WhatsApp Co-Founder Donates Record $200 Million to Shaare Zedek Medical Center

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, the Jewish-Ukrainian billionaire and philanthropist, has donated $200 million to Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, marking the largest dollar donation in the history of Israel's healthcare system. The Jerusalem hospital announced the contribution on Friday, May 8, made through The Koum Family Foundation, and said it will be officially renamed the Koum Shaare Zedek Medical Center in honor of the gift.

The funding will go primarily toward the construction of a 24-story medical tower covering more than 1.5 million square feet, with expanded surgical and emergency care facilities, significant underground protected spaces, and a rooftop helipad for direct helicopter access. The expansion is expected to triple the size of the hospital, which currently operates roughly 1,000 beds and treats more than one million patients each year. The project is in advanced planning stages and has been approved by both the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality.

"This is truly a special moment in Shaare Zedek Medical Center's 124-year-old history," said hospital president Prof. Jonathan Halevy. "This record donation by The Koum Family Foundation reflects remarkable confidence in our hospital, our staff, the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel, and a heartfelt embrace of Zionism." Koum, 50, was born into a Jewish family in Kyiv and immigrated to the United States as a teenager before co-founding WhatsApp in 2009 and selling it to Meta for $19 billion in 2014. The foundation previously donated $50 million to Soroka Medical Center after that hospital sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile in June 2025.

(JPost/VFI News)

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