Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center will nearly triple its capacity following a $200 million donation from WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, marking the largest philanthropic gift in Israeli healthcare history.
The contribution from Koum’s family foundation, first reported by JNS, will fund construction of a new inpatient tower and staff housing at the Jerusalem hospital, expanding its current 1,000-bed facility. Planning approvals are advancing rapidly through municipal institutions, officials said Thursday.
Koum, 50, sold WhatsApp to Meta for approximately $19 billion in 2014, five years after launching the messaging platform. The Ukrainian-born entrepreneur has become a prominent philanthropist supporting Jewish and pro-Israel causes globally.
The gift eclipses a $180 million donation made last year to Rabin Medical Center, underscoring a widening trend in which private philanthropy—particularly from American Jewish donors—is financing major hospital infrastructure projects that Israel’s government has not undertaken at comparable scale.
Shaarei Tzedek, one of Israel’s few independent hospitals not affiliated with the state health funds, has historically relied on private donations to fund expansion.
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This is a great idea. So many Jews have built and donated money to American hospitals and that’s why they all have Jewish names. Maimonides, Beth Israel, mount Sinai,etc. Now we should get all these Jews to build massive Israeli hospitals. The medical field in Israel is svach. You need hospitals everywhere. In Beth shemes. In yehuda and shomron. It’s an easy thing to raise money for hospitals. We can open religious hospitals all over like Laniado like the klausenberger rebbe did and run it according to Halacha and hire Frum yidden. You know Maimonides at one time in Boro park in the 1970s refused to hire orthodox doctors and therapist. I remember as a kid joining protests of a thousand yidden to force them to hire Orthodox Jews. Most Boro parkers today have no clue how Boro park was not so safe. It’s only after 1980s that things got safe as chassidim increased in mass. After chassidim beat and turned over a few cars of anti semites that it got a reputation not to mess with Jews. But anyway we should approach all billionaire Jews and have them fund new hospitals in Israel. They should also open 24 hour urgent care centers like in meah shearim and all religious areas. Askonim get to work.
G-d Bless Jan Koum.
G-d Bless שערי-צדק Hospital.
Imagine giving that amount to the kollelim, such a person would be set for life and in the next world as well. Unfortunately Torah is considered second class
“REB EMES”
IT SEEMS AS U ARE IN SHOMAYIM, & U KNOW WHATS OF GREATER VALUE. HAVEN”T U EVER HEARD OF A KOLLEL YUNGERMAN, ENDING UP IN SHARIE ZEDEK WITH LIFE THREATENING STATUS.
P.S. IF U ARE IN SHAMAYIM, CAN U GIVE KLALL YISROEL A LITTLE MORE GOOD ADVISE ??