The Marc and Henia Liebhaber Prize for the Promotion of Religious Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism in Israel for the year 2006-5767 is awarded to Rabbi Michael Melchior, a respected public figure whose passion to serve the Jewish people and better

Israeli society has guided him throughout his life.

Rabbi Melchior, born in Denmark, is the seventh generation of Scandinavian Chief Rabbis in the Melchior family. He was appointed Chief Rabbi of Norway in 1980, a title he holds until today. A rabbi and educator, he immigrated to Israel in 1986 with his family.

Following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Rabbi Melchior felt a personal obligation to enter public life to help heal the rifts threatening Israeli society. An active member of the Knesset since 1999, he works tirelessly in both an official and unofficial capacity to bring the disparate groups of Israeli society together through dialogue and joint action.

As part of these efforts, he established the Yachad (Together) Council which works toward improving relations between Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, religious and secular populations as well as the Meitarim school system for religious and secular pupils and

Beyachad (in union) which offers holiday prayer and study sessions outside of the synagogue to secular communities.  The need for better interfaith relations prompted Rabbi Melchior to establish the Mosaic Center which brings Muslim, Chirsitan and Jewish leaders together for programs that stress the commonality between the three peoples.

Rabbi Melchior serves on a number of Knesset committees. Today, as Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, he is shaping educational policy based on a worldview that embraces humanism and democracy as well as Jewish values. He has spearheaded legislation for the Chief Rabbinate and Municipal Rabbis Law which would merge the Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbinate into one unified religious body.

A past Minister of Diaspora and Social Affairs, Rabbi Melchior is committed to strengthening the bonds of Jewish communities worldwide. One of the original supporters of Birthright, the program which allows young Diaspora Jews to discover Israel for the first time, he today chairs the its steering committee. He is on the forefront of the international struggle against anti-Semitism, working diligently for good relations between the world community and Israel and the Diaspora as well as advocating for the return of properties to survivors of the Holocaust.

Rabbi Melchior enunciates a “Judaism for All Israel” which encourages each Israeli to build a strong sense of Jewish identity without fear of coercion. His voice is one of reason and compassion which reaches deep and wide. His language has earned him the universal reputation as an eloquent spokesman for Israel and the Jewish people and as a figure of vision, conciliation and peace.