Israeli-American philanthropist Miriam Adelson emerged as the “richest newcomer,” the fifth-richest woman, and the 36-richest person in the world on the Forbes annual list of the world’s billionaires and wealthiest people, published last week.

Adelson inherited most of her wealth from her late husband, philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, a’h, who passed away in January, bringing her net worth to $38.2 billion.

Adelson soared above last year’s wealthiest person with Israeli citizenship, Russian-Israeli businessman and politician Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea F.C., with a net worth of $14.5 billion.

Abramovich is followed by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi, founder of the European-based telecom group Altice, with a net worth of $11.8 billion, and Monaco-based Israeli billionaire real estate, shipping magnate, and philanthropist Eyal Ofer, with a net worth of $11.1 billion.

Ze’ev Stef Wertheimer, an industrialist and former Knesset member, with a net worth of $6.2 billion, is the wealthiest billionaire with Israeli citizenship whose primary residence is in Israel.

Despite widespread economic travails over the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic, 660 new world billionaires were added to the Forbes list since 2020, increasing the number of billionaires in the world to 2,755.

Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest of the world’s billionaires for the fourth consecutive year ($177 billion), followed by Elon Musk ($24.6 billion), Bernard Arnault ($150 billion), Bill Gates ($124 billion), and Mark Zuckerberg ($97 billion).

The country with the most billionaires in the world is the United States (724), closely followed by China (698), and then India (140), Germany (136), and Russia (117).

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)