Mazzig is a gay Mizrahi Jew of Tunisian descent on his father's side and Iraqi descent on his mother's; her family fled Iraq after the Farhud. He served in the Israel Defense Forces in a role coordinating between international organizations, Palestinians and the army. He spent time in the United States, working for Hillel International and StandWithUs, before returning to Israel, where he started a social media company.
Activism
Mazzig co-founded the Tel Aviv Institute in 2019, an organization aimed at influencing younger audiences who are skeptical of traditional news media coverage and receive information from social media influencers. He started a movement in August 2020 to take over #JewishPrivilege, an antisemitic hashtag on Twitter, by encouraging Jews to tell personal stories of discrimination and abuse. Mazzig criticized a student Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution passed at San Francisco State University in November 2020.
Mazzig is strongly supportive of Israel, and has characterized Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.
In August 2024, Mazzig shared a suicide note purported to have been written by a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre. Israel's Channel 13 later debunked the note as a fabrication. Mazzig subsequently deleted his post sharing the fabricated note, writing that he had shared it because it was "soul-crushing", despite being unable to verify the author's identity. That October, Mazzig promoted a false claim that Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei had terminal cancer.
In 2025, Mazzig criticized the band Massive Attack, citing a 11-second clip of late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar walking in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip in a backdrop video at their show during the 2025 Lido Festival in Manchester. He accused them of "encouraging [sympathy] with Hamas" and incitement. The band responded by threatening to sue Mazzig for defamation, and defended the clip, which was cut with scenes from Jean Cocteau's Orpheus, as "placement and implicit tone of horrified lament; that an individual of power can take people down into hell". They also stated that the clip was selectively chosen from a broader montage of various issues and themes. The account which originally posted the clip subsequently deleted its post.
In 2018, The Forward reported that Mazzig had received payments from Israel's Government Advertising Agency (LAPAM) during his 2017–2018 speaking tour of U.S. college campuses. The report suggested this arrangement could have required registration under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Mazzig denied any wrongdoing, saying that his work for the government agency focused on combating discrimination: "The consulting that I gave to the [government] was about fighting anti-Semitism. I gave information about being attacked for being LGBT, being a Jew of color. That gives me the understanding of how to combat anti-Semitism, racism and LGBT phobia. And that was the consulting I gave to the agency." No legal or regulatory action was reported to have resulted from the claims.
His first book, The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto, was published in October 2022 by Wicked Son Press.
References
123"Hen Mazzig". The Jerusalem Post (JPost.com). Archived from the original on 2 November 2025. ...an Israeli born international speaker, writer, activist, and a social media enthusiast. Hen was in the IDF for almost five years serving as a humanitarian affairs officer in the COGAT unit at the West Bank. His family came to Israel from Iraq and North Africa in the early 50's. He is a consultant, commentator, and public speaker...
↑Ismail, Aymann (30 May 2025). "Welcome to Pallywood". Slate. ISSN1091-2339. Retrieved 13 November 2025. One of the most grotesque examples came in December 2023, when a wave of pro-Israel accounts... amplified the claim that a grieving Palestinian man, seen in a widely shared video cradling his killed baby grandson, was faking it... Others—including StopAntisemitism, Hen Mazzig, and Yoseph Haddad, echoed the claim to millions more.
↑"50 MOST INFLUENTIAL JEWS 2025". The Jerusalem Post. Israel. 2025. Archived from the original on 21 September 2025. 45. Gal Gadot, Arsen Ostrovsky, Siggy Flicker, Hen Mazzig, Hillel Neuer, Noa Tishby, Eyal Yakoby: From Hollywood stars to human-rights lawyers, seven pro-Israel influencers share a commitment
↑Російський премʼєр увійшов до списку найвпливовіших євреїв[Russian Prime Minister Included in the List of Most Influential Jews]. ГЛАВКОМ[uk] (glavcom.ua) (in Ukrainian). 22 September 2025. Archived from the original on 22 September 2025. 45. Галь Гадот, Арсен Островський, Сіггі Флікер, Хен Мазіг, Гілель Ноєр, Ноа Тішбі, Еял Якобі – від голлівудських зірок до адвокатів з прав людини, семеро проізраїльських впливових осіб поділяють спільну відданість. [45. Gal Gadot, Arsen Ostrovsky, Siggy Flicker, Hen Mazig, Hillel Noer, Noah Tishbi, Eyal Jacobi – from Hollywood stars to human rights lawyers, seven pro-Israel influencers share a common commitment.]— English quote and title via Google Translate
