Dr. Miriam Adelson: Physician Behind Israel's Fortune

Q: How did Dr. Miriam Adelson get her wealth?

Her wealth comes through Las Vegas Sands, the casino and resort company founded by her late husband Sheldon Adelson (1933 to 2021). She and her family inherited control of more than half of it after his death and have run it since.

Q: What does Dr. Miriam Adelson fund in Israel?

She funds the Adelson Clinic at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, the Museum of Holocaust Art at Yad Vashem, Birthright Israel, Israel Hayom, the Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, Ariel University's medical school, and Jewish educational and Holocaust-remembrance institutions.

Dr. Miriam Adelson is an Israeli-American physician, born in Tel Aviv in 1945, who controls Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) with her family. Forbes put her net worth at $37.5 billion on its 2026 World's Billionaires List, 56th globally, and Bloomberg's index had her at roughly $44.3 billion in January 2026. She also owns the Dallas Mavericks with her family and publishes Israel Hayom. (Sources: Forbes 2026 World's Billionaires; Bloomberg Billionaires Index, January 2026; SEC Form 4, LVS, December 16, 2025, showing approximately 340,881,333 LVS shares.)

In the Book of Esther, a Jewish woman rises to the highest position of influence in a foreign empire and uses that position to protect her people. It is the oldest story the Jewish people tell about power exercised with purpose. This profile argues that Dr. Miriam Adelson's life echoes that story: a physician from Tel Aviv who became the wealthiest Israeli on the Forbes list, who sits at the intersection of an American gaming company and some of the largest private giving to Israeli and Jewish causes in modern history.

When President Trump addressed the Knesset in October 2025, he singled her out in the gallery, asked her to stand, and told the parliament that she loves Israel. Members of the chamber applauded her. The moment reflected a position built over decades: she was already a practicing physician and a department head before the fortune arrived, and she has directed much of the money toward medicine, Holocaust memory and Jewish continuity.

Who is Dr. Miriam Adelson at a glance?

Fact	Detail
Name	Dr. Miriam Adelson, born Miriam Farbstein (Hebrew: מיריאם אדלסון)
Born	October 10, 1945, in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. Raised in Haifa. Attended the Hebrew Reali School for 12 years.
Profession	Physician in internal and emergency medicine, then chemical dependency and the biology of addiction
Education	B.Sc. in microbiology and genetics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. M.D. magna cum laude, Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine.
Honorary doctorates	Tel Aviv University (2007) and Bar-Ilan University (2019)
Military service	Medical officer in the Israel Defense Forces at Ness Ziona, working in biological research, after her B.Sc. and before medical school (Rockefeller University; Jewish Virtual Library)
Clinical career	Head physician in internal and emergency medicine at Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital in Tel Aviv. Guest investigator and associate physician at Rockefeller University in New York from 1986 to 1989, mentored by Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek.
Clinics founded	Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research in Tel Aviv (1993, at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center) and in Las Vegas (2000)
Business	Controlling owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks (NBA), publisher of Israel Hayom, and family owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Net worth	$37.5 billion per Forbes 2026 (56th globally). About $44.3 billion per Bloomberg, January 2026 (43rd).
Honors	Presidential Medal of Freedom (November 2018) and the Nyswander/Dole Award
First marriage	Ariel Ochshorn, a physician. Two daughters, Yasmin Lukatz and Sivan Ochshorn (later Sivan Dumont). Divorced by 1986. (Wikipedia; BuzzFeed News, 2015; Hadassah Magazine, 2014)
Second marriage	Sheldon G. Adelson (1933 to 2021), founder, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands. Married in 1991 in Jerusalem after meeting on a blind date in 1988. Two sons, Adam (born 1997) and Matan (born 1999). Her son-in-law Patrick Dumont, married to Sivan, is president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands and governor of the Dallas Mavericks. Three stepchildren from Sheldon's first marriage: Mitchell (deceased), Gary and Shelley. (WFAA; Players Bio; Wikipedia)

How did a doctor from Tel Aviv become Dr. Miriam Adelson?

Miriam Farbstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1945, three years before the state, and raised in Haifa. Her parents, Simcha Farbstein and Menucha Zamelson, had left Poland before the Shoah, and most of the family they left behind did not survive. Her mother lost almost everyone. That loss, which erased aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, shaped her childhood and later shaped her giving. Her father owned and operated several movie theaters in Haifa. (Wikipedia; Yad Vashem donor record; BuzzFeed News, 2015.)

