Miriam Adelson

Miriam Adelson (née Farbstein; formerly Ochshorn; born 10 October 1945) is an Israeli American philanthropist and doctor. She married American business magnate Sheldon Adelson in 1991, and has since become a prominent Republican Party donor. She is the current publisher of the newspaper Israel Hayom.[1][2][3] 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.[4] In 2013, she received honorary citizenship of Jerusalem.[5] She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

Miriam Adelson
Adelson in June 2019
Born	Miriam Farbstein (1945-10-10) 10 October 1945 Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (present-day Israel)
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem Tel Aviv University Rockefeller University
Occupation	Physician
Spouse(s)	Ariel Ochshorn ( div. 1980) Sheldon Adelson ( m. 1991)
Children	4

Life and work

Adelson was born in Tel Aviv,[6] Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust. Her father was a prominent member of the Mapam political party. In the 1950s, her family settled in the city of Haifa,[6] where Adelson's father owned and operated several movie theaters. She attended the Hebrew Reali School for 12 years.[7] She served mandatory army service as a medical officer at Ness Ziona. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. Adelson then married Ariel Ochshorn, a physician, with whom she had two children.[1][8][9]

Adelson divorced Ochshorn in the 1980s, and in 1986 she went to Rockefeller University on an exchange program, specializing in drug addiction. She was mentored by and collaborated with Mary Jeanne Kreek. While at Rockefeller, she met Sheldon Adelson, whom she married in 1991. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.[1] 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,[10] is credited with influencing Sheldon's political views on Israel,[8] and served as one of the 'finance vice-chairs' for the inauguration of Donald Trump.[11]

Honors and awards

Honors

• Presidential Medal of Freedom - November 16, 2018.[12]

Awards

• Doctor Honoris Causa by Tel Aviv University - 2007.[9]

References

1. "Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
2. "Miriam Adelson | Hadassah Magazine". Hadassah Magazine. 2014-10-22. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
3. "Miriam Adelson named publisher of Israel Hayom". Las Vegas Review-Journal. 2018-05-18. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
4. "Sheldon G. Adelson and Dr. Miriam Adelson Receive Prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship" (Press release). Las Vegas Sands Corp. (via PR Newswire). March 26, 2008. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014.
5. "Grapevine: Honorary citizens". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
6. "Miriam Adelson | Hadassah Magazine". Hadassah Magazine. 22 October 2014.
7. Takahashi, Paul (February 8, 2013). "Adelson Education Campus receives $50 million gift from namesake benefactors". Las Vegas Sun.
8. "The Brass Ring". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
9. "The Adelson Method". Haaretz. 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
10. "Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson".
11. "Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn join Donald Trump's inauguration team". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
12. "Trump to award Medal of Freedom to Elvis, Babe Ruth, among others". CNN. November 11, 2018.

Further reading

• Binkley, Christina (2019-01-07). "Meet Dr Miriam Adelson: the record-breaking Republican donor driving Trump's Israel policy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-15.