Wexner Foundation ‘sickened’ by Harvard’s response to Hamas attack, cuts ties with university

The Wexner Foundation, started by founder of Victoria Secret Leslie Wexner and his wife, sent a letter Monday rebuking Harvard’s response to the Hamas-Israel conflict and is cutting ties with the university.

The billionaire’s nonprofit has worked with Harvard Kennedy School for more than 30 years, providing financial support and programs such as the Wexner Israel Fellows, who the organization says have felt “increasingly marginalized” on campus.

After Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel, Wexner said its Israel fellows went from feeling “increasingly marginalized” to feeling “abandoned” by Harvard.

“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 letter from the foundation to the Harvard Board of Overseers said.

“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,” another part of the letter said, referring to a letter initially signed by 30-student led groups at Harvard that said Israel was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Harvard’s president released a statement saying those groups do not represent the university, and several that signed the letter have since withdrawn their support.

While a Harvard Kennedy School spokesperson said they are “grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its very longstanding support of student scholarships,” they reiterated the statement released by Harvard’s president.

“As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” Harvard President Claudine Gay said.

This isn’t the only donor Harvard has lost since the attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia left the executive board for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government due to what the couple called “the lack of clear evidence of support from the University’s leadership for the people of Israel following the tragic events of the past week, coupled with their apparent unwillingness to recognize Hamas for what it is, a terrorist organization.”

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