Adelson Foundation | Adelson Family Foundation

SOURCE:  Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-17

The Adelson Foundation is an American private charitable foundation founded by business magnate Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. The organization is based in Los Angeles.

Background

The Adelson Foundation is divided into two branches:

• the Adelson Family Foundation, established in 2007, works to strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people

• the Adelson Medical Research Foundation, which focuses on healthcare.

Noteworthy donations of the organization include: $50 million to the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Educational Campus, another $67 million in total was donated to their Medical Research Foundation, and $33 million to the Birthright Israel Foundation, and $13 million toward paying for the promotional trips to Israel that the nonprofit organizes for young Jewish people.

In addition, the couple have pledged $3 million to Hebrew SeniorLife for housing facilities and a program to bring together older people and elementary-school students for education programs; $2 million to Gateways: Access to Jewish Education for programs for children with special needs; and $1 million to the Chelsea Jewish Foundation for specialized housing for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis. Those pledges will be paid over five years, and since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totalling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel.

The Adelson Foundation gives $200 million annually to Jewish and Israeli causes, the largest by far of any existing private foundation with that aim.

The foundation funds the Maccabee Task Force, which combats antisemitism on college and university campuses in the United States.

Sheldon Adelson

SOURCE:  Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-17

Sheldon and Miriam Adelson receive Woodrow Wilson Awards.
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Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 4, 1933) is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and political donor. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owns the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, Makor Rishon and the American daily newspaper Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Adelson, a philanthropist and donor to a variety of causes, created the Adelson Foundation in 2007 at the behest of his wife, Miriam Adelson. He is a member of the Republican Party, and made the largest single donation to any U.S. presidential inauguration when he gave the Trump inaugural committee US$5 million.

As of November 2019, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of US$37.7 billion, making him the 24th-richest person in the world. He is a major contributor to Republican Party candidates. He was the largest donor, of any party, in both the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He sat out the Republican primary season during the 2016 presidential campaign but on September 23, he announced a $25 million donation to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, making him the largest donor to the Trump campaign and the largest donor in the presidential election (although this was less than the $100 million donation some had predicted).

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Repurposing the Israeli-American Council

At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council, Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it.

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Involvement in politics

Ideology

Adelson says that because of his upbringing in an immigrant family in an underprivileged neighborhood of Boston, "it went without saying that we were Democrats." He attributed his family's loyalty to their belief that the Democratic Party of the 1930s and 1940s shared their commitment to charity, self-reliance, and accountability, as well as support for Jewish causes. In a 2012 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "I Didn't Leave the Democrats. They Left me," Adelson specifies three reasons why he switched political parties to the Republicans. First, he cites foreign policy, pointing to a Gallup poll that suggests Republicans are more supportive of Israel than Democrats. Second, he cites statistics that suggest Republicans are more charitable than Democrats. To support this claim Adelson cites a report from The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which claims, after studying tax data from the IRS, that U.S. states that vote Republican are more generous to charities than those states that vote Democratic. "My father, who kept a charity box for the poor in our house ... would have frowned on this fact about modern Democrats." Third, he cites a nonpartisan study of Illinois' finances by the State Budget Crisis Task Force and political scientist Walter Russell Mead claiming that Democratic Party economic policies don't deliver on their promises of social justice and have wrecked one of the country's potentially most prosperous and dynamic states (Illinois).

Adelson also states that he doesn't agree with every Republican position and is liberal on several social issues; but believes the Republicans are better at supporting liberal democracies like Israel, better exemplify the spirit of charity, and support economic policies that would certainly be better for those Americans now looking for work.

Others have attributed different motives for Adelson's party switch. "Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?," he reportedly said to an associate according to The New Yorker, which claims Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.

The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson has had a long feud, who formerly worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, who said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats." The Boston Globe claims that Adelson has "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas." Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money."

Adelson denies those explanations for his political beliefs and behavior, suggesting such depictions of him are tainted by his critics' own political ideology.

In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he is "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."

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2005

In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush.

2008

Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.

2010

In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people."

U.S. Senate candidates he donated to:

• Carly Fiorina (R-CA), former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard
• Sharron Angle (R-NV), Assemblywoman
• Sue Lowden (R-NV), former State Senator
• Scott Brown (R-MA), U.S. Senator and former State Senator
• Roy Blunt (R-MO), U.S. Congressman
• Mark Kirk (R-IL), U.S. Congressman
• Pat Toomey (R-PA), former U.S. Congressman
• Charlie Crist (R-FL, later D-FL), Governor

Congressional candidates:

• Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
• Eric Cantor (R-VA)
• Joe Heck (R-NV)

2012

During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether Adelson spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.

On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider."

On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message." Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich.

He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.

In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.

Romney believes that China should be pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would benefit financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to appreciate.

2014

Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize Medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. Adelson believes that cannabis is a gateway drug [see the Cannabis subsection of Adelson's Wikipedia page, and this entry (below)].

2016

According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson was reported to have held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary." On May 13, Adelson endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign.

[Cannabis] In October 2016, Adelson, whose son died of a drug overdose, donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.

Views on Donald Trump

Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.

2018

For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.

2019

On January 31, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.

2020

It is estimated Adelson will donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for 2020 election cycle.

Philanthropy

Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.

Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totalling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014.

Adelson also has funded the private, Boston-based Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.

In a 2016 listing of the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life, Adelson was described as one of the world's most generous and influential Jewish philanthropists, who 'continues to make outsized gifts to a range of Jewish and non-Jewish groups'.

Personal life

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Wealth

In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.

In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero...(there is) no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to #178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.

In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes' Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes, and as of December 2014, his net worth is $30.4 billion.

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Additional Reading

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