Safra was a major philanthropist during his lifetime, and left his wealth to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation,
Emergency relief In April 1992, the
Assad regime of Syria abolished all travel restrictions on Jews. Safra, whose family had old ties with the city of
Aleppo, offered to transfer 4,500 Syrian Jews by plane and financed their settling in Brooklyn.
Supporting faith Committed to his faith, Safra believed that constructing and renovating synagogues was important in places where there was a potential for a Jewish community to flourish, and synagogues around the world bearing his father's name testify to this commitment. Many of these were built in the world's major Jewish centers, but he also helped to build synagogues in more remote communities such as Manila and
Kinshasa. Five hundred years after the last synagogue was built in Madrid he constructed a new one. He also helped to renovate and enlarge synagogues in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Naples, Budapest,
Rhodes, and Vienna. Safra saved the oldest synagogue in France, in
Clermont-Ferrand, from destruction by buying it for the community, and he contributed to the expansion of the
Cannes synagogue and Synagogue Beth El in Paris. He also helped refurbish synagogues in many small French cities including
Évian,
Annemasse, and others. Among the synagogues is the
Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in New York City. In addition to supporting a number of synagogues in Israel, the tombs of
Rabbis Meir Baal Haness and
Simeon bar Yochai (2nd century CE) were especially important to him, and he was a generous supporter of these pilgrimage sites. For many years on
Shavuot eve, the anniversary of his father's death, he would pray at the tomb of Rabbi Meir until dawn. Many Jewish institutions and programs around the world bear his name.
Enhance healthcare and finance medical research During his lifetime, Safra donated millions of dollars to provide treatment for the sick. Hospitals across the globe – the Hôpital Cantonal de Genève, the
Hôpitaux de France, and countless institutions in the United States, for example – benefited from his generosity. He was one of the founders of
Albert Einstein Hospital in
São Paulo, today one of South America's major medical centers. In
Israel, he initiated the construction of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital at the
Tel Hashomer hospital complex. In the area of medical research, he was a significant supporter of the
Institut Pasteur in Paris, the
Weizmann Institute in Israel, the
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and a number of different centers studying specific diseases in France, the United States, and elsewhere around the world. He created the Edmond and Lily Safra Chair in Breast Cancer Research at
Tulane University. In the United States, the Safra Family Lodge hosts families and patients who are having treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD. https://www.cc.nih.gov/familylodge In France, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation
Education Safra believed higher education was essential for every young person in the modern world, even though he himself never attended university. He provided university scholarship funds for tens of thousands of needy students through the International Sephardic Education Foundation (ISEF), an institution he and his wife established in 1977 to support deserving Israeli students. Safra also helped universities directly, often through the support of chairs and particular programs (such as Judaic Studies). For example, at
Harvard University he endowed the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization, and the
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; and he gave significant funds for the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies. At the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, he created the Jacob E. Safra Professorship of International Banking and the Safra Business Research Center. Safra was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
Yeshiva University (New York) (where he established the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies) for his ongoing support of those institutions. With respect to younger children's education, Safra was especially devoted to schools in the cities where he lived – for example, he founded Ecole Girsa, Geneva's first and largest Jewish school. He took great pride in founding the
Beit Yaacov school in
Bat Yam. He was also one of the world's most significant benefactors of
yeshivot (religious schools training young men to be rabbis, Jewish teachers, and judges), assisting numerous institutions worldwide. ==Honors==