It was shortly after Oct. 7, and he asked about my family and about Israel. He ordered a necklace with a Hebrew prayer that he sings to his daughters every night.”
In an interview with Bloomberg journalist Emily Chang, Zuckerberg was asked about the necklace he wears. He said that every night he sings the prayer “Mi Shebeirach” to his three daughters, Maxima, August and Aurelia. Halili created a flat, raw-looking pendant engraved with the words “Mi Sheberach avoteinu, mekor habracha le’imoteinu” (“May the One who blessed our fathers, source of blessing for our mothers”), set with gemstones.
The free-form design was embraced as part of Zuckerberg’s fashion transformation over the past two years, which has also included a mane of curls, boxy T-shirts and self-deprecating humor on social media. The connection with Halili has continued since then. The designer says other senior Meta executives have approached him to commission pieces after seeing their boss’s jewelry.
From Beit Uziel to 'Sex and the City'
Halili, 46, remains unfazed when listing the celebrities who wear his jewelry. For more than 20 years, he has lived and worked in Manhattan, shuttling between Herzliya and Zurich, though his heart remains in Moshav Beit Uziel, where he grew up, and in Jerusalem, where he spent much of his childhood. After military service in Israeli military intelligence, he left in 2001 to pursue his dream of becoming a jewelry designer in New York. The Sept. 11 attacks sent him back to Israel. He separated from his partner, came out, returned to New York and in 2006 opened a shop on Mott Street in downtown Manhattan with his former partner. The store later closed and became a private studio where he now meets clients.
“I started with nothing,” he says modestly in his first comprehensive interview, conducted via Zoom from his home in Switzerland, where he was vacationing at the end of the year. He worked odd jobs until he received an offer to work at the renowned Harry Winston jewelry house.
“It was a very long journey and also a very short one,” he laughs. “The first collection I designed was small. I showed it to a few fashion editors from Vogue, W, GQ and others and got good feedback. I opened a toll-free 1-888 line, and one day I got a call from fashion designer Donna Karan. She invited me to her office and offered that I take part in the Urban Zen project she founded in memory of her late husband, sculptor Stephan Weiss. She held a launch event with actress Debra Messing and stylist Patricia Field, who at the time was the stylist for ‘Sex and the City.’ She took my jewelry to the series — and that’s how it started.”
“There is a kind of panic among the Jewish population. I hope New York does not become London, because that would be very sad for the city. Honestly, it is not pleasant to be Jewish and travel the world today”
Halili’s passion for jewelry was planted in childhood. He grew up in a home that encouraged aesthetics and was drawn from a young age to architecture, photography and design. But it was Adi, a close friend of his late mother and an artist and jewelry designer, who opened the door for him to the worlds of art and jewelry.
“I started designing because I couldn’t find jewelry I truly loved,” Halili says. “Today, there’s hardly any real goldsmithing. Designers buy components and assemble them, or design on a computer and send the file to a factory. Everything has become cookie-cutter. I work differently: All my jewelry is made of 22- and 24-karat gold and is built around the stone.”
One of the most distinctive elements of his work is the use of ancient coins, thousands of years old, which he sets into rings, bracelets and pendants. Prices start at $3,900 for a bracelet with leather straps and a gold coin depicting a horseman, and reach $35,000 for a necklace featuring an ancient Greek silver coin set in 22-karat gold. Halili says many clients are drawn to the symbolism and energy they believe some of the coins carry. Most pieces are one of a kind.
“These are pieces you could wear today, 3,000 years ago and thousands of years from now. They are timeless,” he says in Hebrew laced with English. “It’s not something that’s fashionable now and out of fashion later. You can wear them to a red carpet event or to the beach. My clients, who can afford to wear bracelets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, like them because they’re not flashy or branded. It’s not Cartier, with all due respect. It’s more discreet.”
‘I represent Israel with pride’
More than a story of “quiet luxury,” Halili offers Americans a narrative rooted in an ancient, biblical era — one that resonates with monotheistic religions and the sacred stones of Jerusalem, where much of his extended family lives. “I’m not a religious person, but I love all three religions,” he smiles. “Until October 7, I had never designed a Star of David. I mostly made crosses for the American market. After that, very personal requests started coming in, mostly by word of mouth.”
