Avi Hyman: Switching employment sectors three days into the war

Avi Hyman, a seasoned communications expert and business owner, wears many hats. Married to Malca Hyman and father to five young children – six-year-old twins, a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a five-week-old – Hyman juggles his family responsibilities with the same skill he brings to his professional life. 

He runs Avi Hyman Communications, a business that helps private companies, many in the tech sector, tighten their messaging and secure media appearances. He wrote his first press release at age 16 and has never stopped. Hyman, 43, grew up in the United Kingdom, where he began advocating for Israel. At 19, he left home and came to Israel on his own.  

Now Hyman has tacked another role onto those of “dad” and “boss.” On October 10, just three days into the war, he began nine months of service as an Israeli government spokesperson. Forced recently to abandon the position, being needed more at home after his wife had given birth, Hyman still makes himself available to the team as it manages Israel’s ongoing media war against Hamas in Gaza. 

The public role was a significant departure from his private work. Most of his life, he advised others on how to appear in front of the camera, but by October 10 it was his time to sit in what he described as “an uncomfortable seat in the Tel Aviv Spokespersons Office, staring into a black box [a turned-off teleprompter] with a camera on the other side, and hot lights from every which direction.” 

Worse than dealing with hostile interviewers, according to Hyman, is having to constantly defend and double down on the IDF facts in the face of journalists who freely and uncritically use Hamas data for all of their information. That includes the civilian casualty figures and details surrounding the so-called famine in Gaza. 

Hyman did not just face the media throughout his 150 special appearances and press briefings, he also acted as a director and booker, orchestrating 1,000 interviews for senior government officials and spokespeople on top-tier TV outlets, with a focus on those English-language programs. 

He said that his work as a boss for his private company was exactly what senior officers had hoped he could bring to the unit – advising on who should appear with which anchors; weighing up one show against another to decide where to invest resources; choosing how to respond and selecting content for daily press briefings; doing an immense amount of writing; and dealing with what he knows how to do best – strategize. 

“It felt like one very, very long day,” Hyman told the Magazine. 

Transition to government spokesperson

The shift from private to public sector began with an unexpected call from a senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office on October 10. Hyman had just been telling his wife that he wanted to take on additional responsibility in the war declared by Hamas on Oct. 7. He walked out of the room after sharing the thought with her, and within minutes had concluded an unexpected phone call that he said he had been waiting for his entire life. 

“I’d been working all day, every day, pushing my clients, many of whom were connected to this war. I thought, ‘I have to be doing more,’” Hyman said. 

His silent prayer was answered, but it was not an easy decision. Hyman had just found out that his wife was pregnant. Despite this, she encouraged him to take the role. She didn’t want him to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime to serve his country. 

Hyman said that since the outbreak of the war, it had been tremendously challenging to run a business and care for small children while serving in the reserves without the luxury of dropping off the children with their grandparents for daycare. 

Hyman asked himself what it would be like to bring a Jewish child into the world at a time when the Jewish people were in mortal danger. The answer, he said, is that nothing is greater than bringing another Jewish soul to the world – especially while “our enemies love death and celebrate death.”

During the first week on the job, Hyman booked more media appearances than in his entire career. 

“All credit for everything goes to my wife... Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything I’ve done in the last nine months,” he said. 

Emotional resilience

In addition to professional expertise, Hyman’s role demanded emotional resilience. As an Israeli government spokesperson during wartime, he had to maintain composure and clarity, even when discussing events he felt deeply connected to. 

“There’s nothing that could prepare you for it. An Israeli government spokesperson during a war... when everything Hamas says is a given, it’s very difficult to keep your cool,” he reflected. 

Hyman felt the weight of the nation behind him, remembering a time when he made a statement to a journalist which was then credited to “Israel” – meaning the outlet had used his words as a representation of the entire country. 

“I was watching my every single word because my words carry a lot of weight and I don’t want to mess up. Lives are depending on what I say... or don’t say,” Hyman explained. 

“In the event that I were to let my emotions take over, that I were to give an opinion and not government policy to the letter, then that could be interpreted by our enemies as a statement from the government that could endanger people. There’s a direct line. And that weighed very heavily on me,” Hyman noted. 

He went on to say there were times he had longed to be back behind the scenes, in a role that was familiar to him. 

“People read huge amounts into what I did or didn’t say; how I looked; my facial expressions. In a world of social media, everyone is analyzing you. Everyone is a judge. It was very daunting in the beginning,” he said. 

