Billionaire ‘King of Fun’ Stewart Rahr Gives 50 ‘Ambucycles’ to Hatzalah
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Billionaire Stewart Rahr arranged for the donation of 50 ambucycles to Israel’s United Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency medical service.
At a dedication ceremony for 12 ambucycles he helped underwrite in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Rahr said he would match donations to increase the fleet of scooters equipped with emergency assistance equipment. A total of 50 ambucycles, worth an estimated $1.3 million, were donated as a result.
Rahr, 67, is the founder and CEO of Kinray Inc., a drug distribution company, and is worth about $1.7 billion, according to Forbes. Rahr, whom the New York Post has dubbed an “eccentric,” calls himself the “King of All Fun.”
He first heard about United Hatzalah through founder Eli Beer’s TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk. TED is a conference series owned by the private nonprofit Sapling Foundation.
United Hatzalah is working to double its ambucycle fleet to 600, which will cut down on response times drastically across the country and save more lives, according to a statement from the organization issued on Tuesday evening.
Rahr reportedly paid more than $600,000 to charter two 737 planes to fly 64 Knesset members and 30 death camp survivors from Tel Aviv to a ceremony at Auschwitz on Monday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
