.jpg?itok=5-uIaM1D "Mr. Joseph (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council speaks during the ceremony")
Mr. Joseph (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council speaks during the ceremony
Mr. Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate presents David and Fela Shapell with a gift in appreciation for their generosity over the years to Yad Vashem
David and Fela Shapell, son Ben, together with Avner Shalev (right). In the background is the David and Fela Shapell Family Shoah and Heroism Study Center for Youth
16 October 2006
On October 16, 2006 the David and Fela Shapell Family Shoah and Heroism Study Center for Youth was inaugurated.
The center offers a broad spectrum of educational programs and seminars to thousands of students from Israel and overseas. In particular, the study center also offers schoolchildren from outlying areas throughout the country a unique opportunity to visit Yad Vashem and to participate in educational activities there.
The center's goal is to firmly entrench the subject of the Shoah in the hearts of the youth of today, to create empathy with Holocaust victims and discover the meaning of moral courage, and to encourage Jewish continuity. Through their encounters with survivors, students will internalize their message of humanity, human decency and human dignity. As Elie Wiesel said at Yad Vashem, "Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness."
Committed to universal human values, and dedicated to ensuring Jewish continuity and preserving their Jewish heritage, David and Fela Shapell are involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors in both the United States and Israel.
They are dear friends of Yad Vashem and significant supporters of Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust education.
They are the donors of Yad Vashem's new visitors' center, and now with the establishment of the new study center the David and Fela Shapell Family has made a lasting contribution that will ensure that the legacy of the Holocaust will be transmitted from generation to generation.
