Alvin Cramer Segal , OC, OQ, Treasurer and former Chairman of Canadian Friends of Shalom Hartman, is set to receive an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University at a Jerusalem ceremony on May 31, 2015 . The honor follows Mr. Segal’s receipt of the Scopus Award from Canadian Friends of Hebrew University on May 3, 2015.
Mr. Segal is receiving the award, according to the University, because, he "is an outstanding business and community leader, a gifted entrepreneur and a generous supporter of the Canadian Jewish community and Israel. In addition to overseeing the largest supplier of men’s tailored clothing in North America, he has extended his generosity to a variety of causes in the arts, health, care and education, and in the Montreal Jewish community."
Read the full description of the award for Mr. Segal , as well as information on other honorees at the University’s Convocation.
Alvin Segal Receives Scopus Award in Montreal
Canadian Friends of Hebrew University presented Mr. Segal with its most prestigious honor, the Scopus Award, at a gala event held at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal, on May 3, 2015.
The award is given to individuals who have excelled in their chosen fields and have demonstrated a strong proclivity for philanthropy throughout their lives. Canadian Friends of Hebrew U. described Mr. Segal as both a "visionary entrepreneur and passionate philanthropist," whose "generosity is legendary and has meaningfully impacted the health, educational and arts sectors in Montreal and Israel."
Mr. Segal has been studying at and supporting the Hartman Institute for more than 30 years. He has been instrumental in the successful growth of the Institute and has seen it transform into what it is today–physically and spiritually.
Shalom Hartman Institute President Donniel Hartman, in a letter to the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, described Mr. Segal as "a man with complex aspirations and expectations" to whom "hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world and millions of Canadians owe a profound debt." See the full text of Donniel Hartman’s letter below.
Alvin Segal (C) receives the Scopus Award from Menahem Ben-Sasson (L), President, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Rami Kleinmann, President & CEO, Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, in Montreal, May 3, 2015
To the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, on the Occasion of Bestowing the Scopus Award to Alvin Segal:
The Jewish people’s survival over the millennia is one of history’s great mysteries. How could such a small people, subjected to such extensive hardship and danger, survive for so long, while so many of its more powerful enemies have disappeared?
One of our secret ingredients has and continues to be people. Not people in general, but individuals, in every generation, who have risen and carried our people on their shoulders. We have been walking together as a people for more than 3,000 years, because in every generation, and in every community where our people found themselves, there have been individuals who woke up every morning with a sense of responsibility. These individuals constituted a chain of remarkable power and endurance which linked Jews to each other, to our past, and connected us to our future.
Alvin is such an individual. Everything he has, he earned with his own two hands, yet he never perceived his personal success as the foundation for self-aggrandizement, but rather as a foundation for his responsibility to the future of the Jewish people.
Alvin is a seemingly simple man with complex aspirations and expectations. His simplicity lies in the fact that he has a remarkable ability to break down complex issues to their most basic components and to chart a direction forward. His decision to make a strategic investment in Hebrew University’s Revivim Program is a perfect example. Many worry and talk about Jewish continuity in general and the Jewishness of Israel in particular. For Alvin, the path forward is simple: If Israeli society is going to change, we need Jewish educators, and Revivim is the flagship program for this. Hence, his investment.
Alvin is a remarkable man, to whom hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world and millions of Canadians owe a profound debt. He is our secret weapon, a man who simply feels responsible and acts upon it. He is one of our generation’s leading links in our chain of leadership.
I wish to congratulate Alvin on the well-deserved honor of becoming a recipient of the prestigious Scopus Award and even more so, I want to congratulate and thank Hebrew University for the wisdom of honoring such a remarkable man.
With much love and respect,
Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman
President, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
You care about Israel, peoplehood, and vibrant, ethical Jewish communities. We do too.
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