In memory of Assaf Shani

Assaf Shani, his memory be blessed as the son of Bat Sheva and Rami Shani.

Rami, holder of the controlling share in Hod Assaf Industries, is a man of hard work whose entire world is the steel industry and its branches. Assaf, who since his childhood gained his father’s love for the world of iron production and worked in the company’s processing plants already during summer vacations from school. The senior employees remember Assaf as a very pleasant adolescent, modest and wise beyond years, together with his determination in work and strong will to learn and contribute.

With the end of his studies in the machine engineering department of the Technion, a degree he earned as Summa Cum Laude, Assi preferred to join the company plants and train in them over other options that were available to him. He began his career in the company as an engineer in the smelting plant and already from the inception, showed initiative and determination, never giving up, researching and learning every subject to its roots, out of a purpose to fully understand from the foundation, the operation of this type of plant. During the course of his career, Assi managed the recycling and scrap iron plant, endearing himself to all the scrap iron suppliers and learning their language. With the departure of the smelting plant manager, it was only natural that Assi will be appointed in his place. During the period of his employ as plant manager, Assi was always the equal of all employees, always demanding of himself more, as could be seen by the number of hours he spent in the plant, while travelling daily from his home in the moshav Rishpon to Acre. Assi’s dedication to the plant is seen in an infinite number of events and occasions, so that in every case of fault in the plant, he would arrive and not leave until the correct solution was found and during the second Lebanon war, stubbornly arrived each and every day to the plant, even though during that period he was supposed to take leave in order to complete his Master’s degree entry tests in business administration.

His untimely death struck the company and left all of its employes, both senior and young, with a deep scar and large gap. Amongst his special traits were humility and strength, generosity, wisdom and perseverance, which all could be viewed in his work and created his curiosity, and search for new challenges and his determination to learn and bring about the successful completion of every project that was placed before him.