President to award nine Medals of Honor, including to Miriam Adelson, Druze Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif

President Isaac Herzog’s office announces that he will be awarding the Presidential Medal of Honor to nine recipients.

The award was created by former Israeli president Shimon Peres and was first awarded in 2012.

This year’s recipients, who will receive their medals later this year, are:

• Miriam Adelson, philanthropist and wife of the late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a prominent backer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump
• Mathias Döpfner, CEO of German media giant Axel Springer, publisher of the German tabloid Bild and the American publication Politico
• George Costa Karra, a retired High Court Justice who served as one of the few Arab Israelis on the bench.
• Moti Malka, founder of the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra
• Avi Ohry, a leading expert in rehabilitation medicine
• Dina Porat, a leading scholar of the Holocaust
• Galila Ron-Feder Amit, a prominent children’s author
• Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel
• Yossi Vardi, prominent tech entrepreneur

“The State of Israel owes you profound gratitude for your work, for your uncompromising commitment to the values of excellence, solidarity, and innovation, and for your exceptional contribution to strengthening Israeli society and defending the State of Israel in the world,” Herzog says in a statement.