Miriam Adelson, one of the richest women in the world, sold $2 billion in stock in the Las Vegas Sands Corp, the casino company her late husband built, to buy the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Even after the sale, which is pending approval by the NBA board of governors, she will remain the majority stockholder of the casino company, retaining 51.3% of company shares.

The $3.5 billion purchase from team owner Mark Cuban would make Adelson one of a few female owners of a U.S. professional sports franchise, and one of the wealthiest overall. Her net worth was reported by Forbes at about $$32 billion, ranking here fifth-richest among women in the U.S. and 35th richest billionaire in the world.

Canadian-Israeli businessman Sylvan Adams has donated $100 million to Ben-Gurion University as part of an effort to rebuild the south, following the devastating Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, university officials announced at a benefit gala in Toronto on Dec. 3.

Adams, a real estate magnate who moved to Israel in 2015, is perhaps best known for his support of cycling in Israel. He established the country’s first cycling institute, created an eponymous commuter bike path in Tel Aviv, and brought the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia competition to Israel in 2018 — at a personal cost of more than $20 million. He also owns the Israel-Premier Tech Cycling Team, and last year won the world championship in cycling for his age group.

The $100 million donation is the largest ever to an Israeli university, which lost 82 members of its community on Oct. 7, including students, staff, faculty and their family members. The funds will focus on six areas: the future of the Negev and Israel, technological advancements, climate change, sustainability, and global health.

Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Nov. 2 of seven counts of fraud for his role in the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He faced a slew of charges for stealing billions of dollars from accounts belonging to customers of FTX, which was once one of the most trusted names in crypto. He was found guilty also of defrauding lenders of FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research, which held FTX customer funds in a bank account.

The verdict caps a yearlong saga that saw the 31-year-old go from a billionaire living in a luxury apartment in the Bahamas to a defendant in one of the biggest white-collar crime cases since Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme that fell apart in 2009. Bankman-Fried’s sentencing is set for March 2024.

The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a new forever stamp featuring the image of U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The stamps cost 66 cents each or $13.20 for a sheet of 20.

The stamp’s oil-painting portrait is based on a photograph captured by Philip Bermingham, a well-known portrait photographer. Bermingham had long anticipated the session, but in the early going of the shoot, things didn’t seem to be working out. Finally, he decided the angles were wrong — and the 6’4” photographer realized he should get on the ground, to let his lens peer up at Ginsburg, who stood around 5 feet tall.

The new stamp shows Ginsburg in her judicial robes, wearing her famous white beaded collar with an intricate geometric pattern. The Postal Service commissioned New Orleans artist Michael Deas for the stamp, asking him to create an oil painting that would deliver the timeless gravitas of a Supreme Court justice, and also capture Ginsburg’s intellect and character.

Ginsburg, who died in September 2020, is the first Supreme Court justice to get a solo U.S. stamp issue since 2003, when Thurgood Marshall was honored.

The Nobel Assembly has awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines during the pandemic that began in early 2020. “Through their groundbreaking findings, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the Nobel Assembly said.

Shul member Francis DuBois was the guest speaker at the North Fork Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday, Oct. 8, at the historic Jamesport Meeting House. His topic was “Varian Fry: A Forgotten Hero.” Varian Fry was an American journalist who ran a rescue network that helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany.

Francis DuBois enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the United Nations, serving in the Middle East with the rank of Ambassador.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, is in line to become Mexico’s dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate in the June 2024 election. If elected, Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, would be the country’s first female president.

Sheinbaum is a close ally of the popular López Obrador, the country’s current president, who is barred by Mexico’s constitution from running for a second six-year term. As the Morena party’s candidate, she will enjoy a distinct advantage in June.