Miriam Adelson

Miriam Adelson (née Farbstein; born October 10, 1945) is an Israeli-American physician, businesswoman, philanthropist, and political donor. Born in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate period to Polish Jewish refugees who fled Europe before World War II, she trained as a medical doctor in Israel before moving to the United States, where she met and married casino industry pioneer Sheldon Adelson in 1991. Following Sheldon's death in 2021, she inherited a controlling interest in Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the multinational casino and resort operator he founded, making her one of the world's wealthiest individuals with a fortune derived primarily from gaming properties in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore. Adelson has no formal executive role at the company but exercises influence through her majority ownership stake exceeding 56 percent.

As a trained internist specializing in addiction medicine, Adelson has directed substantial philanthropic efforts toward research and treatment for substance abuse, founding clinics in Israel and the U.S. to address drug dependency through evidence-based interventions. Her giving extends to Jewish education, medical institutions, and pro-Israel advocacy, including support for Yad Vashem and birthright programs for young Jews. In recognition of her contributions to medicine, philanthropy, and public service, President Donald Trump awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

Miriam Adelson was born Miriam Farbstein on October 10, 1945, in Tel Aviv, then part of Mandatory Palestine, to Polish Jewish parents Menucha and Simcha Farbstein, who had fled Poland in the 1930s to escape rising antisemitic persecution prior to the Holocaust. Her parents' survival and relocation to the nascent Jewish state instilled a deep-seated Zionist orientation, shaped by the empirical realities of European Jewish vulnerability and the post-World War II imperative for a secure homeland.

In 1991, Adelson married American businessman Sheldon Adelson, who adopted her two daughters; together, they had two sons, Adam and Matan. The blended family observed traditional Jewish practices, with Adelson describing her own religiosity as aligned with conventional Israeli norms, and placed strong emphasis on education for their children. The children have participated in family philanthropic efforts but have not assumed operational roles in business affairs.

Following Sheldon Adelson's death on January 11, 2021, Miriam Adelson assumed primary control of the Adelson Family Foundation, continuing as its sole surviving founding trustee alongside operational leadership from president Michael Bohnen. The foundation, dedicated since to bolstering Israel's resilience and Jewish institutional continuity, sustained its core grantmaking priorities amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which had already strained family business revenues prior to the loss.