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Miriam Adelson | |
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מרים אדלסון | |
 Adelson in 2023 | |
| Born | Miriam Farbstein (1945-10-10)10 October 1945 (age 80) |
| Education | |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, includingMatan |
| Awards |
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Miriam Adelson (Hebrew:מרים אדלסון; born October 10, 1945) is an Israeli-American physician, businesswoman, philanthropist, and conservative political donor. She was married toSheldon Adelson until his death in 2021.
As of October 2025[update], estimates placed her wealth at $34.6 billion,[1][2] making her the 48th richest person in the world.[1] Notable holdings include theLas Vegas Sands and theDallas Mavericks. She is the current publisher ofIsrael Hayom and, with her family, owns theLas Vegas Review-Journal.
Since the 2010s, Adelson has been one of theRepublican Party's largest individual donors, and since 2016 she has been one of the most prominent financial supporters ofDonald Trump. She and her husband provided the largest donation to his2016 campaign, hispresidential inauguration, his defense fund against theMueller investigation into Russian interference, and the2020 campaign.[3] She was the third largest donor to Trump's 2024 election bid, donating $106 million.[4]
Adelson has consistently advocated for the US government to adopt pro-Israel policies, including supportingIsrael's annexation of theWest Bank.[5][6]
Trump awarded her thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.
Adelson was born Miriam Farbstein inTel Aviv,Mandatory Palestine (present-dayIsrael), in 1945[7] to parents who fled Poland beforethe Holocaust. Her father was a prominent member ofMapam, a left-wing political party in Israel. In the 1950s, her family settled inHaifa,[8] where Adelson's father owned and operated several movie theaters.[9] She attended theHebrew Reali School for 12 years.[10]
Prior to her marriage to Sheldon, Miriam married Ariel Ochshorn, also a physician, and had daughters Sivan Ochshorn and Yasmin Lukatz.[11][12][13][14] The couple was divorced by 1986.[15]
After earning a Bachelor of Science inmicrobiology andgenetics from theHebrew University of Jerusalem,[9] she earned a medical degree, graduatingmagna cum laude fromTel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine.[16]
She served mandatory army service as a medical officer atNess Ziona. She eventually became the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital.[9] She went toRockefeller University in 1986 as an associate physician specializing indrug addiction. There, she was mentored by, and subsequently collaborated for two decades with,Mary Jeanne Kreek, who was known for the development ofmethadone therapy forheroin addiction.[9] She has published numerous scientific papers on the topic of drug addiction during her career and has been a guest investigator at Rockefeller University.[16]
Miriam met businessmanSheldon Adelson on a blind date in 1989; they married in 1991.[17][15] Together, they had two sons, Adam Adelson andMatan Adelson.[18]
In 1993, Miriam and Sheldon opened the first branch of the Adelson Clinic, a substance abuse clinic, in Israel.[19][11] They opened a second location in Las Vegas in 2000.[19][11] The clinics specialize in the use of medically assisted detox techniques, such as methodone.[19]
In 2018, Adelson was named the publisher ofIsrael Hayom, the most widely read newspaper in Israel,[20] a position she still holds.[11]
After Sheldon Adelson died in 2021, she became the owner of casino companyLas Vegas Sands, which he had founded. She remains the majority owner of Las Vegas Sands, which she runs along with her family.[21]
Adelson operatesthe Adelson Foundations. The foundation is divided into two branches: the Adelson Family Foundation, which was established in 2007, and the Adelson Medical Research Foundation. The former works to strengthen theState of Israel and theJewish people,[22] while the latter focuses on healthcare.[23]
The Adelson Foundation gives $200 million annually to Jewish and Israeli causes, the largest by far of any existing private foundation with that aim.[24]
She is a voting member on the board of trustees at theUniversity of Southern California,[25] and was a financial backer ofAriel University's medical school which opened in the West Bank in 2019.[26]
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In May 2024,New York magazine stated that the press often misreported Miriam's political donations as having been made by Sheldon. The magazine tabulated that during their marriage, Sheldon made 848 campaign donations and Miriam made 717. Sheldon had a lifetime total donation figure of $273 million, while as of the publishing of their profile, Miriam had a total of $284 million.[6]
Miriam Adelson made her first substantive political donations shortly after her marriage to Sheldon, in 1991. She soon switched her support from Democratic candidates to Republicans. The Adelsons were notably early donors toBenjamin Netanyahu in his 1996 campaign forPrime Minister of Israel and also gave some money to thesecond inauguration of George W. Bush in 2005.[6]
Following the 2010 ruling inCitizens United v. FEC, Adelson dramatically increased the size of her political donations.[6] She was the top female donor in the2012 United States elections, contributing as much as the next 15 female donors combined, a total of $46 million.[8]
Since 2016, Adelson has been known for her support forDonald Trump.[27] She and her husband were the largest donors to Trump throughout his first presidency; they provided the largest donation to his2016 campaign, hispresidential inauguration, his defense fund against theMueller investigation into Russian interference and the2020 campaign.[3]
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.[28][29][27] Adelson wrote that Trump represents "kinship, friendship, courage, the triumph of truth" and that "Israelis and proud Jews owe Donald Trump our gratitude."[30]
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2018.[31]
In January 2019 the Adelsons contributed $500,000 to thePatriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counselRobert Mueller's probe intoRussian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions were the Trust's largest to date.[32]
She served as one of the finance vice-chairs for Trump's first inauguration.[33]
During the 2024 presidential primary, she initially declined to take a side early in the presidential primary as she was courted byRon DeSantis andNikki Haley.[34] She ultimately supported Trump in the2024 United States presidential election, contributing $106 million to Trump's re-election campaign, making her its third largest donor.[35]
