There is a reason the world keeps turning to Gal Gadot in moments when Jews feel most isolated. She is famous, yes, but fame is not what makes her worthy of our applause. It is her Jewish pride, and the quiet choice to serve. Those are the reasons to hail her today.
On Tuesday, the Genesis Prize Foundation named Gadot the 2026 laureate, noting her steadfast advocacy for Israel, her defense of the hostages, and her empathy for all innocent people harmed by the war. Gadot plans to donate the $1 million prize to Israeli NGOs that are healing the nation’s physical and psychological wounds, a decision that turns recognition into responsibility.
Gadot’s voice has mattered from the first days after October 7. When others in her industry hesitated, she did not. She organized private screenings of the October 7 footage for Hollywood leaders, she met hostage families, and she used her platform to keep the world’s attention on their plight. None of that came with applause; many times it came with a price. Yet she did it anyway.
If you want to understand why this prize fits her, start with the speech that crystallized her message. In March, at the ADL’s Never Is Now summit in New York, she stepped to the microphone and said: “My name is Gal, I am Jewish, and we have had enough of this hate.” It was simple and it was brave, because in that room she spoke not as a movie star but as a granddaughter, a mother, and a Jew.
She went on to offer a picture of Jewish identity that is both confident and generous. “I’m proud to be an Israeli, and I’m proud to be Jewish,” she said, reclaiming a sentence that too often has become controversial in polite company. Pride, in her telling, is about dignity and duty.
Gal Gadot confronts antisemtism through activism
There was resolve as well. “We have had enough of Jew-hatred. We will confront antisemitism,” she said, articulating an ethic that blends courage with responsibility, the insistence that Jews speak up for themselves and for others. That balance has been her through line, on red carpets and on stages, when cameras are friendly and when they are not.
Gadot also grounded her words in continuity. “We need to pass down to our Jewish children a love of who they are,” she said, framing Jewish identity as something to be taught with tenderness, not just guarded with vigilance. That is the opposite of performative politics; it is the work of transmission, which is what keeps a people alive.
Our own pages chronicled that evening and why the ADL recognized her “fearless and outspoken advocacy against antisemitism and hate” and her unwavering support for Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. In a year when so many public figures treated Jewish safety as a political variable, Gadot made it personal and non-negotiable.
The Genesis Prize cited her moral clarity, her defense of the hostages, and her compassion for innocent victims, while she pledged to dedicate the funds to healing Israelis and rebuilding families and communities. This is exactly how laurels should be worn, not as ornaments but as instruments.
Some will point to the controversies that surround her, the protests that follow her appearances, and the campaigns to silence or sideline her. That is precisely why her example is so important. In a cultural climate where speaking plainly about Jewish belonging can cost you, Gadot has chosen to speak plainly anyway, and to do so without bitterness. She has modeled a kind of Jewish confidence that is neither apologetic nor aggressive, that refuses humiliation and refuses to humiliate.
Honors accumulate, but the point is what she does with them. She has already told us: “Israel has faced unprecedented pain. Now we must begin to heal, to rebuild our hearts, families, and communities.” Those are not slogans; they are assignments. With her prize directed to Israeli organizations that do this work every day, she is putting her reputation where the recovery is.
So yes, hail Gal Gadot. Hail her for the character. Hail her for insisting that Jewish pride is compatible with universal empathy, for saying to our children that their inheritance is love, and for showing an industry, and a world, how to stand firm without losing grace. In a season when so much feels fragile, she reminds us of what is still strong.