Sylvan Adams

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Sylvan Adams, 2020

Sylvan Adams (born November 1, 1958 in Québec ) is an Israeli - Canadian entrepreneur , philanthropist and cycling enthusiast .

biography

Family background

The Jewish father of Sylvan Adams, Marcel Adams, was born as Marcel Abramovich in 1920 in Piatra Neamț , Romania . In Bucharest he was a member of the Hanoar Hazioni (The Zionist Youth) . In 1944 he managed to escape from a forced labor camp . With the help of the Jewish Agency , he was able to get to Palestine via Turkey in the same year , where he fought in the Palestine War. In 1951 he emigrated to Canada , in 1953 he married his wife Annie. First he worked in his learned profession as a tanner until he entered the real estate business in 1958 and made a billion-dollar fortune with the company Iberville Developments for the development of shopping malls . Sylvan Adams is one of four children of the married couple Adams.

Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

In 1992 Sylvan Adams took over the management of Iberville from his father Marcel . He graduated from the University of Toronto . He, too, is estimated to be worth over a billion dollars . In the 1980s, he met his British- born wife Margaret while volunteering at a kibbutz . The couple had four children. Adams calls himself a " Zionist ".

Like his father, Sylvan Adams, who was initially rather shy of the public, became involved as a patron and philanthropist; he holds numerous honorary positions. In 2015 he was a signatory to Giving Pledge , a philanthropic campaign initiated by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett . He and his wife established the Margaret and Sylvan Adams Family Foundation , which supports around 25 cultural, educational and sporting projects in Israel and Canada, such as a Jewish theater project in Montreal, the main hall of which has been named “Théâtre Sylvan Adams” since 2018, or institutes at universities. Adams is also one of the sponsors of SpaceIL , a non-profit organization committed to launching the first Israeli moon landing.

In late 2015, Adams passed the family business to his son Josh. With his wife Margaret he made the Aliyah and moved from Montreal to Tel Aviv-Jaffa in Israel. Both received Israeli citizenship in December 2015. According to Adams, he decided to promote the State of Israel in the next chapter of his life.

Cycling

In his late 30s, Sylvan Adams learned to ride a bike to compensate for his everyday work. At the age of 41 he began cycling in the Masters class. As a result, he had numerous successes as a cyclist: He was six times Canadian champion in his age group, won a total of six gold medals at the Maccabiads in 2009 and 2013 and four gold medals at Pan-American championships. He was twice world Masters on the road , the last time in 2017. In Israel, he has meanwhile also become national champion.

After moving to Israel, Adams discovered that there was no professional cycling or cycling infrastructure there. He made it his business to make cycling more popular in Israel, which made it more popular among the public. He took over the costs for the start of the Giro d'Italia 2018 in Israel, invested money in the construction of the Sylvan Adams Velodrome , which was then named after him , was involved in the cycling team Israel Cycling Academy , founded in 2015 , which in December 2019 for the seasons 2020 to Licensed as a UCI WorldTeam under the name Israel Start-Up Nation in 2022 and funded the Adams Institute for Sports Research at Tel Aviv University . He also finances the Bartali Youth Leadership School in Ben Shemen , where children and young people are trained to become cyclists. In 2019, he also supported the construction of a roof over the open cycling track in Bromont , Canada , with two million dollars , which will also bear his name.

The Mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai , referred to Adams as a "cycling meshuga" ("cycling madman"). He now sees himself as a "self-appointed ambassador [...] for Israel" ("self-appointed ambassador [...] for Israel"). Sylvan Adams' vision is to make Tel Aviv the " Amsterdam of the Middle East": The Israeli city should become as bike-friendly as the Dutch one, for which he works with the Jewish National Fund KKL . The goal is a nationwide network of cycle paths so that commuters from the suburbs can reach the city center more quickly by bicycle.

Honors

In 2019, Adams was awarded the title of Honorary Professor by Tel Aviv University .

Miscellaneous

Sylvan Adams sponsored the performance of the singer Madonna at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv , which was then criticized as "botched" . The fee is said to have been over a million dollars.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marcel Adams Academy Fellowship. In: adams.academy.ac.il. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ TAU Honorary Degrees 2019. In: english.tau.ac.il. January 1, 1980, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b Margaret and Sylvan Adams. In: glasspockets.org. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Alexandra Föderl-Schmid: Sylvan Adams. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 4, 2018, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  5. ^ David Lefebvre: Le Center Segal dévoile les titres de sa programmation 2018-2019 - L'Espace MonTheatre. In: montheatre.qc.ca. Retrieved November 16, 2019 (French).
  6. ^ Greer Fay Cashman: 35.Sylvan Adams. In: jpost.com. November 12, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c David Brinn: How Sylvan Adams is putting his money future in Israel's. In: jpost.com. September 28, 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 .
  8. ^ Sylvan Adams - The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2019. In: algemeiner.com. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b Owners - ICA. In: israelcyclingacademy.com. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Margaret and Sylvan Adams came on Aliya! In: adams.academy.ac.il. December 27, 2015, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Joachim Logisch: Israel Cycling Academy: With Greipel and Politt to the start-up nation. radsport-news.com, December 11, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Billionaire Sylvan Adams brought the Giro d'Italia to Israel - Blick. In: blick.ch. May 6, 2018, accessed November 15, 2019 .
  13. ^ Sylvan Adams donne son nom et deux millions de dollars au vélodrome de Bromont. In: FQSC. February 25, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 (French).
  14. ↑ Cycle City: Tel Aviv Houses Mideast's First Olympic-Standard Velodrome - Design News. In: nocamels.com. June 28, 2018, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  15. ↑ André Anchuelo: From Jerusalem to Rome. In: juedische-allgemeine.de. April 23, 2018, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  16. ↑ TAU Honorary Degrees 2019. In: english.tau.ac.il. January 1, 1980, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Björn Seeling: Queen of Pop dethrones herself. In: tagesspiegel.de . May 21, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Adams, Sylvan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian entrepreneur, cyclist and patron
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Quebec