Adelson donates $25m. to Yad Vashem

American casino and hotel magnate dishes out generous donations to several Jewish causes.

By GIL STERN STERN SHEFLER
Sheldon Adelson 311 R (photo credit: Reuters)
Sheldon Adelson 311 R
(photo credit: Reuters)
American casino and hotel magnate Sheldon Adelson has been dishing out generous donations to Jewish causes over the past week.
On Tuesday, he doubled his overall contribution to Yad Vashem in the past decade by announcing a $25 million gift to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
“We have seen the incredible impact of Yad Vashem seminars on educators of all backgrounds over the past five years,” Adelson said at a banquet held by friends of the museum in New York.
“We look to these educators to bring the lessons of the Shoah to their students.”
A week earlier, Adelson increased his annual contribution to Birthright-Taglit – the program that brings Jews aged 18 to 26 from the Diaspora on a free trip to Israel – twofold, to $10m.
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev thanked the 78-year-old philanthropist, whose net fortune was estimated by Forbes to be $23 billion in 2011, and his wife, Miriam, saying their largesse will help “preserve the memory of the Holocaust.”
“Thanks to the Adelsons, in the past years, we have seen the number of educators from around the world attending Yad Vashem seminars increase exponentially,” he said.
The museum said Adelson’s donations have helped bring “thousands” of Christian, Muslim and Jewish educators from Spain, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, China, Morocco and Russia in recent years to learn about the Holocaust. It added that its seminars for foreigners range from 10 to 21 days during which they hear about various topics related to the Holocaust from survivors and experts.