Sandor Frankel. Photo: YouTube Screenshot.

Sandor ‘Sandy’ Frankel

Trustee of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

Renowned New York attorney Sandor “Sandy” Frankel serves as one of four trustees of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, earning him the nickname “Israel’s Santa Claus.”  

During the past seven years, the Helmsley Trust has donated over $200 million in grants (out of overall assets of more than $5 billion) to projects and institutions that have an impact on the Jewish state.

The grantees include the Technion and the Weizmann Institute (for alternative-energy research and for stem cell research); Magen David Adom (for a new blood bank); Haifa University (for a Mediterranean Sea research center); and Ben-Gurion University in the Negev (for development in robotics), among others.

In addition, for two years running, the trust also funded full-page ads in American newspapers on Israel Independence Day, which feature Israel’s Declaration of Independence.