Read about Avi Lewis net worth, age, wife, children, family, parents, height, movies, party, and NDP as well as other information you need to know.
Bio
Avi Lewis is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, former host of the Al Jazeera English show Fault Lines and former host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) current-affairs programs CounterSpin and On the Map. Lewis was a panelist in CBC’s Canada Reads, which aired on March 2–6, 2009. Canada Reads is a seasonal show in which celebrities choose a book and advocate on its behalf. He presented and successfully defended, the winning book, Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.
Early life
| Name | Avi Lewis |
| Net Worth | $4 million |
| Occupation | Filmmaker, Politician |
| Age | 56 years |
| Height | 1.83m |
Avram David “Avi” Lewis was born on May 1967 (age 56 years) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the son of Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg. Lewis is the great-grandson of Moshe Losz (Lewis), an outspoken member of the Jewish Bund who left Svislach, Poland (absorbed by the Soviet Union during World War II, and today in Belarus), after being interrogated by the Russians and threatened with death or the Gulag for his political activity. He left for Montreal in 1921, with his wife Rose (née Lazarovitch) and three children.
Avi Lewis is the grandson of former federal New Democratic Party leader David Lewis and the son of former Ontario NDP leader and diplomat Stephen Lewis and journalist Michele Landsberg. Avi Lewis is married to journalist and author Naomi Klein; his sister Ilana Landsberg-Lewis was the executive director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Lewis grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and attended Jarvis Collegiate and Upper Canada College. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1988. Lewis was featured on November 20, 2001, “Life & Times” episode of The Lewis Family. Avi Lewis’s genealogical search was featured on January 31, 2008, episode of CBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Career
Avi Lewis was the host of The NewMusic, a music magazine show on MuchMusic and Citytv between 1996 and 1998. He also served as MuchMusic’s political specialist — by doing extensive special events coverage for the channel designed to engage youth in the political process. Among other events, he covered the 1993 Canadian federal election and the 1995 Quebec referendum. Avi Lewis won a Gemini for Best Event Coverage.
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Lewis hosted CBC Newsworld’s current affairs discussion show counterSpin from 1998 to 2001, where he presided over 500 debates. Avi Lewis was later the host of Counterspin Sunday. In 2004, Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein collaborated on The Take — a documentary that detailed the “recovered factory” movement in Argentina. The Take, the winner of the International Jury Prize, was nominated for four Gemini Awards.
He began hosting CBC Newsworld’s The Big Picture with Avi Lewis in the autumn of 2006 and On the Map in 2007. He became the host of Frontline USA for Al Jazeera television in 2008. Lewis was a participant in CBC’s Canada Reads 2009 (see below). Avi Lewis directed the 2015 feature-length documentary This Changes Everything, which finished second in the audience voting, for the documentary category, at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
In June 2007, CBC Newsworld debuted On the Map with Avi Lewis, a daily (Monday-Thursday) half-hour of international news commentary. Lewis discussed such issues as the “Oil Law” that the United States wished Iraq to adopt, women in Afghanistan, and what exactly is meant by the phrase “ungoverned spaces”. The show was officially renewed for November 2007 and then disappeared without ever airing again.
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On the Map’s half-hour time slot was replaced with a half-hour summary of the daily hour-long show Politics by Don Newman. During the same time period, The Hour, which had a mix of news commentary and pop culture and provided a lighter fare than On the Map, became decidedly more oriented to pop culture – even though there has been some creep towards greater news commentary as the season progressed. George Stroumboulopoulos stated during the opening show, that the modification of format was because The Hour would now be shown right after The National (rather than before in previous seasons) when shown on the CBC main channel.
Avi Lewis conducted a June 11, 2007, interview with political writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali. After repeatedly and openly sniggering at Hirsi Ali’s complimentary remarks about the United States, Lewis sharply questioned some of her views – including her denial of the existence of Islamophobia, her belief that Islam was inherently misogynistic, and her positive opinions concerning American democracy.
Lewis compared Islamophobia to Anti-Semitism, seeing both as equally real, to which Ali replied: “Racism is a universal trait, so is antisemitism, by the way. But I want us not to confuse a set of beliefs such as Islam, with ethnicity such as the hatred against Jews just because they are Jews, or against blacks just because they are black, or against gays just because of- it’s something you can’t do anything about. Whereas Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it’s not Islamophobic to say … this is being done in the name of your religion.” The interview provoked a strongly critical response from right-wing commentators in the US and Canada.
He has stated that Hugo Chávez’s actions do not match his rhetoric and has criticized Chávez for not doing more to close down the “laboratory” of policies that he had inherited from previous administrations. Naomi Klein, who credited Avi Lewis for his input into her book The Shock Doctrine, links both the stifling of dissent and the concentration of power with the implementation of these earlier economic policies.
Avi Lewis hosted the ten-part international documentary series Why Democracy? in Canada from October 8-18, 2007. Inside USA was the first telecast on Al Jazeera on February 8, 2008, with the episode “Politics of Race”. Al Jazeera describes Inside USA as “an in-depth look at the real issues at stake in the US presidential election.” Politics Of Race (February 22, 2008) focused on the situation in New Orleans and the disenfranchising of Black voters.
Native Americans (March 1, 2008) focused on Lakota Sioux separatism, and social and economic issues surrounding the Lakota Sioux, Navajo and Shoshone peoples. The last few minutes were devoted to the role online videos play in the American election – including a clip from “Yes We Can”. In September 2015, Lewis, Naomi Klein, and others launched the Leap Manifesto – which proposed broad changes to Canadian society and economics in order to respond to climate change through a policy framework that also addresses issues of wealth and income inequality, racism, and colonialism and in hopes of influencing the policy debate during the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign.
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In 2016, Avi Lewis spearheaded a motion at the New Democratic Party of Canada’s federal election which would have had the party endorse the manifesto – in the end, the motion was amended to refer the manifesto to constituency associations for debate. Lewis and other manifesto signatories launched an organization to promote the manifesto’s vision in 2017, called The Leap, which operated until 2021 and was a key convenor of Canada’s Pact for a Green New Deal in 2019.
Politics
Avi Lewis was nominated in May 2021 as the NDP’s candidate for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, British Columbia for the 2021 Canadian federal election, which was subsequently called for September 20, 2021. Lewis’ run for federal parliament was endorsed by environmentalist David Suzuki, actress Jane Fonda, playwright Eve Ensler, folk singer and activist Billy Bragg, and biologist Alexandra Morton. He came in third behind incumbent Liberal Patrick Weiler who has represented the riding since 2019 and Conservative John Weston, who had previously represented the district from 2008 until 2015.
Wife
Avi Lewis is married to his wife Naomi Klein, they had their wedding in Canada. His wife Naomi Klein was born in Montreal, Quebec, and brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents were self-described hippies who emigrated from the United States in 1967 as war resisters to the Vietnam War. Her mother Bonnie Sherr Klein is a documentary filmmaker. As of 2022, Avi Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein are still married and living a happy life with their daughter Toma Lewis.
Avi Lewis net worth
How much is Avi Lewis worth? Avi Lewis net worth is estimated at around $4 million. His main source of income is from his primary work as a filmmaker and politician. Avi Lewis’s salary per month and other career earnings are over $410,000 dollars annually. His remarkable achievements have earned him some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. He is one of the richest and most influential filmmakers in Canada. Lewis stands at an appealing height of 1.83m and has a good body weight which suits his personality.