JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. 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.
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