Yad Vashem
In 1993 Avner Shalev accepted the position of Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem. Five years after he took the helm of the institution, Shalev accepted on its behalf the coveted Israel Prize, for Special Service to Society and Country. In 2007, he once again received a nation's supreme honor, this time Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize for Concord (the Hispanic world's Nobel Prize equivalent), in the name of Yad Vashem. He also received the French Legion of Honor by President Sarkozy, at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
As leader of Yad Vashem, Shalev has dealt with the controversy over Pope Pius XII, and with the Museum's complicated relations with the Church. He has sought better access to Vatican archives for the period of Monsignor Pacelli's papacy.
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