Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center will nearly triple its capacity following a $200 million donation from WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, marking the largest philanthropic gift in Israeli healthcare history.

The contribution from Koum’s family foundation, first reported by JNS, will fund construction of a new inpatient tower and staff housing at the Jerusalem hospital, expanding its current 1,000-bed facility. Planning approvals are advancing rapidly through municipal institutions, officials said Thursday.

Koum, 50, sold WhatsApp to Meta for approximately $19 billion in 2014, five years after launching the messaging platform. The Ukrainian-born entrepreneur has become a prominent philanthropist supporting Jewish and pro-Israel causes globally.

The gift eclipses a $180 million donation made last year to Rabin Medical Center, underscoring a widening trend in which private philanthropy—particularly from American Jewish donors—is financing major hospital infrastructure projects that Israel’s government has not undertaken at comparable scale.

Shaarei Tzedek, one of Israel’s few independent hospitals not affiliated with the state health funds, has historically relied on private donations to fund expansion.

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