Billionaire Leslie Wexner’s nonprofit organization The Wexner Foundation is the latest to withdraw financial support from Harvard University over a student-group-led letter blaming Israel for the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated against Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.
The Victoria’s Secret Founder and his wife Abigail, worth an estimated $6 billion, started the foundation — which supported Harvard’s Kennedy School to the tune of more than $2 million in 2021 — which had a stated mission “to develop and inspire leaders in the North American Jewish community and Israel through programs and investments in promising professionals.”
But after a number of campus groups signed onto a letter placing 100% of the blame for Hamas’ brutal assault on Israeli shoulders, The Wexner Foundation joined several others in rebuking the University for failing to address the situation in a more forceful manner.
“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians,” the Foundation’s letter began.
“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. That should not have been that hard,” the letter continued.
The conclusion reached by the foundation’s leadership was that the Harvard Kennedy School was no longer a good fit for a continuing relationship: “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 Foundation also noted that while they university’s response to the terror attacks — and the student letter blaming Israel — were enough to push them over the edge, there were broader issues in play as well.
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“Tolerance for diverse perspectives has slowly but perceptibly narrowed over the years,” the letter stated, adding that the response to the terror attacks in Israel had only made that more clear. “Many of our Israel Fellows no longer feel marginalized at HKS. They feel abandoned.”
