Hebrew University said in Jerusalem on Saturday that John Paulson will donate $250 million, the largest one-time contribution in the school's history. The money will bolster engineering, medicine, and trauma-recovery efforts, and the Mount Scopus campus will take the names of Paulson and his wife, Alina.
Founded more than a century ago with Albert Einstein among its founders, the public research university notes its faculty and alumni, together with Einstein, have earned 10 Nobel prizes across chemistry, physics, and economics.
Paulson said the school's results, especially in scientific innovation, led him to concentrate his philanthropy there. "I want to do something impactful, so I decided after researching all the universities that my focus is on Hebrew University at this time," he said in an interview in Jerusalem.
He also positioned the gift as backing for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack and amid criticism of Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza, a conflict that set off confrontations on US campuses including Harvard. "Israel faces enormous challenges defending itself," Paulson said. "If there was ever a time to step up and support the country and its institutions, this would be it. As a vibrant, democratic, pluralistic, and advanced economy, we should all be proud of what Israel has accomplished." University President Tamir Sheafer called the donation "a profound expression" of belief in Israel's human capital, saying it will help recruit top faculty, support standout students, equip advanced labs, and turn bold ideas into breakthroughs.
With this donation, Paulson's giving to Hebrew University comes to almost $300 million, in line with his major gifts to US schools. His philanthropy includes over $100 million directed to NYU, and in 2015 he revealed a $400 million donation to Harvard, which at the time was the biggest in the university's history. He is the second prominent Harvard donor in recent weeks to unveil a large contribution to another university.
Paulson said 50% to 60% of his philanthropy now focuses on Israel, a sharp shift from about ten years ago when 98% went elsewhere. He added that he still backs Harvard, and noted that on Thursday the university reported taking in $1.5 billion for the fiscal year that ended in June. "They veered a little too far to the left, and that it was sort of an imbalance between diversity of viewpoints, and they're making a concerted effort to shift back towards the center," he said. "I'm supporting faculty endowments to help them achieve that rebalancing of diversity of opinions."
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Paulson, 70, gained renown for wagering against mortgage bonds ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, generating a $15 billion gain for his firm, which he converted into a family office in 2020. The Bloomberg Billionaire's Index pegs his net worth at $8.8 billion.
Ken Griffin, who earlier contributed over $500 million to Harvard, is committing $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, partly to finance a new campus in Miami, the city to which he relocated his financial firm.
Why does that matter? Mega gifts steer talent pipelines, research agendas, and lab capacity, which can shape where discoveries happen and who benefits. One yardstick of the capital at play: Harvard said it raised $1.5 billion in its latest fiscal year. The bottom line: when donors move billions, endowments, research road maps, and regional innovation hubs can all tilt.
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