Shapiro was raised in a Jewish household.[13] At age 6, through his synagogue, the Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, and the Forman Hebrew Day School, he began writing letters to Avi Goldstein, a Soviet Jewish refusenik in Tbilisi, Georgia, and enlisted others in an international pen pal program he called Children for Avi.[14][15][16] He attended high school at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.[17] While in high school, Shapiro spent time volunteering in Israel after he was "required to do a service project", which he and his peers completed through "a program that took them to a kibbutz in Israel where he worked on a farm and at a fishery."[18] The program also included service on an army base.[19]

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5626570&forum_id=2:#48290849)