Michigan billionaire industrialist and sports tycoon Bill Davidson and his wife, Karen, are giving $75 million to help build a 14-story hospital tower in Jerusalem.
Their gift is believed to be the second-largest one ever given to a Jewish charity. (The largest single donation to a Jewish organization is $100 million, given last year to Yeshiva University in New York by businessman Ronald Stanton; as reported HERE on YW.)
The 84-year-old Davidson, estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $3.5 billion, and his wife are making the gift through Davidson’s Guardian Industries Corp. of Auburn Hills, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of glass. Davidson also owns the Detroit Pistons, other sports teams and entertainment venues.
His donation will be the largest of 23 gifts, each of which will amount to $1 million or more, scheduled to be announced in Jerusalem today, said Roberta Elliott, a national spokeswoman for Hadassah in New York. Twenty-two of those donors live in the United States and one in Britain, she said.
The size of Davidson’s gift will name the new $210-million facility the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower, in honor of his mother, a supporter of Hadassah from its earliest years.
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33 Responses
Wow! This is really nice of him!
Its A shame he just leaves “Pennies” for the frum community.At least this time he is giving to a jewish cause and not to 7 foot basketball players.He also owns a NHL Hockey Team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.What a waste of Yiddishe gelt !
‘what a waste of yiddish gelt’
as ‘YIDDISH ‘as he is, I think its very nice of him to make this donation in any case!
Hey Nameless, whether he likes it or not he is still a yid so his gelt is Yiddish.My point was thatfor someone who is so wealthy he could do a lot better holding up our Mosdos in Detroit.
HOW DARE ANYONE TELLING HIM HOW TO SPEND HIS MONEY
a few million for bikur cholim haspitol will keep the doors open there. but haddasa is rolling in doght
I am amazed that people can find a way to be negative about a person giving 75MM to a yiddishe cause. Let der aibishter decide such things. Our job is to never count other peoples money and to be Dan people Lchaf Zchus, which in this case shouldn’t be hard to do – it’s a Kiddush hashem in the eyes of the world, (when was the last time an Arab gave $$ to another country to assist in health care, there will definitely frum people who benefit from this, kinos sofrim will inspire other rich Jews to give big $$ and should also inspire all of us to give more tzedaka – and with understand that Hachzokas Hatorah is a high level of Tzedaka and of course helping aniyim. I might add that here in Lakewood on Purim, one individual pledged ONE million dollars to BMG and another $200,0000 to Tomchai Shabbos. Kain Yirbu!!
Detroiter:
Giving money to athletes is not throwing money away: It’s to turm a profit.
You should grateful for what this man is giving to the Jewish people, rather than complaining what he doesn’t.
Detroiter:
I know what your point was. MY point is that if he is not frum I would expect him to give to Goyish institutions only. So giving to a Jewish charity is appreciated, whether religious or not.
These past comments are terrible.
Haddasa Hospital serves all yiden in Yerushalayim. I have personally been there for numerous family health issues, births, broken hands etc. How dare someone say that this gift is a waste of yiddishe gelt. This gift will help save the lives of all yiden. Whether they are frum or not makes no difference. Even for a non frum jew we are mechallel shabbos to save their life.
HOW WONDERFUL TO SEE THAT A DAY AFTER PURIM WE ARE CONTINUING THE TREND OF “YESH AM ECHAD MEFUZAR U’MEFURAD BEIN HA’AMIM”…
Detroiter:
Shame on you, instead of saying THANK YOU, your complaining.
This seems to be a common theme.
Anytime there’s a post about someone making a significant contribution somewhere, there’s always a comment deriding the donor for not donating to ‘frum’ or ‘yeshivish’ causes. What a chilul Hashem. Be grateful that the man has decided to part with his money in a way benificial to the Jewish people. Who are we to demand anything from this man? What does he owe our causes? Just say thank you and be grateful.
YES we should be grateful
and NO it’s not his money
Hey Detroiter,
I want to see what you would do If you ever had that type of money [you wish]. It’s always the scrooges who talk big. I wonder how You spend your ‘YIDDISHE GELT”. Geshmack.
To Alter Bochur You obviously havent been speaking to Yeshiva Fundraisers lately who normally (besides Purim of course) have great difficulty meeting yeshiva budgets without reaching out to our greater Jewish community who have been much more financially succesful.How many times can a frum gvir give to countless Mosdos.They are overwhelmed!Lets not forget Bill Davidson is worth 3.5 BILLION (NOT MILLION Dollars).Lets see some of that money given to frum causes.He certainly doesnt owe his money to the monkeys in the Detroit Zoo or to basketball clinics in downtown Detroit!
Enough with the complaining be happy he at least gave something. You guys who are complaining are worse mishugoyim than him.
Rabbi Nachman Kahn, o’h, former Executive Director of Yeshiva Beth Yehuda had a relationship with a member of his family, and she gave YBY $50K every time the Pistons won the championship. That indeed happened in 1989 and 1990. I believe that this specific donor had passed away by the time the Pistons won again in 2004, so I don’t know if it happened at that time.
In addition, I heard that members of that organization were involved in the renovations of the YBY building during the 1990s, which included building a gym and phys ed facilities. The rumor at the time was that they contributed 750K or something like that.
There was some negative response in the community at the time, as YBY was in the process of “contracting” or letting go of some older rabbeim for (partially) financial reasons, yet they built the gym. But the nedava was given specifically for that purpose, and not for ongoing operations.
