Avi Goldwasser

Co-Founder / Filmmaker

Avi (Ralph) Goldwasser has been a filmmaker and Jewish activist for over 20 years. In 2002, he co-founded the David Project, an educational organization which supported Jewish students on college campuses. He also served on the Boston boards of the American Jewish Committee and the Boston Jewish Community Relationship Counsel. He is also in a leadership role with the Confronting Antisemitism Network (CAN).

Most recently, along with Dr. Charles Jacobs, he co-edited the book Betrayal: The Failure of the American Jewish Leadership (Wicked Son, 2023), a collection of essays by major Jewish luminaries including Alan Dershowitz, Caroline Glick, Mort Klein, Richard Landes, and Jonathan Tobin, as well as on-the-ground activists.

As a filmmaker, he produced Columbia Unbecoming (2004), a controversial documentary about the intimidation of Jewish students by Arab professors at Columbia University. The award-winning Forgotten Refugees (2005), a film about the plight of Jews expelled from Arab countries in the years after 1948. Losing Our Sons (2012), the dark story of two all-American boys—one who became a soldier, the other, indoctrinated by Muslim terrorist preachers in Nashville, murdered him in a roadside shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2009. The J Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in Our Time (2014), an exposé of an advocacy group promoting itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” when it is neither. And Hate Spaces: The Politics of Intolerance on Campus (2016), a film illustrating how antisemitism is being made fashionable at universities across America.

Born in Poland to Holocaust survivors, Avi grew up in Israel and New York City. He has a BSEE from CCNY, and an MBA from NYU. Professionally, he worked as a CPA at Price Waterhouse Coopers. He has also been a financial executive in the hi-tech industry and CFO of several NYSE technology companies.