Hen Mazzig: Mizrahi Jewish Activist and Influencer
ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: Where in Israel do most Mizrahi Jews live, and how does it affect their educational opportunities?
Hen Mazzig is an Israeli-born Mizrahi Jew and advocate for the Mizrahi community. He is a globally-recognized speaker, educator, and digital influencer. Over 100 million users have interacted with his online content, and he has appeared as an expert on Jewish issues on four continents, over 500 college campuses, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications internationally.
He has authored numerous viral campaigns such as “#JewishPrivilege,” where he inspired others to speak out about the falsehood of Jews having advantages in modern society, and “#JewishLooking” where thousands of Jews celebrated the ethnic and racial diversity of the community.
In 2019, Mazzig co-founded the Tel Aviv Institute, a non-profit dedicated to using data-driven social media strategies to stand up for Jewish people and other minorities online. In his new book, The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto, Mazzig catalogues the Jewish population of the Middle East and North Africa, their history, and the voices who fail to meet the expectations of both the Jewish and non-Jewish world—yet are better for it.