Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania are facing fierce backlash from wealthy donors disgruntled by how the schools responded to Hamas\u2019 slaughter and kidnapping of Israeli civilians.<\/p>\n
A storm of criticism hit Harvard after university President Claudine Gay\u2019s initial statement condemned<\/a> neither the Hamas terrorist attacks nor an anti-Israel statement signed by dozens of student organizations.<\/p>\n Following the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, many Harvard students signed<\/a> a joint statement holding the Israeli government \u201centirely responsible for all unfolding violence.\u201d The statement justified the invasion by arguing, \u201cFor the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Billionaire Harvard donor Bill Ackman demanded<\/a> the school release the names of students involved in the statement so that CEOs would not \u201cinadvertently\u201d hire them.<\/p>\n Yale Professor emeritus Harvey Risch told The College Fix<\/em> in an email, \u201cOnly in some warped bizarre theoretical intellectual universe could someone reason that hate-filled blood lust brutality is explainable by and balanced by political motivations.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence Summers, a longtime Harvard donor who served as its president from 2001 to 2006, said<\/a>, \u201cIn nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Harvard later released<\/a> a statement condemning the Hamas attacks and distancing itself from the students\u2019 statement, a billionaire Israeli couple, Idan and Batia Ofer, protested<\/a> by stepping down from the executive board of Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School of Government.<\/p>\n The couple stressed the university\u2019s lack of clear support for the people of Israel, adding that their faith in the university\u2019s leadership is \u201cbroken\u201d and that they \u201ccannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees.\u201d<\/p>\n Another billionaire couple, Leslie and Abigail Wexner, said<\/a> they are disappointed by Harvard\u2019s failure to properly denounce the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. As a result, the couple has terminated their organization\u2019s \u201cfinancial and programmatic relationship\u201d with the university.<\/p>\n At Penn, affluent donors have been dissatisfied with not only the university\u2019s tepid response to the Hamas invasion of Israel, but also the Palestine Writes Literary Festival<\/a> that was held on campus about two weeks before the invasion.<\/p>\n Jewish groups vehemently denounced the festival, alleging that several speakers had a history of making antisemitic remarks. Clifford Asness, Penn\u2019s billionaire alumnus and longtime donor, recently called<\/a> the festival an \u201cantisemitic Burning Man festival\u201d and withdrew funding from the university.<\/p>\n It was another billionaire donor, Marc Rowan, who first started<\/a> the donor revolt at Penn. Criticizing the university’s leadership for not taking a firmer stance against antisemitism, Rowan has urged other donors to \u201cclose their checkbooks<\/a>\u201d until two top university leaders resign.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took less than two weeks to go from the Palestine Writes Literary Festival on Penn\u2019s campus to the barbaric slaughter and kidnapping of Israelis,\u201d Rowan said<\/a> in a letter sent to the school\u2019s newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian.<\/em><\/p>\n Other prominent donors soon followed<\/a> suit, including television producer Dick Wolf and former U.S. diplomat Jon Huntsman. Wolf accused the university leaders of failing to represent the school\u2019s ideals and values, and Huntsman called the school \u201cunrecognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n