Helmsley Foundation gives Rambam hospital a big 80th birthday present

Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center has received an important present for its 80th birthday – an $18 million gift from the Helmsley Foundation toward the construction of a major facility for medical research that will promote medicine in the North. Construction will begin this summer.

The 20-story Helmsley Health Discovery Tower will include Rambam’s Centers of Excellence and Clinical Institutes; the Rambam Research and Development Center; and a research and teaching complex of the University of Haifa that will include labs and classrooms. The facility will combine the fields of engineering and medicine and also include an exhibition and visitors center.

The joint initiative of Rambam and the University of Haifa is regarded as one of the most important projects in Israel in the fields of medicine and life sciences. The project’s cornerstone laying was held on Tuesday, as part of the Rambam Summit marking the eighth decade since the founding of the Haifa medical center.

One of the most ambitious projects in the field of medicine and life sciences in Israel in recent years, the tower is being made possible thanks to the large donation from the Leona and Harry Helmsley Foundation. It was the first of its kind linking Rambam, the University of Haifa, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and hi-tech and biomedical industries.

“I welcome the generous and unique donation of the Helmsley Foundation for Health Discovery Tower,” said Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon. Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman added: “This is an important and vital project that will ensure excellent research and medical services as part of what we are commanded for future generations according to the Torah.”

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said: “The tower will be an inseparable part of the wonderful fabric that combines Rambam, the University of Haifa and the Technion as part of the city’s urban culture of education, excellence and interreligious harmony.”