Universities face donors’ wrath over Israel-Hamas war response

Long-standing billionaire donors of Ivy League universities like Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, NYU and Penn threatened to take away their contributions, making it clear they are not happy with the universities’ response to the Israel-Hamas war.

The philanthropy, chaired by Les Wexner (known for Victoria’s Secret) is the latest to pull out support for Harvard over the university’s failure “to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders” of Isralies by Hamas, the foundation wrote in a letter.

Harvard alumnus and hedge-fund manager William Ackman went a step ahead asking universities to release the union names so that he doesn’t “inadvertently hire any of their members.”

Other donors like Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin have asked Harvard to publicly defend its support for Israel. CEO of Apollo Global Management, Marc Rowan, demanded the resignation of Penn University leaders or risk his donations stopping over their failure to condemn antisemitism.