(JTA) — The king of Spain, who is recovering from hip surgery, left his residence for the first time since the operation to greet a delegation of Jews led by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

King Juan Carlos left the Palace of Zarzuela to greet Adelson and other activists with the Keren Hayesod–United Israel Appeal philanthropic body on Wednesday, during the appeal’s biennial meeting in Madrid.

The 75-year-old king, who was operated on in September and is scheduled to undergo more surgery this month, used a cane to stand up and greet Adelson and a dozen of the appeal’s volunteers at the Royal Palace of El Pardo, according to a report in the news site hola.com.

The 181 appeal executives who visited Madrid also entered the former synagogue in Toledo. In protest of the visit, representatives of the Izquierda Unida de Toledo, a local radical left party, placed a Palestinian flag near the municipality building.

During the gathering, appeal representatives presented Alexander Machkevitch, a philanthropist who was born in what is now Kyrgyzstan, with Keren Hayesod’s Isaiah Award for his contribution to interfaith dialogue and Jewish life in post-communist republics.