After her husband's death, Miriam became the owner of the Las Vegas Sands. She is the current publisher of the newspaper Israel Hayom and, with her family, owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Adelson is also the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team with her son-in-law Patrick Dumont. As of 2024, according to Forbes, she has an estimated net worth of $32 billion, making her the 53rd-richest person as well as the richest Israeli in the world,[2][3] and is the eighth-richest woman in America.[4]
Early life and medical career
Adelson was born Miriam Farbstein in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine, in 1945[1] to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust. Her father was a prominent member of Mapam, a left-wing political party in Israel. In the 1950s, her family settled in Haifa,[5] where Adelson's father owned and operated several movie theaters.[6]
She became a physician and, eventually, the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital.[8] After divorcing her first husband, she went to Rockefeller University in 1986 as an associate physician specializing in drug addiction. There, she was mentored by, and subsequently collaborated for two decades with, Mary Jeanne Kreek, who was known for the development of methadone therapy for heroin addiction.[8]
In 1993, Adelson founded a substance abuse center and research clinic. She and her husband opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas seven years later.[10] She has published numerous scientific papers on the topic of drug addiction during her career and has been a guest investigator at Rockefeller University.[9]
In July 2024, Adelson donated $3 million to Israeli volunteer emergency medical services organization United Hatzalah. With the funds, the organization would purchase 76 motorcycles and ambulances and two emergency vehicles.[13]
In 2013, Adelson received honorary citizenship of Jerusalem.[14] She served as one of the finance vice-chairs for the inauguration of Donald Trump.[15] She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2018.[16] Speaking on her Medal of Freedom at an event in August 2024, Trump said, "it’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they're soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal."[17]
Business ventures
In 2018, Adelson was named the publisher of Israel Hayom, the most widely read newspaper in Israel,[18] a position she still holds.[10] She is also a voting member on the board of trustees at the University of Southern California.[19] After Sheldon Adelson died in 2021, she became the owner of casino company Las Vegas Sands, which he had founded. She is currently the majority owner of Las Vegas Sands, which she runs along with her family.[20]
The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of the controlling ownership interest of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association to Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont on December 27, 2023. Dumont became the Mavericks' governor and representative to the NBA Board of Governors.[21] The Adelson-Dumont families' would own 69% of the team and previous controlling owner Mark Cuban's share was reduced to 27%.[22]
Adelson is a prolific donor in American politics, mostly to causes affiliated with the Republican Party. She was the top female donor in the 2012 United States elections, contributing as much as the next 15 female donors combined. According to Politico, she reportedly donated $46 million in the 2012 elections.[5]
Since buying a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks, Adelson has been advocating for greater legalization of gambling in Texas, in order to build a casino in the state.[23]
Support for Israel
Adelson has stated the "top issue in the Jewish community is the survival of the Jewish people." Rabbi Shmuley Boteach described her as "arguably the proudest Jew I have met."[5] A strong supporter of Israel, she has said that her heart is in that country and that she got "stuck" in America after meeting her husband.[10] She is credited with influencing his political views on Israel, who was "inspired by [her] Zionism, and from there began a public and philanthropic campaign unique in our generation".[24] Adelson is a financial supporter of the Zionist Organization of America, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, and various U.S. groups that fundraise for the Israeli military.[25]
In response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Adelson published an Op-Ed in Forbes Israel, entitled "Dead to Us". Referring to a wave of pro-Palestinian protests occurring across various western cities and countries, Adelson stated that "Those ghastly gatherings of radical Muslim and Black Lives Matter activists, ultra-progressives and career agitators were nothing short of street parties. These people are not our critics. They are our enemies, the ideological enablers in the West of those who would go to any length to eradicate us from the Middle East. And, as such, they should be dead to us".[26]
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.[29][30][27] She pushed for the pardon of Aviem Sella who spied against America.[31]
Adelson wrote that Trump represents "kinship, friendship, courage, the triumph of truth" and that "Israelis and proud Jews owe Donald Trump our gratitude."[32]
Trump met with Adelson in February 2024, and she supported Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election.[33][34][35] In May 2024, Politico reported that Adelson will contribute $90 million to a Super PAC supporting Trump. At this time the Biden’s campaign account had $84 million cash, and Trump's had $49 million (not accounting for PAC dollars).[36]
Miriam Adelson sought support from candidate Trump for Israel's annexation of the West Bank, pledging more than $100 million to Trump’s campaign in exchange for U.S. recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the region.[37][38][39]
Personal life
She married Ariel Ochshorn, also a physician, with whom she had two children.[10][40][41] The couple were divorced by 1986.[39] She met Sheldon Adelson in 1989, while at Rockefeller University, and they married in 1991.[39] The Adelsons had two sons, Adam and Matan. Matan has owned Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. since 2023.[42] Sheldon Adelson died in 2021.[40]
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,[43] $27.5 billion in 2022,[44] 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][3][45]Forbes has also listed Adelson among the ten richest women in America in 2023 and 2024, ranking her fifth and eighth, respectively.[46][4] According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of July 2024[update], Adelson has a net worth of $31.7 billion.[47]
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