Born in Canada, Adams made his fortune in real estate and is worth around $2.8 billion. He moved to Israel with his wife in 2017 and hasn’t looked back. “I had a great life outside of Israel,” he says, “but I have an even better life inside Israel. Even with all the wars and the sirens — it’s the best place on earth to live a Jewish life.”

His father’s story shapes a lot of who Adams is. Marcel Adams survived Nazi concentration camps, made it to Israel by ship in 1943, fought in the War of Independence, then eventually settled in Canada where he built Iberville Developments into one of the country’s top real estate companies. Marcel lived to 100. His son inherited both the business and the sense of purpose.

Staying When Others Left

After October 7, many wealthy Israelis quietly started exploring their options abroad. Adams went the other direction. He committed $100 million to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and another $100 million to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba after it was struck by a ballistic missile. That’s $200 million into Israel’s south — a region most people were fleeing, not investing in.

“I thought it was important to tell both our friends and our enemies that we are here to stay,” he says simply.

The hospital donation is part of a three-way partnership with the Israeli government and Clalit, the hospital’s owner. Together they’re putting in around $300 million — roughly a billion shekels — to make Soroka the most modern hospital in the country.

He was actually in England on October 7th, competing at the World Cycling Championships. His wife called to tell him rockets were falling across Israel. He told her not to bother him — he had a race. He’s embarrassed about that now. “Only that afternoon did I realize what had happened.”

A Million New Immigrants

Adams is now president of the World Jewish Congress, and he’s set what sounds like an impossible goal: bring a million new immigrants to Israel. Not from the former Soviet Union this time, but from Western countries — the US, Canada, France, the UK.

He points to two forces that could make it happen. First, rising antisemitism is making diaspora Jews genuinely question their futures. Second, Israel needs to actually become somewhere people want to move to — affordable, economically strong, with good infrastructure. That’s where his investments in the Negev come in. He sees them as more than charity. They’re an argument.

“In the early 90s, a million Soviet Jews came and they saved this country,” he says. “They maintained our demographic balance. This would be the first mass aliyah from Western countries.”

Calling Out the Comfortable

Adams doesn’t mince words about wealthy Jews who stay quiet. He draws a direct parallel to secular Jews in 1930s Berlin who prioritized their social standing over speaking out. “I think we should be proud of who we are,” he says. When it comes to donations to elite American universities, his view is blunt: Harvard doesn’t need your money. Israel does.

He’s similarly direct about politicians. On Chuck Schumer pulling back his public support for Israel: “He’s going to get primaried anyway. He will have gone against his own values and his own people. Better to go down with your integrity intact.”

On Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who Adams sees as warming to China while ignoring antisemitism at home: “He’s just an empty suit with no moral backbone.”

He had hoped Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative candidate, would win Canada’s last election. Adams says Poilievre backpacked through Israel as a teenager and has visited multiple times since. But Trump’s habit of calling Canada the “51st state” backfired, uniting Canadians behind Carney out of spite.

Israel’s Bureaucracy Problem

For all his optimism about Israel’s future, Adams is clear-eyed about its dysfunction. He thinks the country’s bureaucracy is stifling and that ultra-religious political parties punch far above their economic weight in extracting government funding. His proposed solution is characteristically blunt: “We could use Elon Musk coming over here and doing a DOGE on our Israeli bureaucracy.”

He also pulled his sponsorship from the Israel Premier Tech cycling team after they removed the word “Israel” from their logo following pressure from protesters — including a disrupted Tour de France stage. “If I’m going to put money in, it’s going to carry my brand, which is Israel,” he says.

Despite everything, Adams is bullish on the country’s economic future. “The economy is already booming,” he says. “This place is amazing.”

Whether you agree with all his politics or not, Adams is hard to dismiss. He’s putting serious money where his mouth is — and he’s doing it from inside the country, not from a safe distance.

Source: Whitman, A. (2026, April 13). The philanthropist who would bring a million people to Israel. Globes. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-the-philanthropist-who-would-bring-a-million-people-to-israel-1001539971