Lavin family gives $30 million for a new way to train doctors at Hebrew University

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is creating a Center for Advanced Medical Education with a $30 million gift from the family of Chicago philanthropist Steven H. Lavin, made through the family's Sheba Foundation. The Jerusalem Post reported the gift on 12 October 2026 and the university announced it formally the following day.

The center is a response to a looming shortage of doctors in Israel, where the number of physicians per person is projected to fall to about 3.0 per 1,000 people by 2035. Its goal is to roughly double the medical school's training capacity while raising the quality and consistency of teaching. The model mixes digital preparation, simulation-based clinical practice and continuous assessment, and frees senior physicians from paperwork so they can spend more time coaching students one to one. AI-driven analytics will be used to tailor training and to spot struggling students earlier, while students will also be taught to challenge AI recommendations and keep their own clinical judgement and communication with patients at the center of care.

The center will be based at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine and will work with Hadassah, Shaare Zedek and Kaplan medical centers and the medical corps of the Israel Defense Forces. A first pilot, a redesigned pediatrics rotation, begins in October 2026, and the university plans to extend the approach to other clinical rotations and to share it with partner medical schools in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Lavin told the Jerusalem Post that many young Israelis who study medicine abroad end up building their lives there and never return, and that expanding high-quality training at home is part of the answer. His family has supported the university before: an earlier $18 million gift established the Sheldon Lavin Center for Safe, Secure and Sustainable Food Systems, named for his father.