She was not born into wealth. She attended the Hebrew Reali School for twelve years, earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology and genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed mandatory IDF service as a medical officer at Ness Ziona. She then took her medical degree at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, graduating magna cum laude. She specialized in internal and emergency medicine and became head physician in both departments at Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital in Tel Aviv. (Rockefeller University, June 2016; IAC360; Jewish Virtual Library; Yad Vashem.)

All of this came before she met Sheldon Adelson. She was already a physician and department head, and she had already married and divorced fellow physician Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters, Yasmin and Sivan. When she and Sheldon met, both in their mid-forties, she arrived as a doctor with a career of her own.

Why did Miriam Adelson move into addiction medicine in 1986?

In 1986 Miriam Adelson moved into chemical dependency and the biology of addiction, a field that was poorly funded, heavily stigmatized and almost empty in Israel at the time. She chose to treat the patients that polite society preferred not to see.

She went to Rockefeller University in New York, the institution where methadone maintenance was pioneered, and served as guest investigator and associate physician from 1986 to 1989. She worked with Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek, a leading researcher in the neurobiology of addiction, and co-authored research on opioid addiction. She later sat on Rockefeller's board of trustees and on the board of the University of Southern California. (Rockefeller University, June 2016; Married Celebrity.)

In 1993 she opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. It was described as the first facility in Israel built to treat heroin and cocaine addiction through integrated medical care, counseling and social rehabilitation. In 2000 she opened a second clinic in Las Vegas on the same model, and she has headed both clinics personally for decades.

In June 2021, twenty-eight years after the Tel Aviv clinic opened and five months after her husband died, an expanded facility was unveiled at Sourasky. Sourasky's director, Professor Ronni Gamzu, was present, and former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau affixed the mezuzah. The expansion added capacity and beds inside a working hospital. (Israel Hayom, June 2021.)

The field recognized the work. She holds the Nyswander/Dole Award, named for Marie Nyswander and Vincent Dole, the two physicians who established methadone maintenance as a treatment. The award goes to practitioners who have changed how addiction is treated. (AATOD.)

How did Sheldon Adelson and Las Vegas Sands create the fortune?

The Adelson fortune comes from Las Vegas Sands, the casino and resort company that Sheldon Adelson built and that Miriam Adelson and her family now control. She met him in 1988, set up on a blind date through a mutual friend, Sara Aronson, whom Miriam had known since childhood. The same year they began dating, he bought the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. They married in Jerusalem in 1991 and adopted two sons, Adam and Matan. (BuzzFeed News, 2015; WFAA, 2023; Wikipedia.)

Sheldon Adelson, a Boston-born, first-generation entrepreneur and the child of immigrants, built Las Vegas Sands into a company with the Venetian, the Palazzo, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and the Macao properties. He died on January 11, 2021, at age 87. His coffin, draped in U.S. and Israeli flags, was displayed at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay respects.

What she inherited was an operating company, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, exposed to global markets and employing tens of thousands of people across Asia. She and her family kept control of the company and steered it through the post-pandemic recovery in Asia.

In 2022, under the family's stewardship, Las Vegas Sands sold the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center on the Las Vegas Strip to Apollo Global Management and Vici Properties for $6.25 billion. The company then focused on Asia. (Forbes; Las Vegas Sands corporate filings.) For a wider map of the Israeli-built gaming industry running through Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus, see The Complete Map of Israeli iGaming and Playtika and the Israeli Public Gaming Position.

How did the Adelson family come to own the Dallas Mavericks?

The Adelson family bought a controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban at a reported franchise valuation of about $3.5 billion, and the NBA Board of Governors approved the deal on December 28, 2023. In November 2023 the family had sold roughly $2 billion of Las Vegas Sands stock, and the SEC filing stated that the proceeds would fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise. (SEC filing, November 2023; NBA; WFAA, November 2023.)

Patrick Dumont, her son-in-law, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands and husband of her daughter Sivan, became the team's governor. Six months after the purchase the Mavericks reached the NBA Finals, and the franchise's valuation moved above $4 billion within a year. The deal made the Adelson family one of the most prominent ownership groups in American professional sports. For other owners who built their wealth outside the game, see Larry Tanenbaum, who chairs Toronto's Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, and Norman Braman, the former Eagles waterboy who bought the team.

What newspapers does Miriam Adelson publish?

Miriam Adelson publishes Israel Hayom, the free daily that became one of the most widely read newspapers in Israel, and the family holds the company that is its primary shareholder. In the United States the family owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's paper of record. Owning significant newspapers in two countries places her between Israel and America in a literal sense, with a foothold in the media of both.

Where does Miriam Adelson's money go?

