Professor Michael Shafir, a member of the Scientific Council of the "Elie Wiesel" Institute, died on Wednesday, at the age of 78, told Agerpres.
"This morning, emeritus university professor Michael Shafir left us! A man of immeasurable culture and with a vast academic activity, always involved in high-quality projects, Michael Shafir always knew how to create new visions through his work," announces the "Elie Wiesel" National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, in a post on Facebook.
He was a genuine democrat, campaigned to combat Holocaust denial and to promote the memory of the victims, and in his capacity as a member of the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust he was one of those who fought for the values of democracy and thus the Holocaust was officially recognized by "Final Report" in 2005, the same post says.
"Active, with many good and up-to-date ideas, in his capacity as a member of the Scientific Council of the "Elie Wiesel" Institute, he often proposed academic themes, which took shape and had a great impact on the interested public," says the same source.
Born on January 4, 1944, in Bucharest, in a family of Jewish origin, Michael Shafir emigrated to Israel, after finishing high school, in 1961.
He studied English literature and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then followed a Master's Degree programme and a PhD programme in political science, as well as at the London School of Economics.
He was the director of the foreign news department at Kol Israel and a lecturer in political science at the Tel Aviv University.
He was also deputy director of the Department for Public Opinion Research at Radio Free Europe, Munich, later on taking over as head of the Romanian section of the Analysis and Research Department of the same radio station.
Back in Romania, Michael Shafir was a professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca.
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