Big-Time Pro-Zionist Donors Begin to Pull Funds From Major Universities After Hamas Attacks
Jose Nino
|
Prominent donors to elite universities are beginning to withdraw funds from these institutions for their perceived refusal to condemn the Hamas attacks that were launched against Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, David Magerman, a prominent venture capitalist and alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, pulled funds from his alma mater after not sufficiently condemning the Hamas attacks.
The university published a statement a few days afterwards that described the Hamas attack as “horrific” but didn’t explicitly condemn Hamas.
“I was just pushed over the edge by the equivocation of the response,” he declared.
Top universities such as Harvard and Penn are facing similar criticism from angry, pro-Zionist alumni. They believe that the institutions didn’t move fast and resoundingly enough to criticize Hamas and thoroughly repudiate anti-Semitism.
Some leading figures who have criticized the universities’ perceived tepid responses to the Hamas attacks include the following:
Harvard University
- Leslie Wexner, retail billionaire
- Mitt Romney, Utah senator
- Seth Klarman, hedge-fund manager
- Bill Helman, venture capitalist
University of Pennsylvania
- Marc Rowan, private-equity CEO
- Jon Huntsman Jr., former Utah governor
- Ronald Lauder, cosmetics tycoon
- Dick Wolf, television producer
- Cliff Asness, hedge-fund manager
- Jonathon Jacobson, investment manager
In universities such as Harvard, several pro-Palestinian organizations have attributed Hamas’ violent actions to the way Israel has treated the Palestinian population since the founding of the modern Jewish state.
University officials such as President Claudine Gay published a statement on October 9 expressing how Harvard was “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas.” Former Harvard President Larry Summers and other figures criticized Harvard for not sufficiently distancing itself from the student groups’ pro-Palestinian stance and for not explicitly criticizing Hamas.
After much pressure, Gay issued another statement on October 10 explicitly denouncing “the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas” and declaring student organizations don’t speak for Harvard.
Retail billionaire Leslie Wexner’s foundation announced that it would slash financial connections with Harvard and end a program it financed at the school for Israelis. Wexner and his wife have forked over $42 million in donations to Harvard.
On October 23, a group of high-profile alumni made up of failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney and investors Seth Klarman and Bill Helman published an open letter to Harvard taking the university’s leadership to task in what they described as an increasingly hostile environment for Jewish students at Harvard. The alumni put forward steps that university administrators should take, which consists of limiting campus protests to enrolled students and establishing and making mandatory a semester-long class concentrated on critical thinking and fact-finding. “We fear that history is on the verge of repeating itself,” the letter highlighted.
Penn is facing a donor revolt as well. Prominent alumni such as cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder and chief executive Marc Rowan had already locked horns with the university in September when it hosted a Palestinian literary festival they believed fomented anti-Semitic viewpoints.
After the Hamas attacks, University President Liz Magill wrote on October 10: “We are devastated by the horrific assault on Israel by Hamas that targeted civilians and the taking of hostages over the weekend.”
“When the university wants to say something, it knows how and it can say it forcefully,” Rowan, who is the chair of the board of advisers at Penn’s Wharton School, said to The Wall Street Journal. “And the university doesn’t seem to be able to find its voice with respect to antisemitism.” Rowan was particularly disturbed by Magill posting about her dog on Instagram the weekend that Hamas’ attacks took place.
Rowan has donated over $50 million to Penn. However, he has indicated that he won’t donate anymore unless Magill and Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok resign from their positions.
Jon Huntsman Jr. the former Governor of Utah, also sent Magill a letter announcing that his family will stop donating to the university.
The halting of donations to elite institutions, which are thoroughly leftist in nature, is fine and dandy. But where were these donors when universities pushed insane degrees of anti-white hate throughout the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 and in the years leading up to this anti-white crazy?
It’s almost as if these people are more loyal to Israel than the Historic American Nation. This fanatical devotion to Israel needs to stop. For once, can business and political elites actually champion the interests of the Historic American Nation?
Share: