The Wexner Foundation philanthropy group cut its ties Monday with Harvard University, accusing the academic institution’s leadership of failing to condemn the Hamas terror group’s massacre of over 1,000 civilians in Israel on October 7 and determining that the esteemed US university is no longer a “compatible” partner.
“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 by terrorists last Saturday,” the foundation’s leaders wrote in a public letter sent to the Harvard Board of Overseers.
The Wexner Foundation, founded in 1983 by billionaire Les Wexner, has for decades facilitated programs at elite universities for promising public leaders and professionals in Israel and in the US Jewish community. Its prestigious fellowship program has supported yearlong studies at Harvard of many famed Israeli political and public service professionals.
But the letter, signed by the foundation’s president Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, its Israel director general Ra’anan Avital, and chairs Abigail and Leslie Wexner, noted that the university’s “tolerance for diverse perspectives has slowly but perceptibly narrowed over the years.”
Now, after the university’s lukewarm response to the worst single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, “many of our Israel Fellows no longer feel marginalized” at Harvard, they wrote. “They feel abandoned.”
At least 36 student groups at Harvard signed onto a statement last week saying they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” without mentioning the terrorist atrocities.
Lawrence Summers, a former president of Harvard and ex-secretary of the US treasury, condemned the statement and the university’s silence on the war.
“In nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers said on X. “Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel. I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”
Ted Deutch, head of the American Jewish Committee, said the students were “demonizing Israel and supporting Hamas’s barbarism.”
In their Tuesday letter, the Wexner heads wrote that “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.”
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw more than 1,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing over 1,300 people and seizing 200-250 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen rampaged through border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly.
accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The Wexner Foundation philanthropy group cut its ties Monday with Harvard University, accusing the academic institution’s leadership of failing to condemn the Hamas terror group’s massacre of over 1,000 civilians in Israel on October 7 and determining that the esteemed US university is no longer a “compatible” partner.
“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 by terrorists last Saturday,” the foundation’s leaders wrote in a public letter sent to the Harvard Board of Overseers.
The Wexner Foundation, founded in 1983 by billionaire Les Wexner, has for decades facilitated programs at elite universities for promising public leaders and professionals in Israel and in the US Jewish community. Its prestigious fellowship program has supported yearlong studies at Harvard of many famed Israeli political and public service professionals.
But the letter — signed by the foundation’s president Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, its Israel director general Ra’anan Avital, and chairs Abigail and Leslie Wexner — noted that the university’s “tolerance for diverse perspectives has slowly but perceptibly narrowed over the years.”
Now, after the university’s lukewarm response to the worst single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, “many of our Israel Fellows no longer feel marginalized” at Harvard, they wrote. “They feel abandoned.”
At least 36 student groups at Harvard signed onto a statement last week saying they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” without mentioning the terrorist atrocities.
Lawrence Summers, a former president of Harvard and ex-secretary of the US treasury, condemned the statement and the university’s silence on the war.
“In nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers said on X. “Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel. I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”
Ted Deutch, head of the American Jewish Committee, said the students were “demonizing Israel and supporting Hamas’s barbarism.”
In their Tuesday letter, the Wexner heads wrote that “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.”
In this photo from September 19, 2014, retail mogul Leslie Wexner, right, and his wife Abigail tour the ‘Transfigurations’ exhibit at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw more than 1,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing over 1,300 people and seizing 200-250 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen rampaged through border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly.
Israel has responded to the unprecedented Hamas assault by striking the terror group in the Gaza Strip, saying it aims to destroy Hamas’s rule over the territory and will target anywhere Hamas operates. This weekend it urged Palestinian civilians to evacuate the northern Gaza area ahead of an expected ground offensive.
Some 2,600 people have been killed in the strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The IDF also said it has killed some 1,500 terrorists inside Israel.
