Thank you so much Jody for having accepted to do this interview. It’s a real honor for me. What is The Azrieli Foundation?
The Azrieli Foundation was established in 1989 to realize and extend the philanthropic goals of David J. Azrieli, C.M., C.Q., M.Arch. The initiatives and programs that we support range widely in the fields of education, architecture and design, Jewish community, Holocaust commemoration and education, scientific and medical research, and the arts. The causes we support are as diverse as were the passions of our founder. While we have funded countless research grants, we are perhaps best known in Canada for the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.
Since our inception, we have given over $100 million to hundreds of causes.
David J. Azrieli, who unfortunately recently passed away at the age of 92, had personally established The Azrieli Foundation, achieving individual and community success. Who was David J. Azrieli?
David J. Azrieli, C.M., C.Q., M.Arch., was a visionary builder, developer and businessman, community leader and philanthropist.
A Holocaust survivor himself, David was born in Poland in 1922; he left when the Nazis invaded his hometown in 1939. After the war, he learned that of his entire family, only one brother had survived. He was recruited to the Zionist cause in 1942, leading to his studies at Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology. He moved to Montreal in 1954, where he earned his B.A. from the Université de Montréal. In 1957, he launched his career in design, real estate development and property management with the construction of four duplexes in Montreal.
In the early 1960s, David founded Canpro Investments Ltd.; through this company, he would build high-rise residential buildings, hotels, and shopping centres across the country, including the eventual construction of the largest shopping mall in the National Capital Region, Les Promenades de L’Outaouais in Gatineau. Today, Canpro actively manages a portfolio of properties that include many significant buildings in downtown Montreal.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Azrieli put all that he had learned as a developer in Canada to good use in Israel, where he opened the first enclosed shopping centre in Ramat Gan – the Canion Ayalon – setting off a revolution in the finance and retailing industry in the country. In 1998 he forever changed the Tel Aviv skyline when he opened the Azrieli Center – an iconic and striking landmark that is the largest mixed-use commercial complex in the Middle East.
Mr. Azrieli was a strong supporter and believer in education and continuing education. This can be seen not only in his philanthropic pursuits but also in his personal journey. He earned a Master’s degree in Architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1997 at the age of 75.
As a philanthropist, David was unparalleled. His legacy is assured to continue in perpetuity; today, the Azrieli Foundation is one of the largest foundations in Canada and Israel, providing millions of dollars in grants every year. We are honoured to carry both his name and his community-minded ideals into the future.
The Azrieli Foundation was established in 1989 to realize and extend the philanthropic goals of David J. Azrieli, C.M., C.Q., M.Arch. The initiatives and programs that we support range widely in the fields of education, architecture and design, Jewish community, Holocaust commemoration and education, scientific and medical research, and the arts. The causes we support are as diverse as were the passions of our founder. While we have funded countless research grants, we are perhaps best known in Canada for the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.
Since our inception, we have given over $100 million to hundreds of causes.
David J. Azrieli, who unfortunately recently passed away at the age of 92, had personally established The Azrieli Foundation, achieving individual and community success. Who was David J. Azrieli?
David J. Azrieli, C.M., C.Q., M.Arch., was a visionary builder, developer and businessman, community leader and philanthropist.
A Holocaust survivor himself, David was born in Poland in 1922; he left when the Nazis invaded his hometown in 1939. After the war, he learned that of his entire family, only one brother had survived. He was recruited to the Zionist cause in 1942, leading to his studies at Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology. He moved to Montreal in 1954, where he earned his B.A. from the Université de Montréal. In 1957, he launched his career in design, real estate development and property management with the construction of four duplexes in Montreal.
In the early 1960s, David founded Canpro Investments Ltd.; through this company, he would build high-rise residential buildings, hotels, and shopping centres across the country, including the eventual construction of the largest shopping mall in the National Capital Region, Les Promenades de L’Outaouais in Gatineau. Today, Canpro actively manages a portfolio of properties that include many significant buildings in downtown Montreal.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Azrieli put all that he had learned as a developer in Canada to good use in Israel, where he opened the first enclosed shopping centre in Ramat Gan – the Canion Ayalon – setting off a revolution in the finance and retailing industry in the country. In 1998 he forever changed the Tel Aviv skyline when he opened the Azrieli Center – an iconic and striking landmark that is the largest mixed-use commercial complex in the Middle East.