The Adelson money is earned in Macao and Singapore, held in Nevada, and spent largely in Israel and on Jewish causes. This author's view is that few private citizens of this generation have directed as much personal wealth toward the State of Israel, Holocaust remembrance and Jewish continuity. The main institutions follow.

The Museum of Holocaust Art at Yad Vashem was built with Adelson support, given in memory of her parents, Menucha Zamelson and Simcha Farbstein, and the family members murdered in the Shoah. The gift is personal: it builds a museum for relatives she never had the chance to meet. (Yad Vashem donor record.)

Birthright Israel is the program that has sent hundreds of thousands of young Jews to Israel free of charge, and the Adelsons became its pre-eminent private funders. The Jerusalem Post reports that they gave about a quarter of a billion dollars by 2015. See Olam's page on Birthright Israel: Philanthropy at Scale.

The Adelson Family Foundation was established in 2007, and its charitable work is divided between the Adelson Family Foundation and the Adelson Medical Research Foundation. (InfluenceWatch.) The Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation funds neurology, immunology and oncology through a collaborative model that requires competing laboratories to share data and publish together.

The Adelson clinics in Tel Aviv and Las Vegas are financed by the family and have operated for more than thirty years. Dr. Adelson was also a financial backer of Ariel University's medical school, which opened in 2019, according to Wikipedia citing New York magazine. The family also supports the Israeli-American Council, Holocaust remembrance and Jewish education across Israel and the diaspora.

When President Trump awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2018, the White House citation led with her medical work and called her a committed doctor, philanthropist and humanitarian. (PBS, November 16, 2018.) In September 2024, at an event in Las Vegas, she called Trump a true friend of the Jewish people, and a year later, at the Knesset, he asked her to rise. (Reuters, October 2025.)

What are Miriam Adelson's political commitments?

Miriam Adelson is, with her late husband and on her own, among the largest political donors in the United States, giving to Republican candidates, committees and causes, and she has been a leading supporter of Donald Trump. Together with Sheldon she reportedly gave more than $500 million to Republican campaigns, pro-Israel advocacy nonprofits and conservative causes, according to InfluenceWatch. In September 2024 she contributed $45 million to a Trump-supporting committee, according to Yahoo News and The Telegraph.

She has advocated publicly for U.S. policy favorable to the State of Israel. A profile that left this out would be incomplete, because her political commitment runs alongside the rest of her public life. Readers will judge her positions differently, and the record of her giving and advocacy is documented in the sources below.

What happened at the 2026 wedding of Matan Adelson?

In September 2026, Dr. Adelson attended the wedding of her son Matan Adelson, owner of Israeli basketball club Hapoel Jerusalem, to Yahav Chaliva. The ceremony took place at Timna Park in the Arava desert and drew roughly 200 guests from abroad across a multi-day celebration spanning Jerusalem, Herzliya and the desert. The Olam's coverage of the Matan Adelson wedding has the full account, including details from Yasmin Lukatz, Dr. Adelson's daughter and Matan's sister.

Why does Dr. Miriam Adelson matter?

Dr. Miriam Adelson matters because her wealth flows in an unusual direction. Israeli capital normally exits west, with founders selling to American acquirers and the proceeds settling in New York, Miami and Palo Alto. The Adelson fortune runs the opposite way: American casino cash, earned in Asia and held in Nevada, is directed into a hospital clinic, a Holocaust museum, a newspaper, Birthright flights and research laboratories in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Many names near the top of the wealth tables built a company. She is a physician who built a clinic, married a founder who built a company, and then kept that company, grew it, added a professional sports franchise and kept the clinic open. She funds Yad Vashem, Birthright and medical research, and she publishes the newspaper that many Israelis read every morning. See also the Israeli founders and companies section for related profiles, and Micky Arison, the Tel Aviv-born chairman who built Carnival and owns the Miami Heat.

She is 80 years old. She runs a global gaming company, owns an NBA franchise, publishes a newspaper in Hebrew, funds the institution that preserves the memory of the family she lost, and treats patients that few other doctors will see. She still lists her occupation as physician.

Frequently asked questions about Dr. Miriam Adelson

Who is Dr. Miriam Adelson?

Dr. Miriam Adelson is an Israeli-American physician, businesswoman and philanthropist, born Miriam Farbstein in Tel Aviv on October 10, 1945. She specializes in the treatment of opioid addiction, founded addiction clinics in Tel Aviv (1993) and Las Vegas (2000), and is the controlling owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, founded Las Vegas Sands. She has four children: two daughters, Yasmin Lukatz and Sivan Dumont, from her first marriage to physician Ariel Ochshorn, and two adopted sons, Adam and Matan, with Sheldon.

