Eleonora Srugo

Eleonora Srugo’s Instagram account is a must-follow for anyone interested in the intersection of glamorous women, New York City real estate, local politics, Israel—and her friend Eric Adams, who regularly pops up in Srugo’s posts and stories. 

In between sleek, professional-looking snaps of her work life and party shots from her nights out, Srugo, a New York City native born in Israel and a real estate agent at Douglas Elliman whose listings are consistently attached to a seven-figure-plus price tag, spends a lot of time posting photos of herself with Eric Adams, and gushing in her captions about how great the mayor is. Scrolling her feed, you can find a photos of them bundled up in winter gear and volunteering together (“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since our previous pos Mayor left office”); posing side by side at Cipriani Downtown (Adams, she wrote in the caption, “knows first hand what it means to create your own destiny in this city”); and brunching in 2020 along with “champagne mogul” and friend of the mayor William Benson, and the now-head of the Mayor’s Office of “Innovation and Emerging Markets, Denise Felipe-Adams. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eleonora Srugo (@eleonorasrugo)

Srugo says that she met Adams through the mentoring program she claims to have started to prepare students from her alma mater, Stuyvesant High School for the college admissions process. (Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association said a different alum technically founded the program, but Srugo was heavily involved from 2016-2020 and was listed as a co-founder at that time.) The two friends have also seemingly bonded over their shared love of Israel. In a speech at a Jewish Heritage Month reception in May, Adams thanked Srugo for teaching him about “what it is to grow up as a young Jewish girl in the city, from Israel.” In June, she appeared with Adams, brandishing a sign that said “MAYOR ERIC ADAMS CELEBRATES ISRAEL” at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York’s 2023 Celebrate Israel Parade. “Thank you to @nycmayor for being supportive of the Jewish people, Israel, faith practices and me! We need to have his back ♥️🙏🇮🇱,” she wrote on Instagram. Srugo also posted photos to her Instagram story—side by side with the mayor, plus a shot of his security team with the caption “Has tlv ever seen a more handsome crew?! 🇮🇱 🇺🇸🗽”—when she was in at the same time Adams was in Israel, back in August.

But their relationship isn’t all civic duty—Srugo and our nightlife-loving mayor Adams also hit the town together. The mayor caught heat in October 2022 for attending her birthday party—at Robert and Johnny Petrosyants‘s hotspot Osteria La Baia—the day before declaring a migrant-induced state of emergency in the City. (Also in attendance: Zero Bond owner and fellow Adams friend, Scott Sartiano, and the rappers French Montana and Ja Rule.) Srugo and the mayor went to a Drake concert with friends this past January, a night out memorialized on her Instagram feed in a carousel-style post that combines concert footage and a clip from one of the mayor’s speeches about the rebounding of city life. “This week a few good men did a few great things for our city,” she wrote in her caption. “Talent combined with an undeniable Work ethic is a beautiful thing to see and I was blessed to have had a front row seat.” Adams and Srugo also posed together at his birthday party in September, right before the mayor spent a day looking haggard at flood-related press conferences.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eleonora Srugo (@eleonorasrugo)

Adams isn’t the only reason Srugo has appeared in the news. In September, she was named in a lawsuit against a group of Douglas Elliman brokers and executives by a woman with a Section 8 voucher who said agents at the firm failed to help her find adequate housing. Srugo told the Real Deal that she “basically was named for not responding to an email,” although an attorney told the publication that not responding could still constitute a violation of fair housing law. In other news, in 2021 Srugo found herself at the center of a cheating scandal when “Bachelorette” season 16 stars Dale Moss and Clare Crawley called off their engagement amid rumors that Moss was cheating on Crawley with Srugo. 

Srugo sued Tango Publishing Corporation for defamation after they ran articles labeling her as Moss’s “mistress” and vehemently denied those rumors in other outlets through her representative Ronn Torossian, a controversial PR executive whose past notable clients include figures like “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg, and, despite his Armenian heritage, the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Adams was for a time also good friends with Torossian, who reportedly introduced Adams to Zero Bond prior to his election. But after the Daily Beast published a critical story on Adams’s friendship with Torossian and a very publicly canceled fundraiser, Torossian told Politico ten weeks into Adams’s mayoral tenure that the two were “not in touch.” But Adams doesn’t need Torossian as a party companion anyway, because if social media is to be believed, he’s always got a plus-one in Srugo.

Last updated: 12/18/2023