Peres Academic Center inaugurated a new synagogue and the Daniel Study Center for Israeli Unity in memory of Capt. Daniel Perez, who was killed in the war that began with the October 7 terror attack.
The dedication was marked Monday evening with a procession from the plaza of the Rehovot campus to the new synagogue and study center, accompanied by the installation of two Torah scrolls donated by Ofra and Rafi Elul. Organizers said the donation was part of the college’s effort to connect Jewish tradition, academia and national resilience.
The event was attended by Peres Academic Center leaders, including founder and CEO Ofra Elul and rector Prof. Ron Shapira, along with Rabbi Doron Perez, president of the study center and Daniel’s father, his wife, Shelly, and Rehovot Mayor Matan Dil.
The Daniel Study Center for Israeli Unity was established in memory of Capt. Daniel Perez, who fell defending Israel during the war. The center hosts lectures and workshops with leading Israeli public figures, along with experiential programs meant to strengthen Jewish roots and promote unity.
Its goal is to build a community of students connected to Jewish tradition who see national unity as a mission rooted in campus life and academic study.
Rabbi Doron Perez, president of the World Zionist Organization, serves as president of the study center. Dr. Shaul Sharf, a law lecturer at Peres Academic Center, serves as its director.
Capt. Daniel Perez
(Photo: IDF)
During the ceremony, participants held a festive meal and watched a film in memory of Daniel Perez.
“The establishment of the Daniel Study Center and the synagogue on campus, together with the installation of the Torah scrolls, are moments of spiritual elevation and national pride for Peres Academic Center,” Ofra Elul said. “Capt. Daniel Perez acted out of a deep sense of mission and love of country, and in that spirit the study center was founded — to give our students not only academic excellence, but also a value-based anchor, emotional resilience and a deep connection to Jewish roots and the unity of the people.”
Rabbi Doron Perez said the study center and synagogue were meant to be more than places of prayer and learning.
“They are a home where an important spiritual layer is being built — a deepening of the Jewish people’s shared fate and shared purpose,” he said. “Daniel and his team fought with supreme courage as one person with one heart, out of brotherhood and love for one another and for the entire people. After the events of Oct. 7, we do not have the luxury of returning to the division of Oct. 6, especially ahead of an election period.”
Ron Shapira, Rafi and Ofra Elul, and Shelly and Doron Perez
(Photo: Eclipse Media)
He said the center would combine Torah study and Jewish thought with academia to develop new thinking about unity.
“As I said at Daniel’s second funeral: ‘We may be the smallest people, but we are the largest family,’” Perez said. “The Jewish sense of family is the basis of our identity, the secret of our survival and the foundation of our success.”
Sharf said Israeli academia is not only a center of knowledge and research, but also an institution that must help provide national resilience during crises and emergencies. He said institutions of higher education have a moral and national role in connecting study to Israel’s renewal, social resilience and a sense of mission.
The center’s activities include monthly lectures by Israeli public figures on Jewish heritage and national unity, including Miriam Peretz, Rabbi Uri Sherki and Iris Haim; annual social programs such as tours of different communities in Israel; cooperation between unity institute researchers and students; encouragement for students to take responsibility and contribute to Israeli society; study of Jewish tradition and values; and participation in the Institute for Israeli Unity’s academic and public work.
About 100 students are already taking part in the study center’s activities, organizers said.