French President Nicolas Sarkozy will award the Legion d'Honneur, the country's highest award, to Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev next, according to the European Jewish Press. "This prestigious distinction is presented to you for your extraordinary work on behalf of Holocaust remembrance worldwide," the French president wrote Shalev.

Since taking the post at Yad Vashem, Shalev has opened an International School for Holocaust Studies and has spearheaded a new Holocaust museum complex.