University of Pennsylvania grapples with donor crisis after 'Palestine Writes' event causes uproar

A prominent University of Pennsylvania donor sent his alma mater a $1 check with an annual pledge for the same amount as long as UPenn President Liz Magill remains at the school, joining a handful of other mega-donors who continue to withhold donations over the school's response to the Israel-Hamas conflict and accusations of excusing antisemitism.

He's just one of several major donors that's calling for changes at the top as the elite university grapples with the fallout of a recent on-campus event. It's gotten to the point that alumni president Michael Barrett penned a letter to his fellow Quakers reaffirming support for Magill, defending the school's handling of the situation and criticizing the "misinformation" and heavy scrutiny the school has faced this month. 

On Sunday, Magill released a statement saying the school didn't move fast enough to address criticism of the "Palestine Writes" event and strongly condemned the Hamas "terrorist assault" on Israel; her initial statement to the school didn't refer to Hamas a terrorist group, although it called its attack "abhorrent" and "horrific."

Here are the donors who are speaking out against the university.

JONATHON JACOBSON

Jonathon Jacobson, a 1983 Wharton graduate and founding member of private investment firm HighSage Ventures LLC, announced his reduced donation in a letter obtained by Fox News, in which he scolded his alma mater for its lack of "moral courage" and inability to distinguish between "what is clearly right and clearly wrong."

Jacobson, who has previously given "multi-seven figure donations," to the university in addition to student scholarships and financial support for the school’s sports program, called out UPenn leadership for its "completely inept" handling of the Palestine Writes festival that took place on campus in September and "too little too late" statement on the Hamas terrorist attack which killed at least 1,400 Israelis and 31 Americans. 

HARVARD STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS CLAIM ISRAEL ‘ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE’ FOR GAZA ATTACKS

UPenn is losing many of its major donors as critics say they've failed to condemn antisemitic events on campus. (Left: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images Right: (Photo by Paul Hennesy/Anadolu via Getty Images))

"Enclosed is a check for $1 which represents the first installment of a multi-year pledge which we will renew until you find employment elsewhere and the board of trustees grows the backbone to fulfill its mission, which is to govern the university according to the principles upon which it was founded," Jacobson wrote in the letter addressed to Magill.

"The university that I attended and that shaped me, is virtually unrecognizable today, and the values it stands for are not American ones," he continued.

Jacobson accused the school of "hiding behind free speech" as an excuse for its "fecklessness" in the two-page letter, further tearing into the leadership, who he described as a "product of a very screwed up higher-ed system."

"Unfortunately," he wrote, "an entire generation of our kids is also a product of this system and this ideology, which is now deeply ensconced at Penn and other countless universities, has now also affected the media, our legal apparatus and Congress."

"We live in an unserious and highly dangerous time," he added. "Enough. It is time to reverse this trend and restore our ‘elite’ universities to the principles upon which they were founded: as places of inquiry, where lively debate, diversity of opinion and communication across lines of difference is not only cherished, but actually mandated."

MARC ROWAN

Jacobson was likely inspired by Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, who earlier this week called on prominent UPenn donors to send $1 checks with the hopes of forcing a change in leadership at the university. The outrage began after the school hosted a Palestinian literary festival on campus which included speakers with a history of antisemitic comments, including calls for "death to Israel." Many donors reached their boiling point when the University failed to, in their view, immediately condemn Hamas' vicious attack.

The billionaire private equity firm CEO, also a Wharton graduate, called for donors to "close their checkbooks" in a letter sent to the school’s newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, where he demanded the resignation of Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the board of trustees. Rowan is the chairman of the board of advisers to the Wharton School, UPenn’s elite college of business, and in 2018 he and his wife gave the business school $50 million.

Marc Rowan, co-founder and senior managing director of Apollo Global called for UPenn donors to ‘close their checkbooks.' (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"It took less than two weeks to go from the Palestine Writes literary festival on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus to the barbaric slaughter and kidnapping of Israelis," Rowan wrote.

"The polarizing Palestine Writes gathering featured well-known antisemites and fomenters of hate and racism, and it was underwritten, supported and hosted by various UPenn academic departments and affiliates."

After several students expressed concern with the event, UPenn issued a statement signed by Magill and Provost John Jackson Jr. arguing that it was a "public event" and wasn’t organized by the university. 

Still, the school leaders said they support "the free exchange of ideas," including "the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values."

Outrage among donors only intensified following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, forcing Magill and Jackson to put out a separate statement.

 "We are devastated by the horrific assault on Israel by Hamas that targeted civilians and the taking of hostages over the weekend. These abhorrent attacks have resulted in the tragic loss of life and escalating violence and unrest in the region," they said. Many members of our community are hurting right now. Our thoughts are especially with those grieving the loss of loved ones or facing grave uncertainty about the safety of their families and friends."

