(JTA) — The Azrieli Foundation made a $10 million donation to Yeshiva University in honor of foundation founder David Azrieli’s 90th birthday.
The donation, the largest in the foundation’s history, is earmarked for the university’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, David Azrieli announced Tuesday.
The $10 million will be used primarily to offer scholarships to the school and help attract more men and women to the field of Jewish education.
“My family and my father can think of no better way to celebrate a 90th birthday,” said his daughter, Dr. Naomi Azrieli, who chairs the foundation. “Seeing young people graduate from this school and move on to teach Judaism to the next generation has been one of my father’s greatest joys.”
Azrieli, who escaped the Nazis and landed in prestate Israel in 1942, has been a Yeshiva University trustee since 1987. He studied at YU for a year.
He is the father of the modern shopping mall in Israel; he owns 14 throughout the country.
