Helmsley Trust gives $3 million for a new science building at Galilee's Tel-Hai University

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has given $3 million toward a new science building at Tel-Hai University in Kiryat Shmona, in Israel's Upper Galilee. The university announced the gift to eJewishPhilanthropy on 14 October 2026. The trust's own grants database lists the award as funding for the Helmsley Research Wing in the university's new laboratory building.

The three-storey building, of about 3,500 square metres, is due to open in 2028 on the university's Roadburg Campus. It will house roughly 20 research teams working in biotechnology, agriculture, engineering, nutrition and environmental science. Tel-Hai, which until recently was Tel-Hai College, became Israel's 11th university and is the only one north of Haifa. It plans to add 110 researchers by 2031 and expects around 3,000 additional students, and it is launching doctoral programmes in biotechnology, education, psychology and nutrition sciences, as well as plans for a veterinary school with a teaching hospital.

Helmsley has backed Tel-Hai for years. Its grants include $5.3 million in 2018 for the Helmsley Science Building for Health, Environment and Biotechnology Studies, $6.4 million in 2022 for fellowships in sustainability and health, and $3.5 million in 2023 for a research wing in the computer science building, bringing its total for the university to more than $18 million. Since it began giving in Israel in 2010, the trust says it has made more than $800 million in grants there, with a strong focus on medical and academic institutions outside the country's centre.

Trustee Sandor Frankel described Tel-Hai as a cornerstone of the region's recovery and growth, and said attracting and keeping residents in the North is critically important for the country. University president Professor Eliezer Shalev said the support helps draw researchers to the Galilee, noting that government funding generally covers basic budgets, so new buildings depend on philanthropy. Tel-Hai has also received $10 million from Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA and $37 million from the Roadburg Foundation in the past year.