Mr. Azrieli was a strong supporter and believer in education and continuing education. This can be seen not only in his philanthropic pursuits but also in his personal journey. He earned a Master’s degree in Architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1997 at the age of 75.
As a philanthropist, David was unparalleled. His legacy is assured to continue in perpetuity; today, the Azrieli Foundation is one of the largest foundations in Canada and Israel, providing millions of dollars in grants every year. We are honoured to carry both his name and his community-minded ideals into the future.
I really admire the mission of The Azrieli Foundation; supporting a wide range of activities and programs in the fields of education, architecture and design, Jewish community, Holocaust commemoration and education and scientific and medical research and the arts. You’re the Director of the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program. What is it?
The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada. The program is guided by the conviction that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity. The memoirs – each one of them a unique first-person account – are moving tributes to people who risked their lives to help others. More than half a century later, the diversity of stories allows readers to put a face on what was lost, and to grasp the enormity of what happened to six million Jews – one story at a time.
To date, we have published 25 memoirs in English and 18 in French, with 5 more English titles 4 more French titles due out this Fall. The memoirs are distributed free of charge to libraries, educational institutions, and researchers across Canada and around the globe, as well as being available for sale in bookstores. Nearly half of our published memoirs have received awards.
Like almost everything done by the Foundation, this program grew from an idea of David’s. After writing and publishing his own memoirs recounting the story of his family’s history with the Holocaust, he realized that every single survivor had their own story to tell, but finding a space to do so would be nearly impossible. With characteristic drive, David sought to create that space himself. The call was put out for manuscripts, and we now have an archive of nearly 200 memoirs. By countinuing to publish these stories, we hope that the history of the Holocaust and the gravity of what was lost will never be forgotten.
Why do you think is important that people keep learning about the Holocaust?
It is important that people continue to learn about the Holocaust for a plethora of reasons. The Holocaust is perhaps the single darkest event in all of human history, and yet a recent poll found that almost half of the world doesn’t know about it. Furthermore, of those who do know about it, 32 percent consider it to be an exaggeration.
The Holocaust cannot be considered a “Jewish” issue and relegated to intra-community discussions. EVERYONE needs to learn about this immense and complicated period in history. The things that gave rise to the Holocaust – intolerance, hatred, propaganda, racism (and more specifically antisemitism), nationalism and economic desperation, to name but a few of the more obvious contributing causes – are still with us today. They have not gone away, and in some cases they have actually intensified in the ensuing decades. We must never forget where these things can lead us if left unchecked. The risks are too great.
“I’ve never stopped learning, I’m still learning now. So it seems totally natural for me to support learning, to help give other the pleasure and opportunities learning can provide. I never considered my support of education and various educational institutions to be charity. I always considered it giving back what education has given me. In every case I feel I have received more than I have given” said David J. Azrieli. In terms of educating, what is The Azrieli Foundation doing?
Our memoirs program places great importance on contributing to Holocaust education, and so has a strong educational component, which I will elaborate on in the next few questions. This is one of the more significant educational initiatives we are spearheading, but it is far from the only one.
The Azrieli Fellows Program promotes excellence in graduate studies at accredited institutions of higher learning in Israel. This competitive and prestigious program provides generous financial support to the best and brightest graduate students, from Israel and abroad, who will use their training to become leaders in their respective fields.Our goal is to create a cadre of leading professionals and academics who will increase the pool of technological and scholarly human resources in Israel. This network of leading professionals and academics will raise Israel's profile internationally and maintain strong links between Israel and the rest of the world.
The Azrieli Institute for Educational Empowerment was established to address the challenges faced by junior high students. Too many students in the critical grades of 7 to 9 find themselves headed down a track that will lead them to a final dropout or a covert dropout, where they remain enrolled in the education system, but take no part in actual studies. Dedicated support and counseling has proven vital to reducing this possibility, walking these students step by step to the understanding that their success is an actual possibility that can be fully realized. By working on academic and social skills while fostering the formation of family and community ties, this program helps those students along in their educational journey for whom the need is greatest.
