Actress Helen Mirren will host this year’s Genesis Prize ceremony in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

JNS.org – Academy Award-winning British actress Helen Mirren will host this year’s Genesis Prize ceremony in Jerusalem. The prize has been nicknamed the “Jewish Nobel Prize.”

Mirren said she is “honored and humbled” about hosting the event.

“My connection to Israel and the Jewish people has truly been a part of making me what I am today, and I am very excited to be returning to this great country,” she said.

Mirren is not Jewish, but has visited Israel many times and volunteered on a kibbutz in 1967. She has also campaigned against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement activists who have called for boycotts against Israeli artists. Among her numerous film roles, Mirren has played an ex-Israeli Mossad agent in “The Debt.” In “Woman in Gold,” Mirren played a Holocaust survivor who sues the Austrian government for the return of a painting stolen from her family by the Nazis.

Genesis Prize Foundation Chairman Stan Polovets called Mirren “an outspoken supporter of Israel.”

“We look forward to the elegance and grace she will bring to the ceremony,” Polovets said in a statement.