We first met in 2008, and the last time a month ago • Our first conversation dealt with the State of Israel - and so did the last one • Sometimes I felt like the genius businessman he was, was meant to serve only the great donor he was • And yesterday came the moment I was afraid of: His departure
His legacy: to serve the people of Israel.
Editor of "Israel Today" Bismuth alongside Adelson, 2017
Photography:
Joshua Joseph
Montefiore, Rothschild and Adelson are listed in the Golden Book of the Restoration of Zionism in Modern Times.
And I got to know Adelson.
You got to know them: each and every one of the readers of the newspaper "Israel Hayom" which he founded 13 years ago together with his life partner, his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, the newspaper's publisher.
I first met him in 2008.
A month ago, at his home in Las Vegas, we had what became our last conversation.
In both cases he was as usual sharp, smart, precise, but mostly busy with our future.
Even when his health began to betray him, it was important for him to keep up to date and know what was happening in the State of Israel and the people of Israel so dear to his heart.
Our first conversation dealt with the country, and so did the last.
Everything else was everything else;
Adjuvants that come to serve the purpose.
In great pain: Sheldon Adelson 2021-1933
I liked to attribute to my dear boss a connection to this or that politician, but his real, emotional and deep connection - was to Zionism.
He admired every Jew who contributed to the sacred mission.
I have always been amazed at the level of modesty of the man.
He can admire a boy who came to Israel as part of "Birthright" and wanted to tell him a story, to be moved by a conversation with a Holocaust survivor at Yad Vashem, one of the institutions he donated to.
A rabbi, a farmer, a doctor or a bus driver - everyone would be given the exact same treatment, the same attention, the same attention to detail.
And it always amazed me anew.
Simplicity and sincerity, a virtue given to the truly great.
A major donor who specializes in secret giving
Bell was wrong: he also knew how to be tough.
His philanthropic activity, some of which I knew closely, was no less important to him than his business activity.
At times I felt as if the genius businessman he was, was meant only to serve the great donor he was.
I would look at him on different occasions, in different moods, with only one thing in front of his eyes: excellence and helping others.
Only recently did his plane bring Jonathan Pollard back to Israel.
Several other flights were not publicized at all.
Because beyond the billions he gave, he also specialized in secret giving.
December 2015, Las Vegas, one of the rehab institutes run by Dr. Miriam Adelson. This is a holiday eve. Mr. Adelson at the head of the table, talking to them, shaking hands, taking pictures with each and every one of them, interested, joking, hugging.
I was there, and that evening very senior politicians came to see him.
The U.S. had just entered a presidential election year. One of Mr. Aldson's staff members came over and reminded him that some dignitaries were waiting for him outside, and he remarked to her with a smile: "What about you?
Do you not see that I am with my friends now? "This is perhaps the strongest memory I have of him, and he folds so much of this man, as he really was.
Israel Today is part of Mr. Adelson's legacy of parting from us.
How symbolic that his wife and lover, Dr. Adelson, is the publisher of your newspaper.
In reverence I received the role of editor-in-chief from the hands of the founding editor Mr. Amos Regev.
I knew that working for Mr. Adelson was a task that must not be missed.
To serve you, the people of Israel, is Mr. Adelson's legacy: to always do more for you and for us.
Last week I visited his house.
This time, unlike our previous meeting in November, we could no longer have the same conversation where I was supposed to update him on what was going on but in practice he, in a precise and brilliant way, explains to me processes and events.
A week before the US election, he predicted the exact election results, and also knew how to explain the reasons.
I was by his side even as he waged his last fight, in which he could not win.
This time it was no longer up to him.
I thought to myself that here, I am approaching the moment I was most afraid of from the day I received the paper's edit: to edit the issue announcing his departure.
And here, in their silence and professionalism would have been expected of me, I am editing this sad issue before you, which is all his own yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I find my great consolation in the fact that my publisher is his other half, Dr. Miriam Adelson, whose presence here with us seems to signal to us: he remains with us.
Even if Montefiore and Rothschild today enjoy his company more than we do.