The Tel Aviv Institute presents
The Jewish 100
5786 · The ones we want to honor
A letter from the president
When we founded the Tel Aviv Institute, we made a bet: that the fight against hate would be won not by institutions talking about people, but by people talking to each other.
This list is that bet, measured. More than sixty of the names on it are, in one way or another, ours: they trained in our labs, sat across from us on And They're Jewish, or built alongside us. They tested their voices in our workshops and studios, then went out and used them, in kitchens and newsrooms, on stages and on feeds reaching many millions. Beside them stand the established voices we admire and the allies who never had to join our story and did anyway.
In a year that gave our community every reason to go quiet, the people on these pages chose visibility. We are honored to know so many of them, prouder still to have played a part in some of their journeys, and grateful to every single one. Read this list the way we do: not as a celebration of fame, but as evidence of what happens when you stand behind people who refuse to whisper.
— Dr. Ron Katz, President, Tel Aviv Institute
From the editors
There are lists, so many lists, but not many that honor the people who actually deserve the recognition.
Read the full introduction
Being Jewish, or Jewish adjacent, is a difficult task these days. We mean, when was it not. But there is something so punk and so incredible about having inspiring powerhouses in our corner who refuse to shy away from speaking up, each in their own way, on stages and in group chats, in stadiums and in kitchens, in prime time and in the comments section.
This is not a ranking. Number 37 is not more Jewish than number 82, and we will not be taking questions on methodology. We will, however, tell you who did the arguing: our judging panel was headed by Dr. Ron Katz, President of the Tel Aviv Institute, and Dr. Olga Kirschbaum-Shirazki, Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, alongside our team of experts, who spent months debating, defending, and occasionally table-banging over every single name.
You'll notice a small ◆ next to many of the names, marked “one of ours.” Full disclosure: one of ours means someone who trained at our media lab, sat down for an interview on And They're Jewish, or worked with the Institute somewhere along the way. There are more of them than we expected when we started counting. That's rather the point of us.
Honestly, this could have been much longer. But we wanted to keep it 100, so we did our best. Is it exactly 100? No. Did we count? Also no. It's the Jewish 100, not the Jewish Census. To those we couldn't include, there's always next year. Start speaking up now and make our decision harder.
— Hen Mazzig, for the Tel Aviv Institute
The judging panel
Headed by Dr. Ron Katz, President of the Tel Aviv Institute, and Dr. Olga Kirschbaum-Shirazki, Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, alongside the Institute's team of experts.
Before anyone else: the survivors of captivity. All of them.
Every survivor of captivity carries a strength the rest of us can barely fathom. This year and every year, they are the first names on our list and the closest to our hearts.
עם ישראל חי
Allies we honor
Not everyone standing with us is Jewish. They chose to be in our story anyway.