Supporters of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, pledged $23 million at the group’s 2025 Founders Dinner in Miami to support its Jerusalem medical center and programs in Israel and the United States.
The gifts include multi-million-dollar pledges totaling $18 million from philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady, Eva Cantor and Jane Winer, Hadassah said in a statement Wednesday.
The Radys committed $10 million to pediatrics programs and facilities at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. It is their second large donation to the institution; the couple also funded the Rady Mother and Child Center, which opened on the Mount Scopus campus in 2018.
Cantor pledged $5 million to establish the Eva and Mark Cantor Neurorehabilitation Department at Hadassah’s new Gandel Rehabilitation Center, an eight-story, 323,000-square-foot facility. Winer pledged $3 million for an in vitro fertilization operating room at the medical center.
“The overwhelming generosity shown at this year’s Founders Dinner demonstrates our members’ and supporters’ passion for Hadassah’s work and our mission to help heal the world,” said Carol Ann Schwartz, Hadassah’s national president.
Other gifts included $650,000 from Jacquie Bayley to establish the Bayley Family Limb Center at the Gandel Rehabilitation Center, which will serve patients needing osteointegration after losing arms or legs. Additional pledges will fund an orthopedic unit, a patient welcome center, medical research and nursing initiatives, as well as Evolve Hadassah: The Next Generation, the group’s leadership development program.
Supporters also pledged funds to Hadassah’s long-running Youth Aliyah program in Israel, which since 1934 has graduated more than 300,000 students from 80 countries.
“Seeing so many people stand to share their personal stories and connections to Hadassah as they announced their gifts was extraordinary,” said Ellen Finkelstein, who became CEO in January. “I am grateful to those with long histories who continue to support this organization and I am honored to welcome the newcomers who attended the Founders Dinner for the first time.”
The event featured a discussion between Finkelstein and Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, as well as remarks by Schwartz, Hadassah Medical Organization chair Dalia Itzik and director general Yoram Weiss.
The evening closed with a presentation from an IDF officer who was critically wounded in the war and treated at the Gandel Rehabilitation Center. He credited doctors, surgeons, nurses and his psychologist with saving his leg and helping him recover from trauma.
The Gandel center, which began admitting patients in early 2024, has treated 1,000 people, including 72 soldiers wounded in the war. The $133 million facility was opened ahead of schedule because of wartime demand but still requires an additional $25 million to complete construction and outfitting, Hadassah said.
Once finished, the center will serve 10,000 patients annually, with 140 inpatient beds across four units and an outpatient clinic capable of treating 250 people daily.
Hadassah, with nearly 300,000 members, donors and supporters, is the largest Jewish women’s organization in the United States. Its hospitals in Jerusalem treat more than 1 million patients a year regardless of race, religion or nationality, and were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for fostering coexistence through medicine.
