Mordecai Paldiel

Mordecai Paldiel (born Markus Wajsfeld, March 10, 1937) and Queens College in New York.

Early life and education Paldiel was born into a Hasidic family of Szlomo Wajsfeld, a diamond trader originally from Miechów near Kraków, and Hinde (née Labin) from Uhnów (now Ukraine) as one of their five children before World War II. Thanks to a Catholic Priest who was able to smuggle them across the border, the family fled from Nazi occupied Belgium via France to Switzerland in 1940 when he was 3 years old. Later after the war the family emigrated to New York:

He received a Bachelor of Arts from Hebrew University and a Master of Arts and PhD in Religion and Holocaust Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. Paldiel is the former Director (1984–2007) of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He has written several books devoted to the subject including The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust published in 1993 by the KTAV Publishing House.