THANK YOU for enhancing Hadassah Hospital which is used by any resident of Yerushalayim who needs its services. Rav Elyashiv’s & Rav Ovadia Yosef’s heart surgery were done using their facilities. Once again, Thank you!
It’s still a waste and misguided use of funds. With this kind of money, no Jewish parent who is not frum can make the excuse – oh I can’t afford a day school so that’s why my child is in public school. These wealthy people have to be educated as to what the Jewish people needs more than anything else in the world and that’s funding yeshivos and day schools now before we lose millions of neshomas to assimilation and intermarriage forever. True he’s giving his money to a hospital in Israel but the sad thing is he and others like him just don’t understand that hospital, a university,or a stadium is a physical entity that will be torn down someday. Whereas investing in Torah as we know is the best investment yielding unlimited dividends many years after that hospital or stadium is nolnger standing.
Detroiter, you are one pathetic individual. Just imagine if you had a close family member that was a patient at the hospital and due to the donation , advanced equipment was installed and your loved ones life was saved, would you be reacting this way? Some people will never be happy and always complain no matter what. You people give klal yisroel a bad name.
look around at the college campuses and see all the buildings and departments named after Jewish people. That is a waste! do they have the right to do it? Yes – but it is still a waste! Giving to a hospital in Israel is NOT a waste!
Yenta I will tell you this.I never had that kind of money but think what even 1 million could do for a Yeshiva budget.Have you started to pay tuition yet? We scrooges would be happy with one MILL to pay our Mechanchim!
BrotherJoe: the halacha is: כופין על הצדקה – you can force ppl to give tzedoka, so YES, we can have a say in the matter (whether or not he’ll listen is a different story).
All (others): I’m also from Detroit, and have been in the fundraising biz here. It’s EXTREMELY frustrating when the non-frum don’t give to Mosdos as much as they give to non Torah places. I guess you can be דן לכף זכות, that since Mr. Davidson is a תינוק שנשבה (tinok sh’nishba) and is probably not held for his (Jewish) decisions, so that’s the root of the problem.
I cannot believe all the criticism this Jewish benefactor is receiving because of a substantial donation he has just generously agreed to make to the Hadassah hospital in Israel.
ab8420- Is there any way for you to see beyond the immediate horizon? Do you not realize that, by aiding this hospital the way he has, he is absolutely aiding the continued investment in Torah? Do you think that only non-jews or secular and non-affiliated Jews have medical problems? I can’t even begin to go down my tragically long list of frum but sick people that desperately need Hashem’s doctors and treatments. And detroiter- How about those individuals who can and do raise money for Torah institutions? Do you think THEY never need medical care they may need to get, say, in a hospital?
I can’t help but remain suprised by the negative feedback you two posters gave. I can only assume that you are still a bit hung over from Purim’s festivities. A belated freilichen to all.
‘…….investing in Torah is the best investment yielding unlimited dividends……’
Hellooooooo….Mr. Davidson is NOT a ‘shoymer Torah u mitzvos’!
I dont think he is phased by assimilation. But BH , he gave a whopping 75 million to a hospital where Yidden , many probably frum ,can be treated so that they can continue to learn and be mikadesh Shem Shomayim.
The ONLY commment tobe made on this subject is THANK YOU MR. DAVIDSON!!!
To Alter Bochur You obviously havent been speaking to Yeshiva Fundraisers lately who normally (besides Purim of course) have great difficulty meeting yeshiva budgets without reaching out to our greater Jewish community who have been much more financially succesful.How many times can a frum gvir give to countless Mosdos.They are overwhelmed!Lets not forget Bill Davidson is worth 3.5 BILLION (NOT MILLION Dollars).Lets see some of that money given to frum causes.He certainly doesnt owe his money to the monkeys in the Detroit Zoo or to basketball clinics in downtown Detroit!
He doesn’t OWE his money to anyone!
It honestly boggles my mind how someone has the chutzpa to tell someone else how to spend their money. The sense of entitlement that runs through some parts of our kehilla’s is disgusting, and expressing it publicly is a terrible chilul Hashem. Sure, yeshivos need money badly. So what? Unless you’re his financial planner (which I doubt) nothing gives you the right to tell him what to do with it, or to kvetch when he doesn’t do with his own money what you feel he should.
It is good he gave this money. I found the medical care at Hadassah to be great & I am grateful for it. When I was there for tests etc. I kept thinking how grateful I was to all those ladies who raised money so we could have such a wonderful hospital (my aunts, Grandmother, and many others) their small donations added up over the years.
A fellow named Stanton gave $100 million to YU recently. it was the largest donation ever given to Jewish education in the US. at that time Pres. of YU, Richard Joel said he hoped that this would start a trend of wealthy Jews giving more to Jewish causes. Maybe this gift to Hadassah is part of that.
Thank You Bill & Karen Davidson for your generous contribution! May you have many healthy years together and be able to continue giving generously to many more important Jewish causes!
Let’s just hope Bill doesn’t know anyone who reads this discussion board…
CKY
What do you mean? Most of the commentators are singing in his praise…..
Besides for a few remarks, I think most of the stuff here implies ‘hakoros hatov’…YOUR comment adds insult to injury….
Detroiter,
How does your reply answer anything????
You are an ingrate and really have to learn about how when someone gives you a finger, take the finger, not the hand.
One day, people like you will learn this concept.
you all have to realize that giving to real nitzrachim & mosdos hatorah is something we all have to daven for & only few are actaully zoche to