Daniel Housidman, 91, says his physical and mental condition comes from “genetics, luck and discipline.” In an interview at his apartment in a Tel Aviv tower on Hashoftim Street, the Truper founder said he meditates daily, stretches three times a week, plays tennis with a coach, reads and plays chess, eats healthily, and takes 45 pills, vitamins and supplements a day through a medical program run by a New York doctor who has followed him for 15 years.
Housidman built his wealth in Mexico, where he lived for 71 years and found it relatively easy to make money in earlier decades. That business success now underwrites a major family foundation. Last week, the family gave 200 million shekels to Reuth’s new rehabilitation hospital, which treats wounded soldiers, traffic victims, chronic patients and geriatric seniors. The donation will help move the hospital from Tel Aviv’s Yad Eliyahu neighborhood to Sde Dov and expand capacity from 350 to 540 beds, as demand for rehabilitation surged after October 7.
The family has donated another 200 million shekels over the past 15 years to projects including a trauma unit at Beilinson, a cancer research center at Sheba, a conference center at Reichman University, a youth science center at Ben-Gurion University, a Bedouin leadership program in the Negev, and the Magshimim tech-training program for peripheral youth. The foundation plans to give another 500 million shekels in the next decade, including the Reuth gift.
Housidman said he will leave 50% of his wealth to philanthropy and the rest to his children, with half of their inheritance also earmarked for causes they choose. He said he chose Reuth partly because, in his view, the government is attacking the secular liberal life Tel Aviv represents. “I am very Jewish and very secular,” he said, adding that one can be “Jewish and democratic.” He also said democracy is now “top priority,” criticized the far right and state support for ultra-Orthodox life without work or study, and backed Avigdor Lieberman as the politician most likely to change the situation. Despite his age, he still travels widely, wants to reach 100 in good health, and says, “The heart is in Israel. Period.”
