Billionaire founding father of Victoria’s Secret pulls funding from Harvard, accusing the varsity of ‘dismal failure’ to take a stand for Israel

• The Jewish philanthropy based by retail billionaire Les Wexner has severed ties with Harvard.

• The Wexner Basis accused Harvard of a “dismal failure” to sentence the Hamas assaults final week.

• Different rich alumni and donors have criticized elite colleges for insufficient assist for Israel.

Les Wexner, the billionaire retailer and founding father of Victoria’s Secret, is the latest to pull funding from an elite school within the wake of the assaults final week.

The Wexner Basis, the Jewish management philanthropy based by the retailer, has severed ties with Harvard, citing the college’s response final week to the attacks by Hamas in Israel. The transfer comes as traders, CEOs, and donors have called on Ivy League schools to be extra vocal in standing with Israel and condemning anti-Semitism.

“Harvard’s leaders had been certainly tiptoeing, equivocating,” mentioned the statement posted on X, signed by Leslie and Abigail Wexner, in addition to Wexner Basis president Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson and director normal for Israel, Ra’anan Avital.

A basis consultant confirmed the assertion’s authenticity to Insider.

“Within the absence of this clear ethical stand, we now have decided that the Harvard Kennedy College and The Wexner Basis are not appropriate companions. Our core values and people of Harvard not align,” the assertion mentioned.

Past the developments of final week, the assertion indicated that the Kennedy College of Authorities’s tolerance of numerous views had diminished “slowly however perceptibly” in recent times, and that Wexner fellows skilled their “voices and views even shouted down.”

“Lots of our Israel Fellows not really feel marginalized at HKS. They really feel deserted,” the assertion mentioned. The muse helps a fellowship for presidency and public service professionals from Israel who pursue a one-year diploma from the Harvard Kennedy College.

The Kennedy College didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for touch upon this story.

Wexner built his fortune as the founder of firms together with Victoria’s Secret and Bathtub & Physique Works. He launched The Wexner Basis in 1983 with the objective of “strengthening management for the Jewish folks,” in keeping with the muse’s website.

The mogul stepped down from the management on the retail manufacturers following revelations that he was “close personal friends” with Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sexual assault. A spokesperson for Wexner mentioned in 2019 that the businessman had reduce ties with Epstein years earlier than.

Monday’s announcement ends a partnership that spanned greater than three many years and supplied administration and management coaching for Israeli authorities staff on the Ivy League public affairs faculty.

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