Hedge fund manager John Paulson announced a $250 million gift to Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Saturday night, the largest donation in the school’s 101-year history. The university will rename its Mount Scopus campus in honor of Paulson and his wife, “The Alina and John Paulson Campus, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem.”

Paulson, who founded the Paulson & Co. hedge fund, unveiled the gift at the university’s board of governors gala. “This gift is also meant to show support and international solidarity with Israel,” Paulson, founder and chairman of the Paulson Family Foundation, said in a statement provided to eJewishPhilanthropy. 

“A small country, Israel faces enormous challenges defending itself at this time. 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,” said Paulson, who converted his fund into a private family investment office in 2020. 

The gift ranks as the third-largest individual gift ever made to an Israeli university, behind the $400 million bequest by San Diego philanthropists Dr. Howard and Lottie Marcus to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a $260 million anonymous donation to Bar-Ilan University. However, it follows previous donations to Hebrew University worth some $46 million, bringing his total donations to nearly $300 million. 

It is also the latest in a three-year surge of mega-gifts from Jewish philanthropists to Israel’s leading universities and hospitals. 

Earlier this week, food processing magnate and philanthropist Steven H. Lavin also pledged $30 million to Hebrew University for a program to significantly increase the number of medical school students that it can train.

The gift will fund four priorities: a new Faculty of Engineering, an expansion of the university’s medical and biomedical programs, research on trauma and post-trauma recovery and a new think tank linking faculty expertise with public needs in Israel and abroad.

The engineering faculty will pair engineering with computer science, medicine and life sciences. On the medical side, the university plans to scale up a medical education model it has been piloting while building out biomedical research and Israel’s long-term health care capacity. 

The gift is Paulson’s largest gift to an Israeli institution. His biggest overall remains the $400 million he gave to endow Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2015, which put his name on its engineering school. 

Paulson made his mark on New York City philanthropy in 2012, when he gave $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy. That same year, he anonymously pledged another $100 million to New York University for a 735,000-square-foot academic complex. NYU revealed him as the donor when the John A. Paulson Center opened in 2023. 

He has backed Hebrew University before, giving $27 million in 2023 and $19 million earlier this year for science and technology facilities on the Edmond J. Safra Campus, including the Paulson Bar-El Building for Computer Science & Engineering and the John Paulson Building for Electrical Engineering. 

Paulson framed the gift partly as a value play for donors, arguing that a Hebrew University education costs far less than one at a comparable American school while its faculty produces research on par with elite institutions. “Given its quality and productivity, I can think of no more deserving university for philanthropic support than Hebrew University,” he said, pointing to the university’s 10 Nobel Prizes, two Turing Awards, a Fields Medal and more than 10,750 registered patents. 

Hebrew University President Tamir Sheafer cast the gift as a signal to other Jewish philanthropists. “In these challenging times, John’s visionary support serves as an inspiring beacon to friends and leaders across the global Jewish community — demonstrating the vital importance and enduring impact of investing in Israel’s academic and scientific foundation,” Sheafer said in a statement.

Paulson joins a growing list of donors making eight- and nine-figure commitments to Israeli institutions. Last year, Blackstone President Jon Gray and his wife, Mindy, pledged $125 million to grow Tel Aviv University’s medical school. 

Hospitals have drawn similar support. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum gave $200 million to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for a new tower earlier this year.  Also earlier this year, Mexican Israeli philanthropist Daniel Jusidman and his Jusidman Family Foundation committed NIS 200 million ($68.5 million) to a new rehabilitation hospital in north Tel Aviv. Last year, following an Iranian missile attack Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams donated $100 million to Soroka Medical Center.