John Paulson adds $19 million for Hebrew University engineering, total now $46 million

The Paulson Family Foundation, created in 2009 by the New York investor John Paulson, announced in mid-January 2026 a further $19 million gift to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Added to a $27 million donation made in 2023, it brings the foundation's support to $46 million, which the university describes as one of the largest gifts it has ever received.

The money will expand a science and engineering complex on the university's Edmond J. Safra campus at Givat Ram in Jerusalem. The 2023 gift funded the Paulson Bar-El Building for Computer Science and Engineering. The new donation will fit out an existing building with applied-physics and electrical-engineering laboratories, to be named the John Paulson Building for Electrical Engineering, with groundbreaking expected within months. University president Tamir Sheafer told eJewishPhilanthropy that he expects enrolment in applied physics to grow from about 150 students to 250 or more and the number of researchers in the field to double.

Paulson, an honorary doctor of the university, gave three reasons for increasing his support: that the Hebrew University is Israel's leading institution of higher education; that it is efficient, with a cost per student he put at about a tenth of comparable Ivy League schools; and that Israel's economic strains mean its universities need help from abroad. He said Israel's technological achievements had amazed the world. The foundation's vice president, Abigail Teller, described science and technology as the future of the Israeli economy.

Paulson, who made his fortune as a hedge-fund manager, has previously made major gifts to Harvard's engineering school and New York's Central Park Conservancy.