The recent slaughter of Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists has reverberated across the globe, including on the campus of Harvard University. Many wealthy Harvard donors, angered by what they perceive as a tepid response by school leadership to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, have severed ties with the university.
Harvard found itself under the spotlight when more than 30 student organizations signed a joint statement accusing Israel of being “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The statement quickly sparked outrage among Harvard’s most prominent donors, including billionaire Bill Ackman, who demanded the school release the names of students involved so as to avoid “inadvertently” hiring them.
Tensions escalated further last week when a truck drove through Harvard’s campus with a digital billboard showing the faces and names of students allegedly associated with the anti-Israel statement. The billboard was titled “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”
Former Harvard president and longtime donor Lawrence H. Summers vehemently denounced the university’s initial statement, which condemned neither the terrorist attacks by Hamas nor the controversial letter signed by students.
“In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers said, adding that he is “sickened” and “cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”
While Harvard President Claudine Gay later released a statement condemning “the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas” and disassociating the university from students’ anti-Israel statement, it wasn’t enough to dissuade other prominent donors from cutting ties with the university.
Billionaire Israeli couple Idan and Batia Ofer resigned from the executive board of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, citing “the lack of clear evidence of support from the university’s leadership for the people of Israel.” The couple said they “cannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees” as their faith in the university’s leadership is now “broken.”
The Wexner Foundation, chaired by billionaire couple Leslie and Abigail Wexner, has also ended its “financial and programmatic relationship” with Harvard, noting that it’s “stunned and sickened” by the university’s failure to “take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians.”
Harvard is not the only school to have faced backlash. A donor revolt is also brewing at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Wall Street billionaire CEO Marc Rowan, who asked other donors to “close their checkbooks” until university leaders step down. At least five other prominent donors have since pulled or threatened to pull funding from the school.
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