We are sad to announce the passing of our former president Peter A. Rafaeli (1932 - 2023)

AFoCR mourns the passing of our past president Peter A. Rafaeli, who died on October 11, 2023, at the age of 91.

Peter was born in Bratislava in 1932. Persecuted during the Nazi era, most of his relatives, including his parents, died during this time, many of them at concentration camps. Peter emigrated to Israel when he was 16 years old with his future wife, Inka. In 1961, the Rafaeli family emigrated to America. Starting at the bottom,

Peter worked his way up to top leadership positions in automobile dealerships for VW, Merecedes-Benz and Porsche + Audi Divisions in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Peter joined the board of American Friends of the Czech Republic in 2001. He served as treasurer and vice president before becoming president in 2008. Peter organized and led the drive to raise funds for flood relief in the Czech Republic in 2002, resulting in over $350,000 in aid. Peter also arranged for the translation and printing of Nicholas Winton’s Lottery of Life, written by Matej Minac, a book detailing the work of Nicholas Winton in saving Czechoslovak children from the ravages of Nazi occupation. Peter paid for the distribution of thousands of copies of this book to schools throughout the US. Peter was clearly a dynamic leader who contributed much to AFoCR over a 20-year span.

Peter also served as an Honorary Consul General for the Czech Republic for the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region for 20 years. In 2003, he received the Gratias Agit award from the Czech government for the promotion of the good name of Czechia abroad.

There are many other examples of Peter’s generosity. He contributed significant funds to the Jewish Museum in Prague. After the troops of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Peter helped devise a plan to enable Czech refugees to emigrate to the United States with assistance in housing and employment. Peter lived by a code of the highest ethics and the deepest generosity. We are profoundly grateful for his leadership within AFoCR and proud that he has been an important part of our history.