Trump gives Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson

Israeli doctor and wife of billionaire Sheldon Adelson will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

By AP and World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump has announced the first recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including Miriam Adelson, an Israeli doctor and wife of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is retiring after more than 41 years in the US Senate and is the longest-serving Republican senator in US history, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest honor for a civilian.

The White House described Adelson as “a committed doctor, philanthropist, and humanitarian.”

Born in Tel Aviv in 1945 to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust, she has practiced internal and emergency medicine, studied and specialized in the disease of narcotic addiction, and founded two research centers committed to fighting substance abuse.

With her husband, she also established the Adelson Medical Research Foundation, which supports research to prevent, reduce or eliminate disabling and life-threatening illness.

“As a committed member of the American Jewish community,” she has supported Jewish schools, Holocaust memorial organizations, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and Birthright Israel, the White House said.

In an interview with Fortune magazine in 2012, Adelson admitted her heart has always been in that country and that she got “stuck” in America after meeting her husband.

She is the current publisher of the Israel Hayom daily.

Six other people will receive the top honor at a November 16 ceremony. Trump will also posthumously recognize the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.