In addition to these two groundbreaking programs, The Azrieli Foundation has established the following major post-secondary educational institutions: The Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada); The Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada); The presitigious David J. Azrieli Lecture in Architecture series at McGill University (Montreal, Canada); The Azrieli Graduate School at Yeshiva Unviersity (New York, United States); The Azrieli School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University (Tel Aviv, Israel); The Technion-Azrieli Sarona Campus – Tel Aviv at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Tel Aviv, Israel);The Azrieli Scholarships at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel); andThe Azrieli Institute for Systems Biology at The Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). These initiatives are but some of those that The Foundation has led in the field of education.
The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada. The program is guided by the conviction that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity. The memoirs – each one of them a unique first-person account – are moving tributes to people who risked their lives to help others. More than half a century later, the diversity of stories allows readers to put a face on what was lost, and to grasp the enormity of what happened to six million Jews – one story at a time.
To date, we have published 25 memoirs in English and 18 in French, with 5 more English titles 4 more French titles due out this Fall. The memoirs are distributed free of charge to libraries, educational institutions, and researchers across Canada and around the globe, as well as being available for sale in bookstores. Nearly half of our published memoirs have received awards.
Like almost everything done by the Foundation, this program grew from an idea of David’s. After writing and publishing his own memoirs recounting the story of his family’s history with the Holocaust, he realized that every single survivor had their own story to tell, but finding a space to do so would be nearly impossible. With characteristic drive, David sought to create that space himself. The call was put out for manuscripts, and we now have an archive of nearly 200 memoirs. By countinuing to publish these stories, we hope that the history of the Holocaust and the gravity of what was lost will never be forgotten.
Why do you think is important that people keep learning about the Holocaust?
It is important that people continue to learn about the Holocaust for a plethora of reasons. The Holocaust is perhaps the single darkest event in all of human history, and yet a recent poll found that almost half of the world doesn’t know about it. Furthermore, of those who do know about it, 32 percent consider it to be an exaggeration.
The Holocaust cannot be considered a “Jewish” issue and relegated to intra-community discussions. EVERYONE needs to learn about this immense and complicated period in history. The things that gave rise to the Holocaust – intolerance, hatred, propaganda, racism (and more specifically antisemitism), nationalism and economic desperation, to name but a few of the more obvious contributing causes – are still with us today. They have not gone away, and in some cases they have actually intensified in the ensuing decades. We must never forget where these things can lead us if left unchecked. The risks are too great.
“I’ve never stopped learning, I’m still learning now. So it seems totally natural for me to support learning, to help give other the pleasure and opportunities learning can provide. I never considered my support of education and various educational institutions to be charity. I always considered it giving back what education has given me. In every case I feel I have received more than I have given” said David J. Azrieli. In terms of educating, what is The Azrieli Foundation doing?
Our memoirs program places great importance on contributing to Holocaust education, and so has a strong educational component, which I will elaborate on in the next few questions. This is one of the more significant educational initiatives we are spearheading, but it is far from the only one.
The Azrieli Fellows Program promotes excellence in graduate studies at accredited institutions of higher learning in Israel. This competitive and prestigious program provides generous financial support to the best and brightest graduate students, from Israel and abroad, who will use their training to become leaders in their respective fields.Our goal is to create a cadre of leading professionals and academics who will increase the pool of technological and scholarly human resources in Israel. This network of leading professionals and academics will raise Israel's profile internationally and maintain strong links between Israel and the rest of the world.
The Azrieli Institute for Educational Empowerment was established to address the challenges faced by junior high students. Too many students in the critical grades of 7 to 9 find themselves headed down a track that will lead them to a final dropout or a covert dropout, where they remain enrolled in the education system, but take no part in actual studies. Dedicated support and counseling has proven vital to reducing this possibility, walking these students step by step to the understanding that their success is an actual possibility that can be fully realized. By working on academic and social skills while fostering the formation of family and community ties, this program helps those students along in their educational journey for whom the need is greatest.
In addition to these two groundbreaking programs, The Azrieli Foundation has established the following major post-secondary educational institutions: The Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada); The Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada); The presitigious David J. Azrieli Lecture in Architecture series at McGill University (Montreal, Canada); The Azrieli Graduate School at Yeshiva Unviersity (New York, United States); The Azrieli School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University (Tel Aviv, Israel); The Technion-Azrieli Sarona Campus – Tel Aviv at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Tel Aviv, Israel);The Azrieli Scholarships at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel); andThe Azrieli Institute for Systems Biology at The Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). These initiatives are but some of those that The Foundation has led in the field of education.
