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, Soviet 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] He was a basketball team captain during his senior year.[18] During high school, Shapiro spent five months studying and volunteering in Israel with his classmates, as part of a "service project" requirement, which they completed through "a program that took them to a kibbutz in Israel where he worked on a farm and at a fishery."[19] The program also included service on an Israel Defense Forces base.[20] According to a spokesperson in 2024, Shapiro was "at no time engaged in any military activities"
The political left has criticized him for his strong support of Israel, school vouchers, and corporate tax cuts, while the political right has opposed his strict enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown measures during his tenure as Pennsylvania's attorney general.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day