A new legacy gift from the Canadian estate of the late Andrew Harper z”l, will go towards supporting medical students from Israeli Arab, Palestinian and other underrepresented communities studying at the Hebrew University of Israel.
“I believe that Andy would be pleased,” said Alan Harper from his home in New York. As the nephew and executor of his estate, Alan has ensured that gifts continue in his uncle’s legacy and are “consistent in the context of tolerance.”
“Aside from helping promising young students, the hope is to build bridges in an effort to foster peace and cooperation,” said Alan.
According to Alan, his uncle, who passed away in January 2020, had a deep sense of empathy for those underrepresented in society and with his late wife, had set up the Andrew and Carole Harper Tolerance Fund. With this fund, they supported a number of local organizations that help the most vulnerable, including the Alzheimer Society of Montreal, Auberge Shalom, Chez Doris, MADA Community Centre, and the Montreal Holocaust Museum.
This latest legacy gift to Hebrew University is in keeping with a major philanthropic gift of $1.3 million dollars Mr. Harper made in 2019, to create The Carole and Andrew Harper Research Complex in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Institute for Medical Research Israel- Canada (IMRIC). The newly formed Complex was created to help further discovery at IMRIC’s medical campus, still the only one of its kind in Israel.
As Alan explains, the late Mr. Harper’s ties to Hebrew University date back to 1940, when the Romanian native—still just a teenager—was accepted to the university, allowing him to leave war-torn Europe before it fell to the Nazis. His acceptance led him and his younger brother to secure a visa and rare entry into what was then British Mandatory Palestine.
Mr. Harper’s gift was a way of paying back that good fortune and honouring the memory of his late beloved wife.
