About
Avi Finley
Avi Finley is an ethics communicator, technology-policy researcher, educator, speaker, and founder of the Modern Ethicist. She works across responsible AI, public philosophy, moral education, and high-trust communication — through research, speaking, workshops, and program leadership.
Background
Avi Finley is an ethics communicator, technology-policy researcher, educator, and speaker whose work centers on truth, communication, responsibility, and human dignity. She is the founder of the Modern Ethicist, a public-facing project exploring ethics, technology, and how we live together.
Her technology-policy research — including work conducted at the Zvi Meitar Institute — focuses on responsible AI, freedom of expression, and the protection of vulnerable groups in technology-mediated environments. She brings that research into speaking engagements, workshops, and program work for organizations navigating the ethical dimensions of AI and digital communication.
Avi served as a combat medic, an experience that shaped her understanding of high-stakes decision-making, responsibility under pressure, and the ethics of care. Her background in digital communication and AI product and program work informs her practical, grounded approach to responsible technology.
Through years of cantorial work as a b'nei mitzvah tutor, counselor, and officiant, Avi has guided adolescents and families through Jewish texts, ethical reasoning, identity, responsibility, public speaking, and personal reflection. This work grounds her interest in how young people develop moral agency before adulthood.
Her emerging research interest is applied ethics education for children and early adolescents, including how moral reasoning can be taught across ordinary life and technology-mediated environments.
Avi is also an IIN-certified health and wellness coach, certified through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition since 2022, and is completing training toward National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) certification.
EU citizen · planning relocation to Ireland in 2027.
What guides the work
Values
Truth
Avi believes that most of the hard things in life are hard because we haven't been honest — with ourselves or with each other. Her work starts there.
Responsibility
Jewish tradition holds that we are accountable for our actions, our words, and the patterns we perpetuate. Avi takes that seriously in her own work and helps others do the same.
Human dignity
Every person is made b'tzelem Elohim — in the image of the divine. That is not a platitude. It is a demand. It shapes how Avi teaches, coaches, and writes.
Care without sentimentality
Warmth and honesty are not opposites. Avi's work is caring precisely because it does not flinch from what is true.
How Avi works
Approach
Whether she is teaching a student to chant Torah, sitting with someone through a hard family conversation, or writing about an ethical question in public life — Avi's commitment is consistent: to think carefully, speak honestly, and help others do the same.
She does not believe in shortcuts. She does not believe in hype. She believes that most people are capable of more clarity, honesty, and care than they currently practice — and that the right kind of support makes that possible.
Jewish tradition is not a backdrop for Avi's work — it is a living source. The texts, the questions, the obligations, the arguments. She brings all of it to bear, without requiring that the people she works with share her commitments. What she asks for is seriousness. The rest follows.
"The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names."
— Proverbs tradition
If something here resonates, reach out.
Whether you're looking for a b'nei mitzvah tutor, want support working through something difficult, or are curious about Avi's writing and research — Avi is glad to hear from you.