BY MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS OCTOBER 25 2023
College campuses have outdone themselves in demonstrating fealty to the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas since they brutally slaughtered thousands of civilians in cold-blood and injured thousands more. All of the talk from student bodies of micro-aggression, safe spaces, and tolerance fell quickly aside when they openly call for the destruction of the lone Jewish state and the millions of Jews that live within it. People are beginning to notice, and the pushback is beginning. It will take decades, however, to truly undo the damage.
Financially, this is costing the university system many millions of dollars. Turns out that much of the donor class isn’t fond of giving their money to people who teach children that beheading babies is a good thing if it’s couched under “resistance.” After dozens of student organizations at Harvard blamed Israel for the attacks on October 7 with no immediate condemnation by the university, Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexner was done.
Wexner told the school that his foundation was “formally ending its financial and programmatic relationships” in view of its “dismal failure…to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of Israeli citizens.” This is no small loss for Harvard, as Wexner has donated enough to have a building bear his name in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Same could be said for Idan Ofer, who also has a building named after him. The Israeli billionaire said that he was stepping down from its executive board because of “the lack of clear evidence of support from the University’s leadership for the people of Israel…coupled with their apparent unwillingness to recognise Hamas for what it is, a terrorist organization.”
The University of Pennsylvania was also hit hard. Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, is pulling funding from that institution. Venture Capitalists David Magerman and Jonathon Jacobson and former United States Ambassador to China and Governor of Utah John Huntsman all told UPenn that their checkbooks are closed. Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, a prominent donor and namesake for the university’s Wolf Humanities Center, said he would forgo financial support and “end all donations” to his alma mater unless President Liz Magill resigns her role.
The University system is also losing what is remaining of the sane left. Bill Maher’s monologue on Friday night was dedicated to calling out the universities for their indoctrination. “As an Ivy league graduate who knows the value of an education, I have one piece of advice for the youth of America: Don’t go to college,” Maher began. He continued that elite colleges make students stupid. He claims that college provides a “stew of bad ideas” like the world being a “binary place, where everyone is an oppressor or oppressed” and that makes students side with terrorists.
Educators are turning on universities as well. In a viral video, Columbia Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai criticized university president Minouche Shafik for allowing “pro-terror student organizations” on campus, expressing concern for students’ safety. Davidai, speaking at a pro-Israel rally, addressed parents nationwide, stating that universities like Columbia, Harvard, and others couldn’t protect students from these organizations. He accused the universities of not condemning pro-terror activities and called on President Shafik to take action. Davidai emphasized his fear for his own children’s safety, saying that his children are legitimate targets of terror for the great crime of being Israeli. This compelled him to speak out and stressed the gravity of allowing such groups on campuses.
Jeffrey Lax, founder of SAFE CUNY, spoke out to the Board of Trustees at CUNY for the “deeply systemic anti-Semitic culture” that has occurred on campus for years. Lax accused the board of using anti-Semitic practices to kick out Jews from leadership roles. “In a city that is 20% Jewish, all Jews have been expunged from senior leadership positions at CUNY,” Lax said. “For the first time since CUNY’s founding in 1961, among its top 45 senior leaders, CUNY Central today magically employs zero Jews. Of its 23 permanent campus presidents, all Jews have been expunged as well. There is not one permanent Jewish campus president at this University. Again, All of this in a 20% Jewish New York City. This cannot be an accident. This was purposeful, and it took years to accomplish.”
The university system has been taken over by leftwing ideology, which has been far too obvious in the last few years. For those who closed their eyes to it for too long, the latest actions on campuses and lack of response from leadership means that ignorance is no longer a viable answer. It will take decades to undo the damage done, and that can only be accomplished if there are viable alternatives to many of these institutions so they feel the consequences of their actions in the only place they care about: their wallets. Defund the universities, and do not send children there, because they have become nothing more than cesspools of indoctrination into an evil ideology.
By Moshe Hill
