New Jewish Charity Pledges To Spend $200M Annually
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The man Forbes magazine ranks as the third richest in America, resort and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, 73, will follow his billionaire colleagues Bill Gates and Warren Buffett into the major leagues of philanthropy.
Mr. Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is expected to announce formally as soon as today the creation of a foundation that could pump billions of dollars into Jewish and Israeli causes.
Jewish communal leaders widely expect that the Las Vegas resident, who is said to be worth more than $20 billion, will give large gifts to a narrowly focused group of Jewish, Israeli, and medical research charities.
Sources familiar with Mr. Adelson’s finances say the foundation’s assets could top $4 billion — making it by far the largest Jewish-oriented charitable foundation in the country.
“This could be the best thing to happen to Jewish philanthropy in 20 years or more,” since liquor scions Edgar Bronfman, Sr. and Charles Bronfman became the poster boys of Jewish giving, the president of the San Francisco-based Institute of Jewish & Community Research, Gary Tobin, said.
A Boston-based attorney, Michael Bohnen, will lead the foundation’s Jewish giving efforts, a source said. Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Bohnen had no comment. The news of Mr. Adelson’s plans and of Mr. Bohnen’s involvement was first reported by the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which said the foundation would give away $200 million a year.
“If it’s $200 million, spread among 300 different charities, that would be terrific, don’t get me wrong,” the president of the Jewish Funders Network, Mark Charendoff said. “But if he decides to be strategic and to leverage the money — from everything I know about him, that would certainly be characteristic of the way he approaches business — that would be welcome news, indeed.”
Mr. Charendoff said that private philanthropy in America has become “something heroic.” “It used to be that conquering the business world was the ultimate achievement that Americans could aspire to,” he said. “Now, we see a cadre of Americans, not intent on just changing the business world.”
News of Mr. Adelson’s latest and largest charitable commitment comes just two months after he and his Israeli wife, Miriam, donated $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.
“They came to us, and said, ‘What is your need?’ and ‘How can we help you?'” the chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Eli Zborowski, said.
Mr. Zborowski said the Adelsons, who are also financing the creation of a Hebrew high school in Las Vegas, are modest and down-to-earth. “They always said they wanted to make a foundation to support a variety of Jewish causes, but it never occurred to me that it would be on the scale of what they’re doing now,”he said.
Miriam Adelson, 61, is a physician who specializes in drug rehabilitation — funding and managing drug treatment facilities in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv.
The creation of the Adelson’s philanthropic foundation follows the highly publicized announcement in June that the investor Warren Buffett pledged $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which sponsors various global health initiatives.
Earlier in the year, the $500 million estate of a late California real estate magnate went to create the Jim Joseph Foundation devoted to Jewish education and other identity-building Jewish youth initiatives.
“One major gift, whether it’s Buffett or Gates, or Joseph — it animates the minds of others,” the executive director of the San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation, Chip Edelsberg, said.
Mr. Adelson could not be reached for comment on his philanthropic plans, which a spokesman said would be announced in a press release that could be issued as early as today. In an interview with Ira Stoll in 2000 for an article in the Jewish weekly the Forward, Mr. Adelson spoke of his father, an immigrant from Lithuania who drove a taxicab in Boston. “When I was growing up, we were very poor,” Mr. Adelson said at the time.