Anish Kapoor
Photo: Amit Shabi
Sculptor Kapoor donates $1 million 'Jewish Nobel' prize to refugees
British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, whose mother is an Iraqi Jew, gives Genesis Prize money to five charities working with refugees worldwide; 'Directing Genesis Prize funds to this cause is a way of helping people who, like my forebears not too long before them, are fleeing persecution,' he says.
British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has donated $1 million to five charities working with refugees worldwide, in a bid to alleviate a record-breaking global displacement crisis.
Kapoor, who was born to an Indian father and Iraqi Jewish mother, won the Genesis Prize - dubbed the Jewish Nobel - last year, for his commitment to Jewish values.
“Like many Jews, I do not have to go far back in my family history to find people who were refugees,” he said in a statement.
Anish Kapoor (Photo: Amit Shabi)
“Directing Genesis Prize funds to this cause is a way of helping people who, like my forebears not too long before them, are fleeing persecution.”
The United Nations (UN) says the world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, with more than 65 million people forced to flee their homes, surpassing numbers after the Second World War more than 70 years ago.
UN efforts to agree a voluntary pact on safe, orderly and regular migration suffered a setback in December when the United States quit the negotiations.
“In recent months, awareness of the plight faced by tens of millions of refugees and displaced persons worldwide has fallen significantly while the refugee crisis continues unabated,” said Kapoor, a longtime social activist.
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Photo: Reuters)
Kapoor, who lived in Israel briefly before settling in Britain in the 1970s, won the Turner Prize in 1991 and created a Holocaust memorial for London’s Liberal Jewish Synagogue.
Winners of the Genesis Prize award $1 million to charities of their choice, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of Jews. The Genesis Prize is a partnership between the Genesis Prize Foundation, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel. The Prize is endowed by the Genesis Prize Foundation and awarded annually.
One of Kapoor’s grantees is the International Rescue Committee, which is working with refugees in Uganda - home to more than 1 million people who have fled war in South Sudan - and with stateless Rohingya in Myanmar.
He is also providing food for refugees in Greece and France and medical care for Syrian refugees.
Previous winners include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the actor Michael Douglas. The 2018 winner, the Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, plans to focus her award funds on promoting women's equality.
