In 1990, Sheldon Adelson was a successful Boston-area businessman when he met a young new Chabad rabbi, Alter Bukiet, who had just established the Chabad Center of Lexington, Massachusetts, together with his wife, Sarah.
Adelson was divorced and engaged to be married a second time to Israeli-born Miriam, a physician in whom he found a shared his love for Judaism, out-of-the box thinking, deep compassion and activist spirit.
Before their wedding—a second for both of them—in the summer of 1991, the young Rabbi Bukiet told Adelson that he wanted to give him and his bride-to-be a particularly precious wedding gift, but he couldn’t refuse it. When Adelson finally agreed, Bukiet said he wanted to take Sheldon and Miriam to New York to meet the Rebbe.
“It was two weeks before the wedding,” recalls Bukiet, “and the whole way there, he kept on wondering how it could be that we were flying all the way to New York for a meeting that could last mere seconds.”
Reaching Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, the couple-to-be and their rabbi joined the thousands who had come to receive a blessing from the Rebbe, along with a dollar to be given to charity.
When their turn came, the Rebbe blessed the couple on their upcoming union and gave them a number of dollars for charity, including one “for the family” and another to be given to charity on the day of their wedding in Israel.
Speaking in Hebrew, Miriam, who was in her 40s at the time, asked the Rebbe for a blessing for a child.
“Why in the singular?” the Rebbe rejoined. “A child must be followed by at least another!”
The Rebbe then handed them both dollar bills for the children yet to be born.
Adelson did not know Hebrew and could not follow the exchange. But upon hearing that the Rebbe had blessed them with children, Adelson, who was already older than 60 and had never had biological children of his own, was incredulous.
“All of our friends have wished us with marital bliss and long life,” he told Bukiet. “The Rebbe was the only one who blessed us with children.”
And so it was that Sheldon and Miriam Adelson were blessed with two children, Adam and Matan. The couple has continuously expressed their gratitude to the Rebbe for his blessing.
Adelson passed away on January 11 at the age of 87. In addition to his wife, Miriam, he is survived by sons Gary, Adam and Matan, and daughters Shelley Adelson, Sivan Dumont and Yasmin Lukatz, as well as many grandchildren.
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