Billionaire Harvard donor pulls back donations over president's antisemitism testimony
Len Blavatnik's family has donated $270M to Harvard
Billionaire Len Blavatnik has paused donations to Harvard University over its handling of President Claudine Gay's recent appearance before Congress.
Blavatnik and his family foundation have donated more than $270 million to Harvard in the past, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. He is only the latest donor to pull back in protest after Gay refused to state that calling for the genocide of Jews would infringe on Harvard's rules against bullying and harassment.
"The problem Harvard has is that all their sources of revenue are strained," David Bergeron, a retired deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Education Department, told Bloomberg. "Their ability to raise money is clearly strained and their ability to leverage federal programs is potentially at risk."
Gay is facing pressure to resign amid antisemitism and mounting plagiarism accusations.
HARVARD SWARMED BY TRUCK BILLBOARDS CALLING FOR PRESIDENT TO RESIGN IN WAKE OF UPENN FALLOUT
Billionaire Len Blavatnik has paused donations to Harvard University over its handling of President Claudine Gay's recent appearance before Congress. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Bill Ackman, another billionaire investor and influential Harvard alum, is pushing for the university to fire Gay, claiming her handling of antisemitism on campus since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel has cost the university more than a billion dollars in donations.
In a letter to Harvard's governing boards of directors posted on the social media platform X on Sunday, Ackman argued Gay "has done more damage to the reputation" of the institution than any other individual in its nearly 500-year history, going through a litany of criticisms over her leadership which he says has contributed to major donors withdrawing significant gifts that are adding up.
Len Blavatnik and his family foundation have donated over $270 million to Harvard in the past, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. (Getty Images)
"President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university," Ackman wrote. "I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni."
He added, "I have been copied and blind copied on numerous letters and emails to the University from alums who have written scathing letters to Gay and/or the Board withdrawing donations."
From left, Dr. Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of UPenn, billionaire Bill Ackman and Dr. Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Getty / Getty Images)
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Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, began calling for the resignations of Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth following their testimonies at a House committee hearing on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, when all three refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews on their respective campuses breached their rules and amounted to harassment.