Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate and major donor to Republican and Jewish causes, gave a reported record of $5 million for President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations.
The gift was the largest single contribution ever given to an inauguration, The New York Times reported Wednesday, adding that Adelson’s donation was “far from the only seven-figure check deposited by the committee responsible for carrying out much of the pomp leading up to Mr. Trump’s swearing in.”
Adelson and his wife, Miriam, were on the dais for Trump’s inaugural oath-taking, a rare honor for campaign funders.
Adelson did not commit to a candidate until last May, when he endorsed Trump at a time when it was clear the reality TV star and real estate magnate would be the Republican nominee. He subsequently donated tens of millions of dollars to the Trump election campaign.
Other large donors to support Trump’s inauguration festivities included New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a donor to many Jewish and Israeli causes who gave $1 million, Haaretz reported, citing new documents released Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Election Commission.
The Trump Inauguration Committee raised a record-breaking $107 million from both large public donors and dozens of corporations, including Google and Pepsi.
The early waves of aliyah were made possible by land purchases paid for by patriotic galut millionaires, notably Moses Montefiore and Meyer Rothschild.
Sheldon Adelson is the Moses Montefiore and Meyer Rothschild of our day. But he is old. Friends of Israel in the United States will be in big trouble when he passes if his heirs are not as devoted and generous as he has been.
When he is gone, it will be incumbent on all of us to not pass the buck and assume that somebody else will pay for what Sheldon Adelson pays for now. We will ALL (yes, you) have to reach uncomfortably deep into our pockets to keep the ship afloat.
Do not imagine that the bad old days cannot come again. The antisemites of both left and right are coming out of the woodwork now and it will get worse before it gets better.