Students return to campus after exploring Israel with AVI

Our AVI Student Ambassadors return to campuses across Canada after a meaningful experience in Israel focused on diversity and allyship

AVI Student Ambassadors meet with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion on our Common Ground mission in Israel (January 2026)

Our most recent cohort of Allied Voices for Israel (AVI) Student Ambassadors have returned from Israel after taking part in our Common Ground educational mission. They did not come back with souvenirs but with responsibility.

This was not a sightseeing trip. Rather, it offered an opportunity for students to confront difficult truths and think seriously about the impact they can create as Ambassadors for Israel, coexistence, and peace, on a dozen university campuses across Canada, from coast to coast.

Throughout the 10-day program, students took part in workshops focused on allyship, coalition-building, and navigating conflict on campus. They were challenged not only to defend Israel against misinformation and propaganda, but to do so in a way that leaves room for empathy, complexity, and moral consistency.

AVI Student Ambassador pays tribute to the victims of the Nova Music Festival (January 2026)

Every session, every conversation, and every visit to strategic locales across Israel came back to one central question: how do you take what you’ve learned here and apply it responsibly at your university?

One of the most difficult days of the trip was spent learning about the events of Oct. 7. Students visited the site of the Nova music festival attacks and met with Ela Levgoren, a Canadian-Israeli survivor who shared, in plain and devastating terms, what happened on that tragic day. While visiting other sites affected by Oct. 7 in Southern Israel, students also learned from Major (res.) Grisha Yakubovich, who is an expert on Gaza.

For many students, Jewish and non-Jewish, this was the first time they could speak openly about how the Oct. 7th attacks have been weaponized against them on campus.

Students also visited the Knesset and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with interfaith first responders with Magen David Adom, Arab citizens of Israel from diverse backgrounds, Jewish and Muslim peacebuilders, Israeli-Ethiopian advocates such as Ashager Araro, and public officials including Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion.

Students hear from Interfaith First Responders at Magen David Adom and had the chance to hear from Canadian MP Melissa Lantsman! (January 2026)

What they are bringing back to campus is not a script. It is perspective and the ability to speak about Oct. 7 with clarity and humanity. It is the confidence to challenge hate without inflaming it and understanding that allyship is not performative. It is hard, uncomfortable, and necessary.

This is why AVI provides this experience for university students across Canada. Not to produce louder voices, but better leaders.

We are deeply proud of this cohort and grateful to our generous benefactors The Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, Famglas Foundation, The Atid Charitable Foundation, The Diamond Foundation, and The Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan Family Foundation, for making it possible.