Miriam Adelson (née Farbstein; born 10 October 1945) is an American and Israeli physician and billionaire. After her marriage to American business magnate Sheldon Adelson in 1991, she became a donor to conservative political causes in the United States and Israel. The Adelsons donated to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference and the 2020 campaign.
She is the current publisher of the newspaper Israel Hayom. She is also a voting member on the board of trustees at the University of Southern California.
Miriam and Sheldon Adelson were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution in 2008. In 2013, she received honorary citizenship of Jerusalem. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2018.
As of June 2021, Adelson is the 44th-richest person, fifth-richest woman, and richest Israeli in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$29.6 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index through her majority ownership of Las Vegas Sands. In the spring of 2023, Forbes estimated her family fortune at $36 billion and ranked her the fifth-richest woman.
Adelson is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the founder and chairman of casino group, Las Vegas Sands, who died in January 2021 at the age of 87. Her biggest asset is a 56.7% stake in the publicly traded company, which she owns directly and through various trusts and custodial accounts according to the 2023 proxy filing. This analysis assigns her full control of the Adelson family’s shared interest in the company’s shares following the death of her husband.
The pair have collected more than $9.6 billion in Sands dividends, based on an analysis of Bloomberg data as of June 2023, and sold shares valued at about $3 billion in 2005 and 2006. Two years later, they gave $1 billion to the company in two installments to help stave off bankruptcy during the financial crisis. They received warrants and 5.25 million preferred shares in exchange. Las Vegas Sands bought the preferred shares for $577.5 million in November 2011.
The value of the Adelson family’s cash investments is based on an analysis of these transactions, taxes, market performance, political and charitable giving, and include the value of personal real estate.
Biography
Education: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Miriam Ochshorn Adelson was born Miriam Farbstein in 1945 in Tel Aviv in then-British Mandate Palestine. Her parents were Polish refugees who’d fled persecution. Many of her relatives, including her grandparents, died in the Holocaust.
She studied microbiology and genetics at Hebrew University before going on to earn a medical degree from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Medical School. She served as a medical research officer in the Israeli army where she became interested in drug dependency and the biology of chemical addiction. In 1986 Israel’s Ministry of Health sent her to New York to study at Rockefeller University under a prominent researcher on addiction treatment. Two years after her arrival in the US she was set up on a blind date with a Boston-born entrepreneur named Sheldon Adelson. They married in Jerusalem in 1991.
Adelson is a prominent supporter of drug addiction research and founded two clinics, one in Israel and one in the US, dedicated to fighting substance abuse. A prominent Zionist, she’s been an active donor alongside her late husband to Republican causes and candidates. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump in 2018 for her philanthropy and scientific research.
Medical career
She became a physician and eventually the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv’s Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital.
After divorcing her first husband, she went to Rockefeller University in 1986 as an associate physician specializing in drug addiction. She was mentored by and collaborated with Mary Jeanne Kreek.
In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic. In 2000, she and her second husband opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas. A strong supporter of Israel, she admitted her heart has always been in that country and that she got “stuck” in America after meeting her husband.
Support for Donald Trump
Adelson is known for her support for Donald Trump. She and her husband were the largest donors of Trump throughout his presidency; they provided the largest donation to his 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference and the 2020 campaign.
She has written that Trump “should enjoy sweeping support” among U.S. Jews and Israelis, and that Trump deserves a “Book of Trump” in the Bible due to his support for Israel. She pushed for the pardon of Aviem Sella who spied against America. Adelson wrote that Trump represents “kinship, friendship, courage, the triumph of truth” and that “Israelis and proud Jews owe Donald Trump our gratitude.”
Milestones
- 1945 Miriam Farbstein is born in Tel Aviv in then-British Mandate Palestine.
- 1988 Is set up by friend on a blind date with Sheldon Adelson.
- 1989 Husband buys the Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
- 1993 Opens a drug-abuse clinic in Tel Aviv.
- 2007 Las Vegas Sands debuts Venetian Macau, one of the largest buildings on Earth.
