Billionaire John Paulson is giving $250 million to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, the largest single gift to the school co-founded by Albert Einstein more than a century ago.

By Janet Lorin and Dan Williams The donation, announced by the university on Saturday in Jerusalem, will help advance its engineering, medicine and trauma-recovery programs. The school’s Mount Scopus campus will be renamed after Paulson and his wife, Alina.

Paulson, 70, has given significant sums to Harvard University and New York University, the schools where he earned degrees. Hebrew University, a public research university whose faculty and alumni, along with Einstein, have won 10 Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and economics, impressed him with its productivity, especially in scientific innovation.

“I want to do something impactful, so I decided after researching all the universities that my focus is on Hebrew University at this time,” Paulson said in an interview in Jerusalem.

The decision to give such a considerable amount of money to an Israeli institution of higher learning follows a larger evolution in Paulson’s giving. The financier said between 50% and 60% of his philanthropic activity is now focused on Israel — a swing from a decade ago, when 98% of his contributions went elsewhere.

The gift to Hebrew University is meant to show support and international solidarity with Israel after it was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and criticized for the scope of its retaliatory war in Gaza. The Middle East crisis touched off confrontations among students at Harvard and other US campuses.

“Israel faces enormous challenges defending itself,” Paulson said. “If there was ever a time to step up and support the country and its institutions, this would be it. As a vibrant, democratic, pluralistic, and advanced economy, we should all be proud of what Israel has accomplished.”

Paulson’s donation is “a profound expression” of belief in Israel’s human capital, Tamir Sheafer, Hebrew University’s president, said in a statement. “This gift empowers us to recruit world-class faculty, support exceptional students, equip cutting-edge laboratories, and transform bold ideas into life-changing breakthroughs.”As a hedge fund manager, Paulson was hailed for betting against mortgage bonds before the start of the 2008 financial crisis, a move that led to a $15 billion gain for his investment firm.

The firm was converted to a family office in 2020. Paulson has a net worth of $8.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

The donation revealed Saturday brings Paulson’s total giving to Hebrew University to almost $300 million — in league with the major gifts he has bestowed on US universities. He has given more than $100 million to NYU and in 2015 announced a donation of $400 million to Harvard, then the largest gift in the university’s history.

Paulson is the second major Harvard donor to announce a significant donation to another institution in recent weeks. Ken Griffin, who previously gave more than $500 million to Harvard, is giving $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, in part to help fund a new campus in Miami, where Griffin moved his financial firm.

Paulson said he is still supporting Harvard, which on Thursday reported it had raised $1.5 billion for the year ended in June. He praised Harvard’s leadership for working to add different perspectives, countering a criticism that it lacks conservative viewpoints.

“They veered a little too far to the left, and that it was sort of an imbalance between diversity of viewpoints, and they’re making a concerted effort to shift back towards the center,” Paulson said. “I’m supporting faculty endowments to help them achieve that rebalancing of diversity of opinions.”