Billionaires are pulling back on donations to leading Ivy League colleges amid allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment that have become more visible in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack that killed at least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers and at least 35 Americans sparked a response on elite campuses in the U.S. that in some cases featured statements drawing an equivalence between Hamas’ actions and those of Israel, or in the case of some student groups, placing the blame for the deadly attack solely on Israel.
Some of the elite Ivy League colleges where the controversy was the most intense are among those with the largest endowments of all higher education institutions in the U.S. – which prompted billionaire donors to push back against the antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric by calling for leadership changes and threatening to withhold donations.