Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund wins “Lion of Zion” award
Shavei israel Chairman Michael Freund this week with Bnei Menashe new immigrant at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel
We are delighted to announce that Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund has received the 2014 Moskowitz Prize for Zionism.
Dubbed the “Lion of Zion” award, the prize was established by Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz in 2008 “in recognition of the people who put Zionism into action in today’s Israel society, at times risking their own personal security, placing the collective before personal needs, and doing what it takes to ensure a strong, secure and resilient national Jewish homeland.”
Freund joins two other recipients for this year’s award: Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, who founded the JobKatif employment agency for former residents of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, and archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay, who created the “Temple Mount Sifting Project” to reclaim archaeological relics from debris removed from the Temple Mount during 1999-2000.
The three winners and their organizations will split a cash prize, which will be awarded at a ceremony in Jerusalem, not far from Barkay’s excavation center, this Thursday, May 29, 2014, the day after Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day.
The Moskowitz Prize organization explains that the need for this award “arose from the feeling, shared by many, that the true Zionist heroes in today’s Israel – those known to the public as well as those far outside the public spotlight, both young and old – do not always receive the institutional recognition and public praise they deserve.”
Freund joins past prize winners including Yigal Cohen-Organ, the chancellor of Ariel University; former Mossad chief Meir Dagan; Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, co-founder and executive director of Nefesh b’Nefesh; and Israeli emergency medicine innovator Dr. Yitzhak Glick.
The “Lion of Zion” prize committee consists of Cherna Moskowitz, former Defense Minister Prof. Moshe Arens, Rabbi Yedidya Atlas, Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, Brig. General Avigdor Kahalani, Rabbi Pesach Lerner and Rabbi Daniel Moskowitz. Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Yisrael Aumann serves as the organization’s special academic advisor. Ruth J. Lieberman is the overall director.
Please join us in congratulating Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund and all the award recipients for this special honor.