A nonprofit started by Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner is the latest to cut ties with Harvard — saying it was “sickened” over the Ivy League school’s “dismal failure” to condemn the mass slaughter of Israelis by Hamas terrorists.
The Wexner Foundation wrote to Harvard’s board Monday to “formally [end] its financial support” after the school also failed to condemn a statement by more than 30 student groups that held Israel “entirely responsible” for the violence.
“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stance against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians,” wrote the leadership of the nonprofit started by Wexner and his wife, Abigail.
It left Israeli students at the school feeling “abandoned” — especially when 34 student groups quickly issued a statement “holding Israel entirely responsible for the violent terror attack on its own citizens,” stated the letter shared by StopAntisemitism.
Leslie Wexner and his wife, Abigail, are cutting their foundation’s ties to Harvard for its response to the Hamas terrorist attacks. AP
For years, the Wexner Foundation has supported a fellowship program at the Kennedy School of Government that allows government and public service professionals in Israel to study for a year at Harvard. AP“Harvard’s leadership 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,” the foundation wrote.
“That should not have been that hard.”
“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 letter stated.
A coalition of more than 30 student groups signed onto a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ attack. Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee“Our core values and those of Harvard no longer align.”
The foundation pulled out soon after Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife, Batia, also resigned from the executive board of Harvard Kennedy School amid similar anger at the lackluster response.
In response to the latest letter, a spokesperson for the school told CNN: “We are grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its very long-standing support of student scholarships.”
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The spokesperson also cited university president Claudine Gay’s video statement last week, in which she desperately tried to quiet the criticism — but failed to mention the more than 30 student organizations that co-signed the statement by the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee.
In the video, Gay said the Ivy League school “embraces a commitment to free expression.”
“That commitment extends even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous,” Gay said.
Harvard has faced backlash ever since the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee published its letter. AFP via Getty Images
Harvard president Claudine Gay released a video statement last week to quiet the criticism. Harvard University“We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views, but that is a far cry from endorsing them.”
“We can fan the flames of division and hatred that are roiling the world,” Gay said in the clip. “Or we can try to be a force for something different and better.”
Gay was forced to issue the statement following backlash from executives for what they deemed a lackluster response to the student groups’ statement.
After it was published, former university president Larry Summers demanded that Harvard administrators condemn the statement signed by the student organizations.
“Why can’t we find anything approaching the moral clarity of Harvard statements after George Floyd’s death or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when terrorists kill, rape, and take hostage hundreds of Israelis attending a music festival?” he asked.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
Bill Ackman, founder of multibillion-dollar hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, also demanded that Harvard administrators release a list of the names of students whose groups co-signed the letter.
He enlisted the support of at least a dozen business executives who vowed to deny employment opportunities to the students whose groups were signatories to the letter.
