It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you of the passing of our dear friend, longtime supporter, and International Board Life Member Solo Dwek. Solo passed away on April 22, 2024, at the age of 94.
Solo was a philanthropist and successful businessman and entrepreneur. Born in Beirut to a prominent Sephardic family, he was educated in Switzerland and studied engineering in France, before moving to Japan to oversee the family business. In 1963, he moved with his family to Italy, where he and his younger brother, Maurice (Maurizio) z”l, founded the corporate finance company Fineurop Soditic. The two went on to collaborate on a variety of successful financial initiatives together with major international corporations such as Fiat and IMI Bank.
Alongside his professional career, Solo was also a dedicated philanthropist. An avid supporter of the State of Israel, he and Maurice both donated generously to Israeli institutions, including the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and the Israel Museum.
The Dwek family are longtime and cherished friends and supporters of the Weizmann Institute of Science, generously donating to a variety of research areas across campus. Solo was an active supporter of the Institute’s activities in Europe, especially of the collaborative research program with the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Italy. In 1999, he and Maurice funded the construction of the Dwek Campus Center and established a fund for biomedical and fertility research. In 2008, the family endowed the Solo Dwek and Maurizio Dwek Research School of Chemical Science and funded the Dwek Institute for Cancer Therapy Research of the Moross Integrated Cancer Center.
In 2009, Solo was awarded the Institute’s PhD honoris causa degree in recognition of his visionary support and was inducted into the President’s circle during the Global Gathering in Zurich in 2022.
Later that year, I had the pleasure of holding a very special meeting with Solo at his home in Milan and learning more about the Dwek family’s longstanding friendship with the Weizmann Institute. In addition to recounting the family’s unique history and connection to Weizmann, Solo also shared invaluable input on ways to strengthen philanthropic support for basic research at the Institute. I will forever cherish this meeting and Solo’s words of wisdom.
We send our deepest condolences to Solo’s wife Jeannette, his children Marco and Claudia, his nephews Julian and Edward, and the entire extended family. He will be dearly missed.