The Wexner Foundation has rebuked Harvard University's response to the Israel-Hamas War and the issues surrounding it and the university via a letter last Monday (October 16).
The nonprofit, founded by Victoria's Secret founder Leslie Wexner and his wife, has worked with Harvard Kennedy School for more than 30 years, providing financial support and programs such as the Wexner Israel Fellows, whom the organization says have felt "increasingly marginalized" and feeling "abandoned" on campus.
The university's mishandling of the Middle Eastern conflict brought it all to a halt after it announced it was cutting ties with Harvard moving forward.
"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 to the Harvard Board of Overseers wrote.
The foundation also said it joins the condemnation of former Harvard president Larry Summers, who could not "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.
Harvard Responds to Wexner Foundation
According to The Hill, a Harvard Kennedy School spokesperson responded that they were "grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its very long-standing support of student scholarships." However, they reiterated that the statement released by Harvard's president, Claudine Gay, stands.
"As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas," she said. "Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one's individual views of the origins of long-standing conflicts in the region."
Harvard also lost another donor after 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."
