Sheldon Adelson, who rose from selling newspapers on Boston street corners at age 12 to one of the most successful luxury resort developers, philanthropists and political influencers of his generation, died Monday night at his home in Malibu, California. He was 87.
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Adelson founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world's largest gaming corporation, from its inception in 1988.
Under Adelson's leadership, Las Vegas Sands pioneered the integrated resort model that now dominates the Strip, combining luxury hotel-casinos with convention centers. Adelson's concept was so popular and financially successful that he became one of the world's wealthiest people.
Adelson shared that wealth as a generous philanthropist. Along with his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, he underwrote medical research, a private school, drug rehabilitation clinics, and numerous other causes.
Adelson's conservative values, love for the United States and Israel, and his desire to preserve the strongest diplomatic and cultural ties possible between the nations compelled him to embrace and support Jewish causes. He became one of America's most influential political megadonors, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican candidates and conservative PACs over the past two decades.
Adelson also was unfailingly loyal to the thousands of people he employed.
After the coronavirus pandemic forced Nevada casinos to shutter in March 2020, Adelson continued providing full pay and benefits to all 10,000 Las Vegas Sands Corp. employees and the 1,200 employees working in the resorts' 14 independently operated restaurants throughout the closure.
Sheldon Adelson was a unique combination: a philanthropist, a devout Zionist, and a true fighter for Israel, and a person who was wholeheartedly determined to safeguard the future of the Jewish people.
His connection to Israel can be traced all the way back to his childhood in Boston, to a poor Jewish family. His father, who arrived in the US from Lithuania as a child, always told him that his fervent wish was to visit the Jewish state.
His father never made it, but when his son arrived in Israel shortly after his death several decades later, the younger Adelson decided to symbolically wear his father's shoes as he disembarked the plane.
For Adelson, who passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, it was clear that the future of the Jewish people should never be taken for granted.
A lot has been said about how Adelson became one of the wealthiest persons in the world. Most Israelis probably don't know just how much Adelson and his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson contributed to their lives on so many levels.
His donations to various projects in Israel and the Jewish world are enormous in scope and reach.
Every young Jew knows about Taglit-Birthright, which has brought hundreds of thousands of Jews on a 10-day tour to Israel thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars Adelson gave through his foundation.
He also played a major role in establishing new faculties and schools in Israeli academia, expanding their access to many Israelis, including a new medical school at the Ariel University of Samaria. He was also one of the main donors to Israel's leading first-responder organization Magen David Adom and the national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.
Adelson played a significant role in the attempt to make Israel join the club of nations that have landed a spacecraft on the moon, funding a substantial part of the SPACEIL project to send Beresheet into space. While the craft ultimately crashed, it nevertheless brought the Israeli flag to the moon, thus providing the young boy from Boston a symbolic victory over the anti-Semites.
Adelson's activities to promote Israel's stance and advance the Zionist cause went beyond philanthropy. He was actively engaged in making Israel's case with world powers to make sure Israel was an economic powerhouse and a secure place for all Jews.
One of his key efforts over the years was in trying to convince the US and other nations to recognize Israel's capital. This ultimately bore fruit in December 2017 when President Donald J. Trump declared Jerusalem as Israel's capital and later moved the US Embassy there.
"My heart is in Israel, and Israel is always in my heart. I am a devout Zionist," Adelson said during an Israel Hayom event several years ago.
Adelson played a major role in creating a new platform for Israeli abroad to feel connected by supporting the Israeli-American Council. The organization has become a major success, expanding rapidly in North America, and effectively ending the stigma native Israelis have toward former Israelis who had left their country. The IAC has proved to be a force to be reckoned with in defending Israel in legislative chambers by supporting anti-boycott laws. It is doubtful that such action would have been made possible without Adelson's enormous backing.
And of course, every Israeli has read or picked up one of the free copies of Israel Hayom, the paper Adelson founded in 2007 that has transformed Israel's media landscape by offering accessible quality journalism without charge.
Even during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Adelson worked tirelessly to bring Jews to their ancestral homeland. It is thanks to him that dozens of Moroccan Jews arrived in Israel on special flight several months ago, overcoming the many difficulties imposed by the virus that had prevented them from leaving the African country.
His efforts to make Israel's economy a global player were relentless, speaking at every opportunity and every business forum on the need to invest in the country.
"My heart is in Israel, and Israel is always in my heart. I am a devout Zionist," Adelson said during an Israel Hayom event.
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