GENEVA, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Mrs. Lily Safra, President of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, established by her husband Mr. Edmond J. Safra, will visit Israel this week, highlighting the Foundation's ongoing commitment to supporting charitable organizations across the world.

During the visit, The Edmond J. Safra Foundation and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will announce the establishment of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, a US$130 million project - the most ambitious initiative of its kind in Israel's history and one of the most important in the world. It will be financed jointly by the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Such donations illustrate the Edmond J. Safra Foundation's extraordinary commitment to assisting organizations around the world in the areas of Education; Science and Medicine; Religion; and Humanitarian Assistance, Culture and Social Welfare.

"The Edmond J. Safra Foundation's projects in Israel form one part of our activities that span over fifty countries," says Mrs. Safra. "Our commitment to supporting our partners in Israel, as in other countries, remains the same, especially during these hard times, when so many foundations are being forced to reduce the scope of their work. My inspiration has always been my husband Edmond, who considered philanthropy to be a duty and devoted his legacy to helping the less fortunate now and for generations to come."

It is estimated that, among its grants worldwide, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation will invest over US$30 million in Israeli non-profit organizations in 2009 alone. During the last ten years, the Foundation has provided over US$250 million in assistance to educational, medical, scientific, cultural, and community projects in Israel. In the summer of 2007, in commemoration of what would have been Mr. Safra's 75th birthday, the Foundation made special donations of US$180,000 to each of 75 organizations in Israel, totalling US$13.5 million, in addition to its regular grant making program.

Mrs. Safra also will inaugurate the Edmond J. Safra Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at Haifa University. The Foundation recently made a supplementary grant to this Center for an educational enrichment program benefiting the Arab community in Israel. This additional donation supplements a previous grant made to Haifa University as part of the Foundation's US$31 million program addressing the 'brain drain' problem affecting Israeli universities.

During her stay in Israel, Mrs. Safra also will visit the Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, Tel Hashomer.

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SOURCE The Edmond J. Safra Foundation

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