During the 2024 campaign, Adelson sought support from Trump for Israel's annexation of theWest Bank.[5][15] A spokesperson for Adelson denied allegations that her donations were made in exchange for support for this policy.[36]
Michael Wolff's 2025 bookAll or Nothing discussed the relationship between Trump and Adelson. In the book, it is claimed that Trump had two dinners with Adelson prior to receiving an initial donation in the 2024 election cycle, after which he described her as "boring" and long-winded and shared a hesitancy to take further meetings as he did not believe she was going to donate.[34] The White House communications director denied the claims.[34]
Subsequently, the relationship faltered after theRepublican National Convention when Trump learned Adelson had hired staff known to be critical of him to operate her super PAC devised to benefit him.[37][34] Reportedly further irritated byIsaac Perlmutter telling him Adelson was unreliable, Trump dictated a text message to Adelson claiming that she was his "enemy" for hiring unsupportive staffers.[37][34]
Adelson has said that her heart is in Israel and that she got "stuck" in America after meeting her husband.[11] She is credited with influencing Sheldon Adelson's political views on Israel and inspiring him to donate larges sums of money to Zionist causes.[38] Adelson is a financial supporter of theZionist Organization of America, theYad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, and various U.S. groups that fundraise for theIsraeli military.[39]
Adelson backed Trump's January 2021 pardon ofAviem Sella, an Israeli spy who had fled the US in 1987 after being indicted on counts of espionage against the US government.[40][41]
Adelson has been an influential voice in calling for deals withHamas that facilitate the release ofIsraeli hostages taken during theOctober 7 attacks.[42] Following the attack, she published an op-ed inForbes Israel andIsrael Hayom, where she stated that "radical Muslim andBlack Lives Matter activists, ultra-progressives and career agitators...should be dead to us".[43][44][45][46]
Adelson and her husband cut off contact withBenjamin Netanyahu and his wife,Sara, around 2019.[47] Adelson has interpersonal strife with Sara, whom she believes has undue influence over the political decisions of Benjamin and regards as being psychologically ill.[48] Adelson testified atBenjamin Netanyahu's 2024 corruption trial that Sara Netanyahu exerted pressure on her to provide her with gifts and favorable media coverage.[49]
Adelson is a prominent supporter ofBirthright Israel, a program that brings young Jews to Israel for free. With her husband she was the program's largest donor; the couple had given more than $250 million to Birthright Israel by 2015.[50]
Adelson donated $25 million towardsAriel University's medical school which opened in the West Bank in 2019.[26] She stated that the gift would help "to strengthen the settlers inJudea andSamaria", terms that imply that the West Bank was promised to the Jewish people by God.[51]
She donated $6 million toHaShomer HaChadash, a volunteer militia that puts volunteer security guards and agricultural workers on settler farms in the West Bank via the Adelson Foundations between 2019 and 2022.[52]
In 2020, Adelson was named as a defendant alongside Netanyahu, Trump,AIPAC, and others in a lawsuit filed in the Washington, D.C., district court alleging "the denationalization and dehumanization of the Palestinian people" and "the installation of an apartheid regime in theOPT". Her husband was not included in the lawsuit.[53] The case was dismissed in 2021.[citation needed]
Adelson and her husband were early donors to theMaccabee Task Force (MTF), an organization aimed at combatting theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement on college campuses and spreading pro-Israel sentiment among young people. In 2015 they donated $2.28 million to the MTF, and their support from 2013 to 2013 totaled more than $70 million.[54] Adelson is the organization's president, but this is not listed on the organization's website.[54] TheQuincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft hypothesized a connection between the organization and the crack down on participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses inTrump's second term.[54]
Adelson and her son-in-lawPatrick Dumont purchased a controlling ownership interest in theDallas Mavericks of theNational Basketball Association in December 2023. Dumont became the Mavericks' governor and representative to the NBA Board of Governors.[55] The Adelson-Dumont families' would own 69% of the team and previous controlling ownerMark Cuban's share was reduced to 27%.[56] Since this purchase, Adelson has been advocating for greater legalization ofgambling in Texas, in order to build a casino in the state.[57] it was reported that the NBA would not allow Adelson to be the governor for the team due to her political reputation, but allowed Dumont to be governor instead.[58]
Under Adelson's management,Luka Dončić was controversially traded to theLA Lakers with the explanation that he was not taking care of his body well enough.[59] After the trade, a fan was removed from a Maverick's game for wearing t-shirts that showed a red clown nose on a picture of Adelson.[60] At the same game, people chanting for the firing of the general manager who set up the trade were also removed.[61] The trade lead to conspiracy theories that Adelson was purposely harming the team to facilitate moving them to her home city, Las Vegas.[62]
Since the death of her husband, Miriam Adelson has been ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world.Forbes estimated her net worth at $38.2 billion in 2021,[63] $27.5 billion in 2022,[64] and $35 billion in 2023.[2] In 2024, Adelson's net worth was estimated at $32 billion, making her the richest Israeli and the 53rd-richest person in the world as well as the richest person in the state of Nevada.[2][65][66]Forbes has also listed Adelson among the ten richest women in America in 2023 and 2024, ranking her fifth and eighth, respectively.[67][68] According to theBloomberg Billionaires Index, as of August 2025[update], Adelson had a net worth of $40.5 billion.[1]
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Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Donald Trump (2018)[31]| International | |
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| National | |
