Sylvan Adams is a businessman and philanthropist who since moving to Israel in 2015 refers to himself as the “self-appointed ambassador at large for the State of Israel.”
Adams aims to showcase what he calls “normal Israel” by bringing world-class cultural and sporting events to the country.
Adams has famously brought to Israel Lionel Messi and the Argentinian soccer team, Madonna to adorn the Eurovision Song Contest finals, and was responsible for hosting the largest sporting event in the country’s history: the “Gran Partenza” Big Start of the Giro d’Italia. These events brought Israel into the homes of billions of television viewers.
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Adams also works tirelessly to promote coexistence and national pride through Israeli sports. He is the owner of Team Israel Start-up Nation, a UCI World Tour team founded in 2014. Adams believes that sport is an invaluable resource that brings people together from different religions and ethnicities. Sport is also a touchstone of national pride for Israelis, erasing social differences.
Beyond sport, Adams’ philanthropic investments leverage Israeli innovation to positively impact Israeli society, the region, and beyond. His projects include the construction of a groundbreaking children’s hospital in Holon; revolutionizing the field of emergency medicine with a state-of-the-art emergency room in Tel Aviv; a project to supply tablet computers to special education teachers; and a scholarship program for promising artists. He is also one of the major donors of Save A Child’s Heart, a humanitarian organization that provides lifesaving heart surgery to Israelis, Palestinians and children from the developing world.
Adams is the only Israeli member of the Giving Pledge, an organization initiated by Warren Buffet together with Bill Gates for billionaires committed to give away the majority of their wealth to philanthropic pursuits.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post earlier this year, Adams was upbeat about Israel emerging from the corona pandemic.
“We are in a difficult period because the epidemic has killed tourism,” he said. “But I’m convinced it’ll be easy to revitalize it quickly. With a few successful initiatives, it will be possible to restore national pride and unity and get people out of the depressing situation in which we find ourselves. We are one people, and we need to restore our unity through every initiative that can strengthen us both internally and externally.”
Adams’ varied philanthropic pursuits will continue to make a tangible positive impact, in Israel, across the Middle East and beyond. And as he likes to say, he is “just getting started.”