Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek receives a $200 million donation for a new medical tower

Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem announced on 8 May 2026 that it had received a $200 million donation from The Koum Family Foundation, established by Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp. According to the hospital, it is the largest single gift ever made to an Israeli hospital.

With this gift, the hospital will be officially renamed Koum Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The agreement was led by the hospital's leadership – Prof. Jonathan Halevy, President, and Prof. Ofer Merin, Director General – together with the Foundation's President, Yana Kalika.

The new medical tower

The money will fund the construction of a new medical tower and the hospital's long-term development. According to the announcement:

• the building will have 24 storeys and more than 1.5 million square feet (around 140,000 square metres);
• it will house new and expanded surgical and emergency care facilities;
• it will be designed to the highest standards of structural protection, with significant underground space and a rooftop helipad;
• the project, designed by Mochly-Eldar Architects with Margolin Bros. Engineering and Consulting as project manager, has been approved by the Government of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality and is in the advanced stages of planning.

Context

Shaare Zedek treats more than one million patients a year and is one of the seven largest medical centres in Israel. Over the past decade, in response to population growth in the region, the hospital has nearly doubled its capacity to more than 1,000 inpatient beds, a number expected to rise in the coming years.

Prof. Halevy called the gift “truly a special moment” in the hospital's 124-year history. Prof. Merin said the partnership will allow the hospital to go ahead with building the new tower. The announcement does not give a completion date.