Buffett Donates $10 Million to Israeli Hospital

Here's an example of what a Christmas present from Warren Buffett can look like. On Wednesday the billionaire investor donated what, for him, amounted to part of a day's salary to an Israeli hospital.

The “Oracle from Omaha” presented Haifa's Rambam Hospital with $10 million dollars, in honor of the facility's 75^th anniversary. Given that Buffett reportedly made around $37 million every 24 hours this year, that $10 million comes out to around what he makes in seven hours.

According to Globes, the Israeli business news web site, the donation was announced by Eitan Wertheimer, who sold an 80 percent share of his family's Iscar Metalworking Company (IMC) to Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) in 2006 for $4 billlion. At the time, it reportedly was Berkshire's largest foreign investment in an Israeli firm.

The Wall Street Journal said Buffett's preliminary acquisition in Iscar was seen as a “seminal transaction symbolizing a vote of confidence in the country's economy and its geopolitical stability by a celebrated investor know for conservatism.”

This past May, Berkshire purchased the company's remaining 20 percent for $2.05 billion. At the time, Wertheimer, who has been a close friend of Buffett's since the initial sale, told The Jerusalem Post he was pleased IMC had found a “permanent home.”

Berkshire Hathaway, he continued, “fully appreciates the unique nature of the global Israeli enterprise that we have created, and that is committed to remaining true to that heritage in every way, building on and continuing our historic success and special culture.”

And Buffett has built on IMC as well. The WSJ reports the company has expanded its facilities and product line internationally and now employs around 12,000 people, more than double the amount it had in 2006.