Is Miriam Adelson a doctor?

Yes. Miriam Adelson holds an M.D. magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and was head physician in both internal and emergency medicine at Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital in Tel Aviv. She served as a guest investigator and associate physician at Rockefeller University from 1986 to 1989 and has headed two addiction treatment and research clinics since 1993. She holds the Nyswander/Dole Award and honorary doctorates from Tel Aviv University (2007) and Bar-Ilan University (2019).

How much is Dr. Miriam Adelson worth?

Forbes put Miriam Adelson at $37.5 billion on its 2026 World's Billionaires List, 56th globally. Bloomberg's index put her at approximately $44.3 billion in January 2026, 43rd in the world. SEC filings dated December 16, 2025 show she held approximately 340.9 million shares of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS).

How did Dr. Miriam Adelson get her wealth?

Miriam Adelson's wealth comes through Las Vegas Sands, the casino and resort company founded by her late husband Sheldon Adelson (1933 to 2021). He built the company into one of the largest gaming businesses in the world, and she and her family inherited control of more than half of it after his death and have run it since.

Does Dr. Miriam Adelson own the Dallas Mavericks?

Yes. The Adelson family acquired a controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban at a reported $3.5 billion valuation, approved by the NBA Board of Governors on December 28, 2023. Her son-in-law Patrick Dumont serves as team governor.

What did Dr. Miriam Adelson receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom for?

President Donald Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2018 for her medical, philanthropic and humanitarian work. The White House citation described her as a committed doctor, philanthropist and humanitarian. When Trump addressed the Knesset in October 2025, he asked her to stand and said she loves Israel.

What does Dr. Miriam Adelson fund in Israel?

Miriam Adelson funds the Adelson Clinic at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, the Museum of Holocaust Art at Yad Vashem, Birthright Israel, Israel Hayom, the Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, Ariel University's medical school, and Jewish educational and Holocaust-remembrance institutions across Israel and the diaspora.

How many children does Dr. Miriam Adelson have?

Miriam Adelson has four children and three stepchildren. Her two daughters, Yasmin Lukatz and Sivan Ochshorn (later Sivan Dumont), are from her first marriage to physician Ariel Ochshorn. Her two adopted sons, Adam (born 1997) and Matan (born 1999), are from her marriage to Sheldon Adelson. Her three stepchildren from Sheldon's first marriage to Sandra are Mitchell (deceased), Gary and Shelley.

What are the primary sources for this profile?

The profile draws on the following sources:

Forbes, Miriam Adelson and family profile and 2026 World's Billionaires List ($37.5 billion, 56th globally)
Bloomberg Billionaires Index, January 2026 (about $44.3 billion, 43rd globally)
SEC Form 4 filings, Las Vegas Sands Corp., 340,881,333 shares as of December 16, 2025
Rockefeller University, board election announcement, June 17, 2016 (education, IDF service, clinical career)
IAC360, Dr. Miriam Adelson biography (Sackler Faculty, magna cum laude, Rokach Hospital)
Jewish Virtual Library, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson (Hebrew Reali School, Ness Ziona, Ochshorn marriage)
Yad Vashem, Adelson Family Foundation donor record (parents' names, Holocaust memorial)
The Jewish Link, Bar-Ilan honorary doctorate ceremony, June 4, 2019
Las Vegas Sands Corp., 2022 sale of the Venetian Resort and Sands Expo ($6.25 billion) and November 2023 secondary offering ($2 billion)
NBA Board of Governors approval, Dallas Mavericks, December 28, 2023
PBS, November 16, 2018, Presidential Medal of Freedom citation
Reuters, October 2025, Trump's Knesset address
Israel Hayom, June 2021, expanded Adelson Clinic at Sourasky
AATOD, professional biography and Nyswander/Dole Award
BuzzFeed News, May 27, 2015, Miriam Adelson profile (blind date, Sara Aronson, first marriage, Rockefeller)
Hadassah Magazine, October 22, 2014, Dr. Adelson profile
WFAA, November 28, 2023, Mavericks ownership profile
InfluenceWatch, Miriam Adelson (Adelson Family Foundation, 2007; $500 million or more in political giving)
Ynet, March 11, 2026, 52 Israeli billionaires on the Forbes 2026 list
Jerusalem Post, Top 50 Most Influential Jews, Miriam Adelson entry (Birthright giving; Matan Adelson and Hapoel Jerusalem)

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Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.

Dr. Miriam Adelson: The Physician Behind the Largest Israeli Fortune