The Azrieli Institute for Teacher Training supports Israeli teachers of all background to receive appropriate training on teaching the Holocaust at Yad Vashem. I think that this project is really important. Teachers and students enjoy learning more about the Holocaust?
Like any other subject, the Holocaust is made more enjoyable to learn about with the help of a good lesson plan grounded in an understanding of how to best engage students.
Here at the Azrieli Foundation, we recognize the incredibly daunting task that teachers are faced with on a daily basis. Turning abstract curriculum points into activities that engage students with different learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and knowledge levels is a challenging task with even the most straightforward of subjects, which the Holocaust decidedly is not. The training that Canadian teachers receive on how to teach the Holocaust is limited at best, and frequently nonexistent. As a Foundation that publishes survivor memoirs, we therefore feel it is our responsibility to help teachers understand how to teach the Holocaust and how our memoirs might serve as engaging stories of personal experiences in history to help get students interested in this difficult subject.
To this end, we have created a number of tools targetted at educators. We have an activity on Historical Critical Thinking that we developed in partnership with a professor at the University of Ottawa posted on his Virtual Historian website. This is an activity that will allow students to really situate themselves in the historical period by analyzing different artifacts and documents from the era, including the eyewitness testimony of one of our memoir authors.
We have developed a set of thematic questions that we distribute with all of our memoirs. These are designed to help students and teachers keep important questions in mind as they explore the narratives of our authors, helping to make their read a more productive one.
We also lead presentations at educators’ conferences across the country, and speak to groups of teachers on how to teach about the Holocaust whenever we are invited to do so.
While there are countless other examples of ways that we have furthered Holocaust education, the last one I will mention here is the Twitter Bookclub. Inaugurated in 2012, it is a space where students and readers can engage with others from across the country and around the world in a conversation that interactively brings the history of the Holocaust to life. By adding real-time creation and collaboration to the reading process, we are engaging readers at a more meaningful level than the more passive and isolating traditional reading model. The inclusion of a host of multimedia content in the BookClub also makes it unlike any other BookClub around.
Is it true that The Azrieli Foundation have got a short film series of Holocaust survival memories?
In 2011, we decided to produce the Azrieli Series Short Films, a set of intimate, personal profiles of the published authors from the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs. In the films, the authors reflect on their histories from childhood through to their experiences during the war to their present lives in Canada. Each profile is introduced with a reading by the author from his/her memoir intercut with professional animation that reflects the tone of the author’s excerpt. Each short film gives the viewer a small taste of one author’s character and unique story.
We felt that the Azrieli Series Short Films would extend the reach of our memoirs and would bring these amazing stories to a new and broader audience. Keeping history current for new generations, they capture the author’s voice in perpetuity, allowing generations of readers to “meet” the authors and hear the individual voices of those who demonstrated the courage, strength, wit and luck that it took to prevail in such terrible adversity. Paired with our other forays into new media like our Twitter BookClub and our Virtual Historian lessons, the Azrieli Series Short Films represents our commitment to bringing our memoirs – and the important things they have to say about the world – into the 21st century.
The Azrieli Foundation is established in Canada. Do you collaborate with any associations abroad?
The Azrieli Foundation has very close ties to Israel, including an office in Tel Aviv.
We have partnered with dozens of Canadian elementary and secondary schools, as well as post-secondary institutions around the world (see question 5 for a list of our more major post-secondary collaborations).
What does Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program want to achieve in the next five years?
The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program aims to expand its digital presence in the next five years. We are in the process of considering and developing a number of initiatives in this realm, from an innovative blog platform to an interactive storytelling app, so stay tuned to our website for details on our exciting new projects as they are released.
Tell something to all the people that are reading this interview. A message, something about the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program/The Azrieli Foundation that I didn’t ask you… anything you wish.
The one message I would like to share would be the importance of engaging with history and bringing that to bear on how you live your life. We distribute our memoirs for free because we believe in the importance of coming into contact with the lives of the past.
Thank you so much for your time. It has been a delight interviewing you. Wish you and all the staff of The Azrieli Foundation all the success you deserve. I think it’s very important to keep talking about the Holocaust, its victims and survivors and to educate people to never forget and to fight for a better world, to promote acceptance and peace and to combat intolerance, discrimination, racism and injustices, and I’ll surely continue following your journey and all the interesting programs and missions of the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program/The Azrieli Foundation.
