A nonprofit started by Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner is the latest to cut ties with Harvard — saying it is “fed up” with the Ivy League school’s “dismal failure” to condemn the mass slaughter of Israelis by Hamas terrorists.
The Wexner Foundation wrote to the Harvard board on Monday to “officially [end] its financial support” after the school also failed to condemn statements by more than 30 student groups that held Israel “solely responsible” for the violence.
“We are appalled and disgusted by the abject failure of Harvard leadership to take a clear and decisive stand against the barbaric killing of innocent Israeli civilians,” wrote the leadership of the nonprofit founded 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 fully responsible for terrorist attacks on its own citizens,” the letter said. shared by StopAntisemitism.
Leslie Wexner and his wife, Abigail, severed their foundation’s relationship with Harvard over 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 is indeed on its toes, perplexing, and we, like former Harvard President Larry Summers, cannot ‘understand the administration’s failure to desegregate the university and condemn the statement’ quickly enough,” the foundation wrote.
“That shouldn’t be that hard.”
“In the absence of this clear moral stance, we have determined that the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wexner Foundation are no longer compatible partners,” the letter said.
A coalition of more than 30 student groups signed a letter saying Israel was “fully responsible” for the Hamas attack. Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee
“Our core values and Harvard’s values are no longer aligned.”
The foundation was withdrawn shortly after Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife, Batia, also resigned from the Harvard Kennedy School’s executive board amid similar anger at the lackluster response.
In response to the latest letter, a school spokesperson told CNN: “We are grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its longstanding support of student scholarships.”
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The spokesman also cited university president Claudine Gay’s video statement last week, in which she desperately tried to defuse the criticism – but failed to mention the more than 30 student organizations that signed the statement by the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee.
In the video, Gay said the Ivy League school “embraces a commitment to free speech.”
“That commitment extends even to views that most of us find distasteful, even outrageous,” Gay said.
Harvard has faced backlash 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 calm the criticism. Harvard University
“We do not punish or punish people for expressing such views, but that is a far cry from endorsing them.”
“We can fuel the fires of division and hatred that are rocking the world,” Gay said in the clip. “Or we can try to be a force for something different and better.”
Gay was forced to release the statement following a backlash from executives over what they perceived as a lackluster response to the student group’s statement.
The letter was signed by more than 30 student groups. Harvard College PSC It says “the Israeli regime [is] fully responsible for all the violence that took place.” Harvard College PSC
After it was published, former university president Larry Summers demanded that Harvard administrators denounce the statement signed by the student body.
“Why haven’t we found anything approaching the moral clarity of Harvard’s statements after the death of George Floyd or the Russian invasion of Ukraine when terrorists killed, raped, and held hundreds of Israelis hostage at a music festival?” he asked.
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches its biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, more than 4,200 injured and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
Hamas terrorists are seen taking women hostage and parading them through the streets in a gruesome video.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised Hamas would pay an “unprecedented price.”
Gaza health officials reported at least 3,000 Palestinians killed and more than 12,500 injured.
Bill Ackman, the founder of the multi-billion dollar hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, also demanded that Harvard administrators release a list of the names of the students whose group signed the letter.
He enlisted the support of at least a dozen business executives who vowed to deny job opportunities to the students whose group signed the letter.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
