PLUS: Register now for our upcoming event, “When, Where, and How to Engage in Pro-Israel Advocacy on Campus”
Click the above graphic to apply!
With the school year now in full swing, AVI Student Ambassadors have already been campaigning and speaking up for Israel on campuses including OCAD, McGill University, McMaster University, the University of Toronto, and others.
On the high school front, we are excited to announce that applications for our 2024/25 High School Ambassador Program are NOW OPEN!
The AVI High School Ambassador Program is a ten-month educational opportunity that equips students with the resources, skills, and guidance necessary to advocate for Israel and against antisemitism successfully. This program empowers students through education to become leaders in their communities.
Ambassadors participate in webinars, tabling campaigns, workshops, and other initiatives where they discuss a range of topics including:
🍎Allyship
🍎The BDS movement
🍎Israeli history and politics
🍎Coalition-building
🍎Social media
🍎Campus life
🍎Media bias
Ambassadors gain experience using their advocacy skills in a wide variety of ways, such as:
🎒Social media campaigns
🎒Writing and editing op-eds
🎒Creating events to educate their peers
If you know any incredible high school students who would benefit from our program, please encourage them to apply by clicking here. Early Bird Registration ends September 15th!
Click the above graphic to register
With lessons from last year's drastic rise in campus antisemitism in-hand, we are more prepared than ever to empower, educate, and enlighten university students on campus to respond to the hateful protests we've witnessed on campuses such as McGill, Toronto Metropolitan, and the University of Toronto this week.
Join Allied Voices for Israel (AVI), the Canadian Union for Jewish Students, #EndJewHatred, Hillel Ontario, StandWithUs Canada, and practicing lawyers for a summit that will help students understand when, where and how to engage and effectively combat antisemitism, both on and off campus.
Our experienced instructors, comprised of professional campus advocates and leading lawyers, will take you step by step through our approach to become vocal advocates for Am Yisrael.
Witness their skills in action using live demonstrations and commentary, and build your own confidence in the process. Attendees will walk away armed with the knowledge and skillset to confront these situations and fearlessly stand up for themselves, the Jewish community, and the State of Israel.
Please click here to register.
Our floor and ice hockey teams were tuckered out from a fun day of friendly competition for Israel!
Our inaugural Power Play For Israel Ice Hockey Tournament, generously presented in partnership with Mark Gluzman, was a puck-smashing success!
Ice and floor hockey teams came together to play their hearts out for Israel, including two incredible women who participated in the Maccabee Games. It was a day of friendly competition, camaraderie, and great fun! A new AVI tradition was born.
We asked our team who their dream AVI Podcast Guest would be!
In our first episode of #ASKAVI, we asked our talented staff to dish out their dream AVI podcast guest. The results were certainly colourful.
Please click here to watch!
Click the graphic above to learn more about our Common Ground Ambassador Jo Joseph!
We have launched our AVI #AmbassadorSpotlight where we showcase our incredible AVI Students!
Meet York University Student Jo Joseph, who became a Common Ground Ambassador when she joined us on our Israel trip this past July! Jo is currently in the final year of her Bachelor of Social Work program at York.
“I had the incredible opportunity to join the AVI Common Ground trip to Israel this past July! It was truly a beautiful experience and I learned so much. As a student returning back to campus, I felt that it was immensely critical to develop useful tools to combat the ever-increasing anti-semitism," says Jo.
“Listening to different activists from all over Israel, I gained a deeper understanding of this nuanced conflict, while making beautiful memories with new friends along the way. Thank you AVI for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime- I feel so incredibly grateful that I got to go on this trip!”
To learn more about Jo, please click here.
Click the graphic above to read Hon. Harry LaForme and Janice LaForme's full statement
AVI is proud to shine a light on a statement from our Indigenous allies, the Hon. Harry LaForme and Janice LaForme, on behalf of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN). The MCFN “strongly rejects the false narratives that perpetuate hateful conduct towards Jewish people” and lament that their Treaty Lands and Traditional Lands have been used – more accurately misused – to promote hatred and antisemitism.
“We have seen countless examples of those who claim that the Canadian Indigenous experience justifies anti-Zionist hatred and decolonization 'by any means necessary' – often excusing, ignoring, condoning and in too many instances, celebrating Hamas’s brutality,” write Harry and Janice.
“They claim that they speak for the Indigenous community when they occupy university campuses, and exclude Zionist Jews and their allies from community spaces. Well, they don’t.”
To read their full statement, please click here.
Senior Campus Advisor Idaliah Snajdman attended StandWithUs Canada's "Stand Strong Summit" with other incredible Canadian organizations
AVI Senior Campus Advisor Idaliah Snajdman was proud to participate and lend her wisdom to Wednesday night's Stand Strong Summit, hosted by Standwithus Canada. This event was focused on preparing incoming first year students for university.
A huge thank you to Staff and Representatives from Hillel Ontario, CJPAC, Temple Sinai Toronto, Beth Sholom Toronto, and Adas Israel Hamilton, who also participated and gave wise advice to students before they enter campus!
Ilhab Balha is our #allyspotlight
Our Ally Spotlight this week is Ihab Balha, a Muslim Arab from Jaffa, a spiritual leader, and a peace activist.
In 2010, Ilham and his wife established “The Orchard of Abraham’s Children” – a nonprofit kindergarten for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim children that reflects their interfaith way of living and beliefs.
By 2018, hundreds of Jewish and Arab families – adults, parents, and neighbours, sparked with a strong desire to meet and deepen the ties – have joined the Orchard in establishing the Human First Education Center (HFE), which offers multicultural human interactions and empowerment activities through workshops, lectures, art courses, spiritual teaching, and religion sessions. Ihab has been an Islamic cleric and a researcher of the Sufism movement for over 18 years.
On our recent Common Ground program in Israel, our Student Ambassadors had the chance to meet with Ilhab and explore models for coexistence in Jaffa!
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