American billionaire John Paulson gives Hebrew University a record $250 million

American billionaire John Paulson has pledged $250 million to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the largest gift in the university’s history.

Paulson announced the donation on Saturday at the university’s Board of Governors gala, according to Israeli business daily Calcalist, as reported by The Jerusalem Post.

The money will fund a new Faculty of Engineering, expand the university’s work in medicine and biomedicine, and support research into and treatment of trauma and post-traumatic stress. In recognition, the university will rename its historic Mount Scopus campus the Alina and John Paulson Campus, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem.

Tamir Sheafer, the university’s president, said the gift will help it recruit leading faculty, support top students, equip laboratories with advanced technology and turn research ideas into practical breakthroughs. He called it “a profound expression of confidence in Israel’s human capital.”

Paulson told Calcalist he had chosen to shift his philanthropy toward Jewish causes, and toward Israel in particular. He said Israel faces many challenges, including anti-Israel sentiment and a global rise in antisemitism, and that backing the country’s leading university was a strong way to show support.

The pledge builds on earlier gifts. The Paulson Family Foundation gave $27 million in 2023 for a new computer science building on the university’s Edmond J. Safra Campus in Givat Ram. It added $19 million in January for an electrical engineering building that will carry his name, bringing its total support to $46 million before this weekend’s announcement. The university said at the time it planned to break ground on both projects within months.

Paulson explained in January that part of his reasoning was cost. He said the total cost of educating a student at Hebrew University is roughly 10% of the cost at comparable Ivy League schools in the United States, which in his view makes each dollar go further. He holds an honorary doctorate from the university.

Paulson, 70, founded the New York hedge fund Paulson & Co. in 1994. He made his name with a bet against the U.S. housing market before the 2008 financial crisis that earned his firm billions of dollars, and he converted the fund into a family office in 2020.

He has close ties to President Donald Trump. Paulson served on Trump’s economic advisory council during the 2016 campaign, and Trump bought the Doral golf resort in Miami from him for $150 million in 2012. In November 2024, Paulson withdrew from consideration as Treasury secretary, citing complex financial obligations.

He has given large sums to education before. In 2015, he gave $400 million to Harvard University’s engineering school, which remains the largest donation in Harvard’s history, and he has given $100 million to New York University, where he studied as an undergraduate. His giving in Israel has also included $15 million to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2021.

The gift adds to a run of large donations from billionaires to universities this year. In July, Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori, pledged $75 million to Vanderbilt University to create a design college in San Francisco.

The Hebrew University, whose founders included Albert Einstein, opened on Mount Scopus in 1925 and marked its centenary last year.