Despite the physical distance from Israel, Halili feels like an ambassador. “I represent Israel with pride,” he says. “Whenever I visit with friends from abroad, my father — like me, he speaks Arabic — takes us to the Old City of Jerusalem, to places off the tourist track. I believe Israel is a very special place made up of many stories. It’s not only the Jewish story, but also the Muslim, Christian and Greek Orthodox ones. I feel my role is to tell that story through jewelry.”
“I thought it was strange that Mark Zuckerberg was calling me directly. Since I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, he left a voicemail. I called him back and we spoke at length. He’s a lovely person”
Does the global discourse around Israel affect him as an internationally active designer? Halili says he encounters many remarks, though not direct criticism of his designs. On the contrary, in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, he created a memorial art action by writing the names of fallen Israeli soldiers on the storefront window of his New York shop. “That caused a lot of commotion at the time,” he recalls. “But not to the point where someone came to smash the window. There was one woman who came in and tried to cause trouble, but I stopped her.”
He says he would act the same way today, though public opinion has changed dramatically over the past two and a half years. “I’m not afraid to say what I think,” he adds. “Recently I was at a dinner with a very large international company that wants to buy a stake in my brand. An all-male table: a Frenchman, Swiss, Englishman, Italian, two Americans, two Asians and me. At some point, the French guy said, ‘Let’s talk about Israel.’ I stopped him and asked, ‘What do you know about Israel that you’re bringing this up?’ I told him my views and asked him not to voice opinions about something he doesn’t understand. Whether the deal happens or not didn’t interest me.”
Still, he admits the atmosphere can be uncomfortable. The election of Mamdani as New York City mayor has given momentum to such trends, he says, though he believes New York, a deeply Jewish city, is stronger than any sitting mayor.
“There’s a kind of panic among the Jewish population. I hope New York doesn’t become London, because that would be very sad for the city. Honestly, it’s not pleasant to be Jewish in the world today, even among very, very close friends,” he says. “I try to avoid confrontations, but there have been times when I had to raise the flag and say: You need to understand, there is a terrorist organization and there are civilians, and things have to be addressed as they are.”
“I had a personal conversation with Gigi Hadid, who is more moderate than Bella. She said she has the right to an opinion different from mine. I replied that she does not represent my jewelry”
One such case involved model sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, who are known for their pro-Palestinian views and are of Palestinian Dutch heritage. Halili previously designed jewelry for both, as seen on his website. Since October 7, he says, he has unilaterally cut ties with them. “I work with everyone, except people who spread hate in the world. It seems very cynical to approach me as an Israeli designer — and I don’t hide that, while at the same time spreading hatred toward Israel on social media. That doesn’t work for me,” he says.
After a period of ignoring them, representatives reached out and asked whether it was political. “I said no — it’s about love and hate. I love to love and to spread love in the world. I have no desire to promote hate. I had a personal conversation with Gigi, who is more moderate than Bella. She said she has the right to an opinion different from mine. I replied that she doesn’t represent my jewelry.”
With other celebrities, the relationships have not broken. In fact, they have strengthened. Of all the famous clients he works with, Halili says his closest bond is with Jacob Elordi. The two met by chance at a flea market in Los Angeles, when Elordi asked where his jewelry came from. “I didn’t even know who he was,” Halili laughs.
He did recognize Madonna. “One day I get a call and it’s Madonna on the line,” he recalls. “We had met years earlier at the Kabbalah Center in New York. She asked about my jewelry, but it didn’t go further. Years later, she calls and I thought someone was messing with me. I remember asking her,” he laughs, “‘Which Madonna? The one from ‘La Isla Bonita’?’ She said yes.” She invited him to her New York apartment on a Friday afternoon. “I bought challah. She opened the door herself and we sat and talked for hours. It was a very interesting conversation and in the end, she bought a few pieces for herself. After that, I would visit her regularly on Fridays. We talked about Israel, Kabbalah, art and fashion.”
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Jacob Elordi wearing a ring designed by Eli Halili at the Venice Film Festival
(Photo Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
In the end, Halili says, celebrities help sales. When Elordi once posted his jewelry on Instagram, back when he was active on the platform, the phone did not stop ringing. “There are people, not me, who are influenced by what celebrities buy and wear. They want to see themselves as part of some community. I don’t really understand it, but it has enormous power, especially with Jacob. I think he’s the actor everyone wants — to be with him and to look like him.”
First published: 11:28, 02.07.26