Harvard fails Hamas test: Wexner foundation pulls the plug on funding, ends 34 year long relationship

Harvard University will stop receiving funds from the Wexner Foundation, a philanthropic organisation owned by Victoria’s Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail over its response to the ongoing Israel-Palestine war.

In a letter, the Wexner Foundation said that it would be cutting off its financial and programmatic relationship with Harvard and the Harvard Kennedy School, saying it was “stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists last Saturday.”

The letter was addressed to Harvard’s second-highest governing body, the Board of Overseers and was sent by Wexner Foundation President Elka Abrahamson, Director General Ra’anan Avital, and chairmen Abigail S. Wexner and Leslie H. Wexner.

Fantastic news – the next Ivy League domino falls as Wexner Foundation (led by Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexner) cuts off all funding to Harvard stating –

“We are stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand… pic.twitter.com/eqI1np9cnq

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 16, 2023

“In the absence of this clear moral stand, we have determined that the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wexner Foundation are no longer compatible partners,” the Wexner letter stated.

It added, “Harvard’s leaders were indeed tiptoeing, equivocating, and we, like former Harvard President Larry Summers cannot ‘fathom the administration’s failure to disassociate the university and condemn the statement’ swiftly issued by 34 student groups holding Israel entirely responsible for the violent terror attack on its own citizens.”

The Ivy League school has been facing flak over its response to Hamas’ invasion of Israel and its students issuing statements holding Israel responsible for the war. From political leaders to top scholars, people have condemned Harvard’s reaction to the conflict.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia quit the Kennedy School’s executive board in protest of the University’s leadership’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel.

What is Harvard’s stand on the war?

In an emailed statement, HKS spokesperson Sofiya Cabalquinto said that Harvard University’s President Claudine Gay and HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf have “made clear our rejection of the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”

“We are grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its very longstanding support of student scholarships,” Cabalquinto wrote.

Earlier, Dean Elmendorf condemned Hamas, describing the attacks against Israel as “terrorist atrocities.”

“I am outraged by the savageness and brutality of the crimes perpetrated by Hamas against defenseless Israeli civilians,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Gay said, “Let me be clear: Our University rejects terrorism — that includes the barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”

“Our University rejects hate — hate of Jews, hate of Muslims, hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspect of their identity,” he added.

Penn University gets same treatment

Since the Hamas attack, prominent Jewish alumni of the University of Pennsylvania pushed officials to speak out on the war. So much so, that some influential alumni demanded the resignation of of the school’s president, Liz Magill, and the university’s chairman, Scott L. Bok.

Marc Rowan, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management, who had pledged more than $50 million to the school, has called on donors to cut the funds.