Our Highlights from The 2025 Herzl Awards

The evening honoured our amazing students leaders from across Canada

who make Herzl's vision a reality!

INTRODUCING: Our 2025 Herzl Award Recipients!

This was not your average awards event.

The room was buzzing from the moment guests arrived Sunday to our first annual Herzl Awards ceremony and the energy never dropped for a second, especially thanks to our hosts Page and Jian Magen.

It was both an honour and a pleasure to watch our AVI benefactors and stakeholders get real nachas from presenting awards to our brilliant student leaders.

(Left to right): Councillor James Pasternak, Elie Wiesel Award Recipients Yardena and Shoam, and MPP Laura Smith

It was a moving evening honouring our incredible Student Ambassadors and alumni, who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and initiative in the war against misinformation and hatred on campuses and high schools across Canada.

Michael Mostyn Award Recipient Lotan Wider delivered a powerful speech, honouring the award's legendary namesake

The students were outstanding. Their speeches, their courage, and their stories of building alliances on campus in the face of so many obstacles left us feeling a sense of optimism that you do not always experience these days.

“It was a true honour for me to receive an award from AVI on the name of Michael Mostyn, z”l. Michael Mostyn was a once-in-a-lifetime leader in Toronto’s Jewish community, someone who fought for values of partnership and community,”⁠ said York University Student Lotan Wider, who was honoured with the Michael Mostyn Award by the late community leader's family.

“Thank you Allied Voices for Israel for helping me spread that same message on campus.”

Our Herzl Award Recipient Michael Mandel flashes his Theodor Herzl socks

“I am extremely grateful and honoured to have won the Herzl Award from Allied Voices for Israel. Even though this was a surprise, of course I was prepared to win with my Herzl socks. A big thank you to Daniel, Idaliah, and the whole AVI team for this honour,” said Herzl Award Recipient Michael Mandel. 

“Allyship on campuses is a necessity for all students. We have to keep standing together and fighting Jew-hatred wherever it shows up.”

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(Left to right): Johnathan Spiegelman, Allyship Award Recipient Ben Morrison, and Justin Lesnick

Our team at Allied Voices for Israel would like to give a huge thank you to the students, staff, stakeholders, sponsors, and supporters who made our first annual Herzl Awards one to remember.

We are buzzing with immense pride at the community we’ve built and are full of hope and faith in the next generation of Israel Advocates.

The Herzls featured a raffle and and an auction consisting of Herzl-inspired art created by two talented artists during the event!

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our incredible sponsors and partners who helped bring our vision of the Herzls to life. 

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Makom at the Collective Workspace, who provided the perfect venue to honour Theodore Herzl's legacy; our incredibly talented artists, who provided their talents for our live auction: Ian Leventhal, Matt Pine, Gina Godfrey, and Callum Schuster; Toronto Jewish event legends Page and Jian Magen of Magen Boys for hosting; and our amazing committee of Kim Smiley, our Chair, Stacey Granovsky, Shira Granovsky, and Erin Cohen.

Everyone had a blast as hosts Page and Jian Magen handed out prizes and got the crowd jumping!

Whether you attended in person or in spirit, the incredible energy of the evening was beautifully captured by photographer Nate Pavlotski for you to relive.

To check out our Herzls photo album, please click here.

(Left to right): Rising Star Award Recipients and High School Students Naomi Amos-Wells and Yalli Levin

We also put together a fun video recapping the evening. To watch a recap of the first annual Herzl Awards, please click here. 

It was truly a special, lively, and meaningful night - a celebration of conviction, community, and youth leadership in its purest form. We couldn't be more grateful and proud of our AVI mishpucha.