Ali’s daughter visits Israeli hospital

Rasheda Ali, daughter of legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali — who suffers from Parkinson’s disease — visited the campus of the Hadassah University Hospital-Ein Kerem in Jerusalem on Thursday to learn about the hospital’s work on innovative treatments for brain degenerative diseases.

She accompanied the managers of BrainStorm, an Israeli biotechnology company developing adult stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disorders such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Ali serves on BrainStorm’s advisory board and is an internationally known advocate for advancing research in this area, based on her personal experience as Ali’s daughter.

Rasheda Ali praised Hadassah’s work in the area and said she was looking forward to meeting the people behind the names and seeing everything with her own eyes.

This is not the only connection that boxing legend Muhammad Ali has with the Jewish people. Another one of his daughters, Khaliah Ali-Wertheimer, is married to a Jewish attoney, Spencer Wertheimer. Their son Jacob celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in April of this year at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the former champ in attendance.