Moshe Shnabel, Biography

From his earliest days Moshe Shnabel lived in an environment of building construction: his father, Avraham Shnabel, worked as a building contractor in Tel Aviv and as the manager of ״Silicate״, a brick factory in Rishon Lezion.

Having grown up in a construction-oriented family Moshe naturally turned, in 1940, to the study of engineering at the Technion in Haifa, in the Faculty of Structural Engineering, but in 1942 he was called up for service in the Palmach, as a result of which he temporarily deferred further study there.

After approximately two years he returned to his studies, becoming a Certified Engineer (structural engineering) in 1946.

With the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1948 he was conscripted into a combat unit and served as commander of water installations in the Negev, in the area of Nir Am. He was charged with securing the 6-inch water main, known as the "Champagne Line". Under the inspired guidance of Simcha Glass, an engineer working at that time for the Mekorot National Water Company, he was able to keep the water supply open to eleven Negev civilian settlements, thus assuring the inclusion of the Negev within the borders of the State of Israel at the end of the war.

On his discharge from active duty, Moshe began to work as a structural engineer in the office of Leitsdorf-Belitzman Architects, the leading architectural office in the country at that time.

In 1953 he received a scholarship from The American Association of Friends of the Technion" and began working as a structural engineer in the office of the Ruderman Engineering Company in Manhattan, where he gained extensive experience in the management of large-scale projects using advanced design and construction principles developed in the United States at that time.

At the same time, he completed his Post Graduate Advanced Study at Columbia University in New York City, expanding his theoretical and practical expertise in the area of civil engineering.

In 1955 he returned to Israel, where as a self-employed structural engineer he opened his first office in Tel Aviv and worked in cooperation with building contractor Auerbach and Tel Aviv Architect Doron on several projects.

In 1957 he joined forces with the engineer Asher Müller to form Engineering design office a partnership that lasted to the end of his life.

The Engineering design office has designed hundreds of buildings throughout Israel, from the Knesset and government administration buildings, communications and media systems, military complexes and infrastructure and industrial buildings, to the campuses of the Technion, Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Engineer Moshe Shnabel was often invited as a guest lecturer in civil engineering at the Technion and was a member of the Directorate of the Association of Engineers and Architects. As a member of the Committee for Concrete Construction Legislation and of the Committee for Steel Construction Legislation within the framework of the Israel Institute of Standards, Shnabel was given a Certificate of Appreciation for his lifelong service in these fields by the Association of Construction and Infrastructure Engineers in the Israel Bureau of Engineers, Architects and Academics in Technical Disciplines.