Interview jitters

Hyman described early interviews in which he would sweat, get hot under the collar, or even vomit before going into an interview. At one point, despite being fully prepared and ready for the camera, he turned to his colleague Tal Heinrich and asked her to do the interview in his stead. He fondly remembered encouraging words from colleague David Mencer, who he said catalyzed a turning point for him. Mencer looked at Hyman and said he had to start regarding his role as being a hero for his friends fighting in Gaza. 

Eventually, Hyman worked up from smaller on-camera interviews to ones with major channels. 

“This is my world, this is what I know, this is what I have been training people to do for years. Once I got over the, dare I call it, ‘stage fright,’ I was locked and loaded. I was ready to go.”

Difficult journalists

During an interview with Piers Morgan on May 8, Hyman experienced relentless pressure, as Morgan refused to shift the conversation, no matter how many times Hyman expressed himself. Morgan had asked him how many civilian casualties the IDF had recorded at that point. Hyman did not have a number he was able to share. The tug of war between the two of them created controversy and attention. The clip has already garnered over two million views. 

Reflecting on the experience, Hyman noted that viewers don’t know about critical moments happening on-screen during the interview, such as when his microphone was turned off, allowing Morgan to shout over him and muddle his message.

“I thought he was shouting at me, I was getting my message across, but my mic had been turned off,” Hyman recalled, revealing a tactic used in hostile interviews that he had not encountered before. Despite the ambush, Hyman emphasized that his responses were constrained by government approval, and the real issue was the interviewer’s setup. Hyman refers to Morgan as “an entertainment YouTuber.” 

In another incident, Hyman faced a journalist supportive of the Iranian regime, who pressed him following the Iranian attack on Israel in April. That journalist was later fired, leading British TV and social media to falsely accuse Hyman of orchestrating her dismissal. He clarified that these accusations were not only classically antisemitic (suggesting the powerful Jewish man had rearranged the players in the media) but also blatantly untrue. 

The more interviews and media coverage Hyman paid attention to, the more he began to lose faith in the accuracy of modern reporting – suggesting that he used to believe what he read in the papers. Today, he feels journalists are often working for clicks or just using whatever information they happen to have right in front of them. 

Al Ahli Hospital challenge

One of the most challenging moments he recalls came early in the war, with the Al Ahli Arab Hospital incident, after which initial reports accused Israel of indiscriminately bombing a hospital. Hyman’s team had to navigate this crisis with limited information. 

He knew that Israel doesn’t attack hospitals, but he didn’t have enough information to counter the accusations. It had turned out that it was an Islamic Jihad rocket. But still, the erroneous story was rolled out to the international press, and the damage was done. Hyman was working around the clock to bring live updates to news outlets that wanted answers. 

“Our message changed. In the first interview we were saying ‘This is awful, this is terrible, we’re looking into it...’ and by the fourth interview, we were saying ‘This was definitely not us.’ We have solid proof that it was Islamic Jihad. That’s the importance of fast public relations and an understanding of crisis communications and doing what’s right... Hamas goes out with a lie of ‘genocide,’ which is very, very strong till today, and will [continue to] be, probably for generations,” Hyman remarked. “If there was a genocide, it was against the Jewish people they [Hamas] were trying to kill. And I still choke up when I say that because it’s true.”

Hyman reflected on how long it took Israel to get the facts together on the Mavi Marmara flotilla that came over from Turkey. By the time Israel had enough facts about the issue, he says it had already been massacred in the media. 

Reflections and future plans

After stepping back from his government role around the birth of his youngest child, Hyman remains available to support his colleagues if needed. His commitment to his country and his professional acumen have left a lasting impact on Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. “I am happy to jump back in if I am needed,” he affirmed, indicating his ongoing dedication to his nation’s communication needs.

“One thing that kind of stuck with me, both as positive and negative, was that someone described me as a ‘civil servant,’ and I said never in my life would I have thought to be described as a bureaucrat or a civil servant; that’s the opposite of what I am, that’s the opposite of my persona. I’m a free market, capitalist, entrepreneur, you know, pulled myself up by my bootstraps, self-made, all of those things. I’m not a bureaucrat and I’m not a civil servant, but if I came off in interviews as a civil servant, I did what I had to do, and if I came across as anything else, then there’s a problem,” he said. 

The state of the country

When asked about the state of the country, Hyman said with confidence that he felt “very relieved” and “very comfortable” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at the head of the operation: “There is arguably no one greater or better.” 

