Billionaires are pulling back on donations to leading Ivy League colleges amid allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment that have become more visible in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that killed at least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers and at least 35 Americans sparked a response on elite campuses in the U.S. that in some cases featured statements drawing an equivalence between Hamas’ actions and those of Israel, or in the case of some student groups, placing the blame for the deadly attack solely on Israel.
Some of the elite Ivy League colleges where the controversy was the most intense are among those with the largest endowments of all higher education institutions in the U.S. – which prompted billionaire donors to push back against the antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric by calling for leadership changes and threatening to withhold donations.
WALL STREET CEOS STANDING UP FOR ISRAEL AND AGAINST PRO-HAMAS COLLEGES
Harvard University had the largest endowment of all U.S. universities in fiscal year 2022 with a market value of $49.4 billion in funding according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and TIAA. Harvard has been a focal point for campus clashes over the conflict in the Middle East and has sparked donor unrest.
The Wexner Foundation, named for billionaire and former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, informed Harvard that it is "no longer compatible partners" with the prestigious university it has worked with for over three decades. The Foundation explained that it is terminating the relationship due to what it called "the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli citizens by terrorists."
Billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who has donated $500 million to Harvard including $300 million in the current academic year, urged Harvard administrators to take a stance condemning Hamas’ terrorism after a letter from the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee penned a letter placing the sole blame for the attack on Israel.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, was one of several executives to call for the names of student signatories to be revealed publicly so that those business leaders could avoid hiring them in the future. Ackman said such students should either resign from the groups that signed the letter or work to revise it to avoid negative consequences due to their association with the controversial letter that was taken down amid the controversy.
The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment ranked seventh in the nation in fiscal year 2022 with a market value of more than $20.7 billion in funding per the NACUBO-TIAA study. UPenn was embroiled in a controversy over antisemitism before Hamas’ attack that stemmed from the controversial Palestine Writes festival held on campus in late September that escalated in the wake of the attack.
CEO MARC ROWAN CALLS ON UPENN LEADERS TO RESIGN, ALUMS TO HALT DONATIONS OVER ALLEGED ANTISEMITISM
Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan led a group of alumni and donors in calling for the resignation of UPenn President Liz Magill as well as the leader of the school’s board of trustees in response to the university’s handling of the festival and initial response to Hamas’ terror attack.
Rowan called for UPenn donors to "close their pocketbooks" and withhold donations to the university until it changes course – a call heeded by prominent donors including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Ronald Lauder, the heir of the Estée Lauder empire.
UPenn alum Clifford Asness, co-founder of AQR Capital Management, also halted donations after recently completing a five-year giving campaign and criticized UPenn President Liz Magill’s initial statement as "making vague equivalences between the intentional murder of children (and others) by terrorists and the accidental injury to children that sadly occurs when murdering terrorists hide behind children to escape justice."
TOP LAW FIRM RESCINDS JOB OFFERS TO HARVARD, COLUMBIA STUDENTS LINKED TO ANTI-ISRAEL LETTERS
Columbia alum and billionaire Leon Cooperman, chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors who started Goldman Sachs’s asset management division, is also halting donations after having given $50 million to the institution over the years.
He said in a Tuesday appearance on FOX Business Network’s "The Claman Countdown" that he is "going to suspend my giving" to Columbia and will be donating to other organizations due to the support for Hamas espoused by some Ivy League students – a stance he called "disgusting" and "disgraceful."
He added that such students at Ivy League "colleges have s--- for brains," and explained that Israel is the "one democracy in the Middle East" and that it is the "one economy tolerant of different people, gays, lesbians, etc."
COLLEGE STUDENTS DETAIL JEWISH COMMUNITY BEING ‘INTIMIDATED FOR SPEAKING OUT’ ON CAMPUSES
In recent days a group of Columbia faculty members released a statement blaming Israel and the U.S. for the Oct. 7, which prompted a response letter from a separate group of faculty members who criticized that letter and expressed support for Israel.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
The presidents of Columbia, Barnard and Teachers College on Wednesday announced the creation of a Task Force on Antisemitism, as well as a doxing resource group for students whose identities have been publicized due to their support for pro-Palestinian groups that have criticized Israel on campus.
FOX Business’s Kristen Altus contributed to this report.
