Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon AdelsonYoni Kempinski
Sheldon Adelson, a great American patriot, a great Jewish patriot, a great entrepreneur role model has passed away today at the age of 87. The loss of this self-made billionaire is a great loss to the world.

Sheldon Adelson was a wonderful man, a fair, decent man who epitomized the American Jewish dream someone I knew personally. He grew up poor and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars a year to charity – all of which he earned with sheer hard work. This great American patriot was the richest Jew in the world, with a net worth of over $33 Billion dollars, he devoted his entire essence to making the world a better place.

Too often, wealthy Jews shy away from their “Jewish identity,” but this was the model of a proud Jew, with along with his wife Miriam was the biggest donor in the world to Jewish causes. While Adelson is known well for his political giving, the fact of the matter is his philanthropy trumped his political donations.

There are few individuals like Adelson in the world today, who have shown what good for America, for Israel, for Jews, what great wealth can accomplish.
As a philanthropist, his criteria for giving was “whatever is good for the Jewish community and whatever is good for the State of Israel.” What could be a better ideal? He so often gave money without any recognition whatsoever.

Sheldon Adelson's acts of chessed, lovingkindness, are too numerous to mention, but two recent good deeds stand out. When the head of Hatzalah, Eli Beer, spend over a month in a Florida hospital critically ill with the coronavirus, he was flown back to Israel in Adelson's private jet plane once he could be released from the hospital. Upon reaching Israel Beer said: "I want to thank the medical team that helped me make it back to Israel, and to Dr. Miriam Adelson and her husband [businessman and philanthropist] Sheldon Adelson, I love them so much."

Jonathan and Esther Pollard, as well, were flown to Israel on the Adelson's jet plane.

It i hard to find anyone who has done as much for the Jewish community as Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon Adelson was a great American, a great Jew, a success story, one of us who made it. The son of a cab driver, Adelson once said he is “not a rags to riches story – because we couldn’t afford to buy rags.”

There are few individuals like Adelson in the world today, who have shown what good for America, for Israel, for Jews, what great wealth can accomplish.

Sheldon Adelson was a Jewish-American role model, and hero. The man built himself up on his own, and was a tremendous philanthropist, humanitarian and executive.

Baruch Dayan Emet on the loss of Sheldon Adelson. May his entire family be comforted among the mourners of Zion.

Ronn Torossian is a Public Relations executive.

“I feel that it is a privilege for us to be those who mix the cement that bonds the generations of the Jewish People.” [Sheldon Adelson ]

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