{"id":31028,"date":"2023-10-17T21:42:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T21:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/business\/billionaire-ronald-lauder-threatens-to-pull-funding-if-upenn-doesnt-do-more-to-fight-antisemitism\/"},"modified":"2023-10-17T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T21:42:21","slug":"billionaire-ronald-lauder-threatens-to-pull-funding-if-upenn-doesnt-do-more-to-fight-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=31028","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Ronald Lauder threatens to pull funding if UPenn doesn\u2019t do more to fight antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n Billionaire Ronald Lauder, a powerful financial backer of the University of Pennsylvania, is threatening to cut off donations if the school doesn\u2019t do more to fight antisemitism, CNN has learned.\n <\/p>\n

\n The threat from Lauder, one of the heirs to the Estee Lauder cosmetics company, marks the latest fallout from donors and alumni alarmed by a Palestinian literary festival that was held on campus last month prior to the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even before the Palestine Writes Literature Festival started, UPenn leaders acknowledged it would include speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe conference has put a deep stain on Penn\u2019s reputation that will take a long time to repair,\u201d Lauder wrote to UPenn President Liz Magill on Monday in a letter obtained by CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou are forcing me to reexamine my financial support absent satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the university,\u201d Lauder wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Palestine Writes festival has created a backlash that prominent donors, including billionaire Marc Rowan and former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, who have vowed to cut off funding. Rowan called for Magill to resign and trustee Vahan Gureghian did step down late last week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lauder said he had two people taking photos at the Palestine Writes festival and two more who listened to the speakers, who were \u201cantisemitic and viscerally anti-Israel.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Organizers of the Palestine Writes festival denied that it embraced antisemitism, according to UPenn student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian.\n <\/p>\n

\n UPenn did not respond to a request for comment on the Lauder letter, but the university has stressed it did not and does not endorse the speakers or their views.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lauder, whose fortune is estimated at $4.6 billion, according to Forbes, serves as president of the World Jewish Congress, an organization that aims to protect Jewish communities around the world from discrimination.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have spent the past 40 years of my life fighting antisemitism around the world and I never, in my wildest imagination, thought I would have to fight it at my university, my alma mater and my family\u2019s alma mater,\u201d Lauder wrote in the letter.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lauder, who served as the US ambassador to Austria in the 1980s, graduated from UPenn and helped start The Lauder Institute, a Wharton business program named after his father.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lauder said he made a \u201cspecial trip\u201d to Philadelphia to meet with Magill and persuade her to cancel the Palestine Writes festival and made two subsequent phone calls in that effort.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe timing of this event could not have possibly been worse,\u201d he wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his letter, Lauder argued the organizers of the event came \u201calmost exclusively\u201d from the Department of Arts and Sciences and demanded action be taken.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet me be as clear as I can: I do not want any of the students at The Lauder Institute, the best and brightest at your university, to be taught by any of the instructors who were involved or supported this event,\u201d Lauder wrote. \u201cWe know who they are and what they did.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Magill, UPenn\u2019s president, conceded over the weekend that the response to the Palestine Writes Literature Festival was inadequate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhile we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community,\u201d Magill said in a statement Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UPenn leader said she knows how \u201cpainful the presence of these speakers\u201d on campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views,\u201d Magill said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI want to leave no doubt about where I stand. I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas\u2019s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians,\u201d Magill said. \u201cThere is no justification \u2014 none \u2014 for these heinous attacks, which have consumed the region and are inciting violence in other parts of the world.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Palestine Writes describes itself as the \u201conly North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One organizer told CNN the festival was meant to celebrate Palestinian culture and literature.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe wanted to honor our ancestors, celebrate our heritage. Discuss our books, talk about our predicament. Talk about resistance, talk about politics and power and culture and song and books and food and all of these things,\u201d Susan Abulhawa, executive director of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Abulhawa, an author who isn\u2019t affiliated with UPenn, described the event as \u201cglorious\u201d and \u201cso beautiful people were in tears.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billionaire Ronald Lauder, a powerful financial backer of the University of Pennsylvania, is threatening to cut off donations if the school doesn\u2019t do more to fight antisemitism, CNN has learned. The threat from Lauder, one of the heirs to the Estee Lauder cosmetics company, marks the latest fallout from donors and alumni alarmed by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nBillionaire Ronald Lauder threatens to pull funding if UPenn doesn\u2019t do more to fight antisemitism | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Billionaire Ronald Lauder, a powerful financial backer of the University of Pennsylvania, is threatening to cut off donations if the school doesn\u2019t do\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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