Like any other subject, the Holocaust is made more enjoyable to learn about with the help of a good lesson plan grounded in an understanding of how to best engage students.
Here at the Azrieli Foundation, we recognize the incredibly daunting task that teachers are faced with on a daily basis. Turning abstract curriculum points into activities that engage students with different learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and knowledge levels is a challenging task with even the most straightforward of subjects, which the Holocaust decidedly is not. The training that Canadian teachers receive on how to teach the Holocaust is limited at best, and frequently nonexistent. As a Foundation that publishes survivor memoirs, we therefore feel it is our responsibility to help teachers understand how to teach the Holocaust and how our memoirs might serve as engaging stories of personal experiences in history to help get students interested in this difficult subject.
To this end, we have created a number of tools targetted at educators. We have an activity on Historical Critical Thinking that we developed in partnership with a professor at the University of Ottawa posted on his Virtual Historian website. This is an activity that will allow students to really situate themselves in the historical period by analyzing different artifacts and documents from the era, including the eyewitness testimony of one of our memoir authors.
We have developed a set of thematic questions that we distribute with all of our memoirs. These are designed to help students and teachers keep important questions in mind as they explore the narratives of our authors, helping to make their read a more productive one.
We also lead presentations at educators’ conferences across the country, and speak to groups of teachers on how to teach about the Holocaust whenever we are invited to do so.
While there are countless other examples of ways that we have furthered Holocaust education, the last one I will mention here is the Twitter Bookclub. Inaugurated in 2012, it is a space where students and readers can engage with others from across the country and around the world in a conversation that interactively brings the history of the Holocaust to life. By adding real-time creation and collaboration to the reading process, we are engaging readers at a more meaningful level than the more passive and isolating traditional reading model. The inclusion of a host of multimedia content in the BookClub also makes it unlike any other BookClub around.
Is it true that The Azrieli Foundation have got a short film series of Holocaust survival memories?
In 2011, we decided to produce the Azrieli Series Short Films, a set of intimate, personal profiles of the published authors from the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs. In the films, the authors reflect on their histories from childhood through to their experiences during the war to their present lives in Canada. Each profile is introduced with a reading by the author from his/her memoir intercut with professional animation that reflects the tone of the author’s excerpt. Each short film gives the viewer a small taste of one author’s character and unique story.
We felt that the Azrieli Series Short Films would extend the reach of our memoirs and would bring these amazing stories to a new and broader audience. Keeping history current for new generations, they capture the author’s voice in perpetuity, allowing generations of readers to “meet” the authors and hear the individual voices of those who demonstrated the courage, strength, wit and luck that it took to prevail in such terrible adversity. Paired with our other forays into new media like our Twitter BookClub and our Virtual Historian lessons, the Azrieli Series Short Films represents our commitment to bringing our memoirs – and the important things they have to say about the world – into the 21st century.
The Azrieli Foundation is established in Canada. Do you collaborate with any associations abroad?
The Azrieli Foundation has very close ties to Israel, including an office in Tel Aviv.
We have partnered with dozens of Canadian elementary and secondary schools, as well as post-secondary institutions around the world (see question 5 for a list of our more major post-secondary collaborations).
What does Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program want to achieve in the next five years?
The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program aims to expand its digital presence in the next five years. We are in the process of considering and developing a number of initiatives in this realm, from an innovative blog platform to an interactive storytelling app, so stay tuned to our website for details on our exciting new projects as they are released.
Tell something to all the people that are reading this interview. A message, something about the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program/The Azrieli Foundation that I didn’t ask you… anything you wish.
The one message I would like to share would be the importance of engaging with history and bringing that to bear on how you live your life. We distribute our memoirs for free because we believe in the importance of coming into contact with the lives of the past.
Thank you so much for your time. It has been a delight interviewing you. Wish you and all the staff of The Azrieli Foundation all the success you deserve. I think it’s very important to keep talking about the Holocaust, its victims and survivors and to educate people to never forget and to fight for a better world, to promote acceptance and peace and to combat intolerance, discrimination, racism and injustices, and I’ll surely continue following your journey and all the interesting programs and missions of the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program/The Azrieli Foundation.
To visit the official website of the Azrieli Foundation: CLICK HERE