Love him or hate him, Sheldon Adelson’s impact on the Jewish nonprofit world cannot be overstated.
Adelson, the casino magnate who died Tuesday at 87 of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is best known as the top political contributor in the country, donating more than $218 million to Republican campaigns in the 2020 election cycle alone. But he and his wife, Miriam, also have sent thousands of young Jews to Israel through Birthright; helped make Benjamin Netanyahu the longest-serving leader in Israeli history; built a solid foundation for Yad Vashem and shifted the American-Jewish conversation and Israeli domestic politics steadily rightward through their support of pro-Israel organizations and campus initiatives.
Jan 13, 2021
LAS VEGAS Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire mogul, Republican mega-donor and power broker who built a casino empire spanning from Las Vegas to China and became a singular force in domestic and international politics, has died after a long illness.
Adelson died at 87 from complications related to treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Las Vegas Sands announced Tuesday.
He was the son of Jewish immigrants raised in a Boston tenement who became one of the world’s richest men. The chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands brought singing gondoliers to the Vegas Strip and foresaw the same potential in Asia. Forbes ranked him No. 19 in the U.S., worth an estimated $29.8 billion.
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel s US correspondent based in New York
US President Donald Trump alongside Las Vegas Sands Corporation Chief Executive and Republican mega donor Sheldon Adelson before speaking at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Hollywood, Florida, December 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
NEW YORK As the US presidential campaign began to heat up in late mid-2016, New York investor Michael Steinhardt got a call from his longtime friend Sheldon Adelson, who was interested in meeting the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump.
Steinhardt didn’t know the president-to-be, but he had met Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in a previous business venture.
By Phil Giraldi
It has already been widely recognized that what is likely to be the incoming Joe Biden administration is going to be the most hawkish since the last government that Mr. Biden served in, that of President Barack Obama. Secretary of State designate Tony Blinken was a driving force behind the Obama administration attempt to overthrow the legitimate government of Syria, a project which allied the United States with terrorist groups and served no identifiable American national interest. Blinken, who is Jewish and regularly claims family ties to Holocaust victims, is unlikely to disconnect U.S. policies from those of Israel. Mr. Biden has also declared himself a “Zionist” and his vice presidential choice, Kamala Harris, has been a featured speaker at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conspiracy session at the Washington Convention Center.
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US billionaire Sheldon Adelson speaks during a news conference for the opening of Parisian Macao in Macau, September 13, 2016. (Kin Cheung/AP)
AP Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday mourned the passing of US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of Netanyahu’s staunchest American supporters, lauding his efforts to bolster ties between the US and Israel that helped drive pro-Israel policy under the Trump administration.
With Adelson’s death, Netanyahu loses a key US backer who for the last four years had the ear of the American president and worked tirelessly to push Israel’s priorities at the White House and in Congress. He also bids farewell to an important backroom player in Israeli politics who funded an influential free daily newspaper that served as an unofficial mouthpiece for Netanyahu.