Hyman commented on Ron Dermer, an American-born Israeli political consultant and diplomat, serving as the strategic affairs minister since 2022. Dermer served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States for eight years. Hyman considers him an effective communicator for Israel, and shared his hopes to have more olim like ambassador Dermer in key international communication roles. 

“Dermer is an English-speaking American Israeli with skin in the game and a seat at the table,” Hyman proclaimed. 

“Prime Minister Netanyahu worked at Boston Consulting Group and went back into government. It’s extremely important to have an understanding beyond the world of a bureaucracy, which is very different,” Hyman explained. 

Hyman hopes that more English-speaking olim will be able to enter the sphere of public diplomacy for Israel, especially when it comes to dealing with countries they are familiar with or have lived in. 

“We have a long way to go before the state understands the importance of global public diplomacy in war and peace. The prime minister and many in his inner circle understand this, but it hasn’t been translated into national policy – until now,” Hyman said. “Our efforts have dramatically improved in my lifetime and certainly since I served in the IDF Spokespersons Unit 13 years ago. In the same way that the Iron Dome was created out of necessity [to defend] from enemy missiles, we now need to develop a global media ‘Iron Dome’ to defuse lies that sadly start on TV but then find themselves repeated in places like The Hague.”

But more than hoping to bring professionals to the table, and believing that, with time, Israel’s public relations will only get better, Hyman said he has an even greater vision. 

“I think it’s imperative that people get behind the war aims. We need to be victorious. We need to bring the hostages home as soon as possible. It pains me to hear the internal politics, which I haven’t gotten into for a reason. When soldiers go to war and come back and see so much infighting, it’s painful,” he said. “When we were on the front lines of the media battle and saw politicians going out fighting for headlines... it does not help the national morale. Days after the war started, everyone was united. I would like to see more of that.” 

Hyman believes that the current administration will bring home victory.

The vast majority of Israelis understand that we have to take care of Hamas, and if we have to take care of other challenges, we will do that as well,” Hyman said. 

What were some of the most challenging aspects of your role? 

Keeping all the balls in the air. Family, position, finances, and everything was the challenge.

Can you describe a particularly difficult moment you faced and how you handled it? 

The Al Ahli Hospital incident was challenging. Initially, we had no idea what happened, but we had to manage the media storm while investigating the facts.

How did you get started at the beginning? 

I used every shtick, every trick, every piece of software, every database that I had access to as a PR professional. Our messages were carefully crafted and constantly updated based on the latest information.

What was it like working with other key figures, such as former Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev? 

I got a call from one of my heroes in life, ambassador Mark Regev. We have become extremely close. I’ve learned at his feet for hours. Mark Regev was far above all of us. He managed, mentored, directed, and did a lion’s share of interviews, in spite of being a grandfather. 

What music has carried you through this war so far?

I have eclectic taste. Carlebach, metal, gangster rap. Rock. To top 100 hits. 

There’s a country song I love called ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue’ by Toby Keith. The artist passed away in February, during the early months of the war. The song is about a ‘sucker punch from the back’ and how the aggressors will now feel the power of the red, white, and blue. It was about 9/11. I was coming into a very eerie, strange world; coming into Tel Aviv on the empty roads, and the only people I was interacting with were connected to IDF headquarters. So that song was playing for me over and over. 

Eyal Golan’s ‘Am Yisrael Chai.’ That took the war. Also ‘Hurricane’ by Eden Golan. The two go together on our breakfast playlist. 

Certain lyrics written in 1934 by Zionist luminary Ze’ev Jabotinsky in his ‘Betar Oath’ are as appropriate today as the day he wrote them. These words were etched on my heart the day I reported for duty at the Prime Minister’s Wartime Office and have helped me maintain perspective throughout the eight months that followed.

‘On the day of service,

I am like a bar of copper,

like a mass of iron,

in the hands of the blacksmith,

whose name is Zion.

Mold me as you please;

a sickle,

a machine wheel,

a sword

or a dagger.’

What about your children’s taste in music?

At the kindergarten graduation, the kids chose the songs, not the teacher. And every song was an ‘Am Yisrael’ song. And all of these old folk songs. Morale-boosting songs. They brought me – as an Israeli by choice, raising kids in Israel – to tears. 

“I am tough most of the time, but it touched me to see fathers standing around in uniform at their kids’ graduation. 