DAVID MAGERMAN

On Tuesday, venture capitalist and philanthropist David Magerman joined the growing list of donors severing ties with the university for not taking a bolder stance against antisemitism. In a letter he shared on LinkedIn, Magerman, an observant Orthodox Jew and Penn donor, wrote that he was "deeply ashamed" to be associated with the university following the Palestine Writes festival and that he wouldn't donate another dollar. 

Magerman called on all "self-respecting Jews" to "dissociate themselves" from the university.

Penn President Elizabeth Magill speaks in 2019 when she served as UVA provost.  (UVA/YouTube )

"There is no action anyone at Penn can take to change that. I’m not asking for any actions," he wrote. "You have shown me who you are. My only remaining hope is that all self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, dissociate themselves from Penn," the letter, dated October 15, said. 

But unlike some of his fellow donors, Magerman said he found calls for Magill's resignation insufficient.

"I feel your firing is unnecessary, because it is wholly inadequate," he wrote. "If in fact the University of Pennsylvania as an institution has such a misguided moral compass that it can fail to recognize evil when it is staring us all in the face, I don’t think replacing you will accomplish anything. Frankly, I don’t think there is anything anyone can do to redeem the school, short of rebuilding its moral foundations from the ground up," he wrote. 

Magill issued a statement on Sunday, the same day Magerman wrote the letter, and said the university should have moved faster to share their position and clarify that they did not endorse the views of the speakers at the controversial event.

"I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a University deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community," Magill said. 

RONALD LAUDER

Billionaire Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire and a major donor to the University of Pennsylvania, informed the school this week that he is now "reexamining" his financial support for the institution after it allowed people with histories of "outright antisemitism" to speak at the festival event on campus despite his repeated pleas to have it canceled.

In a letter obtained by Fox News, Lauder  – whose family funded the creation of the Lauder Institute at UPenn's famed Wharton School – lambasted Magill and the Ivy League institution for refusing to cancel the event in September.

"I told you that those invited to the event had a history of not just strong anti-Israel bias, but outright antisemitism. You were already aware of much of this," Lauder wrote. "I now know that the conference has put a deep stain on Penn’s reputation that will take a long time to repair."

President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder said Magill is "forcing" him to reexamine his financial support "absent satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the university." ((Photo by CHRISTINE OLSSON/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images))

Lauder said he sent two people to the event on his behalf, who reported "antisemitic and viscerally anti-Israel" remarks from the panel of controversial speakers.

The billionaire, who is president of the World Jewish Congress, added that "the timing of the event could not possibly have been worse."

"I have spent the past 40 years fighting antisemitism all over 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's alma mater."

"Let 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," Lauder wrote. "In my mind, they put their bias against Israel ahead of any academic honesty. We know who they are and what they said."

Lauder has not yet ruled out future donations to the university, but said Magill is "forcing" him to reexamine his financial support "absent satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the university."

"Liz, you should know that this letter is written with the greatest sorrow, a sorrow I never expected to encounter at Penn and a sorrow and one I don't think I will get over," he concluded. "I am so sorry you did not cancel the event."

JON HUNTSMAN

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. also recently announced his foundation would be stopping donations to the school over the controversy.

Jon Huntsman recently announced he was withdrawing financial support from the University of Pennsylvania. (Getty Images)

"To the outsider, it appears that Penn has become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable," Huntsman wrote in an email obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian. "Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom and sadly now has reached a point where remaining impartial is no longer an option." 

"Consequently, Huntsman Foundation will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn – something that has been a source of enormous pride for now three generations of graduates," the former governor wrote. 

CLIFFORD ASNESS

Clifford Asness, a hedge fund manager and co-founder of AQR Capital Management who holds degrees from the university, wrote to Magill to say "what has been going on at Penn is unacceptable" and that the school has turned away from freedom of thought and expression, according to a copy of the letter posted on X.

He said he has "long been dismayed" about the "drift away from true freedom of thought, expression and speech at our best Universities, very much including my beloved alma mater Penn."

Clifford Asness, president and managing principal of AQR Capital Management LLC, described the Palestine Writes festival as an ‘antisemitic Burning Man festival.’ (Photographer: Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Asness described the Palestine Writes festival as an "antisemitic Burning Man festival" that "pushed matters further."

"I’m 100% for free speech but not asymmetrical free speech where some have it and some don’t. Imagine Penn’s action if that event was as anti-anyone else other than Jews!? Hiding behind ‘free speech’ when it is a right only embraced for antisemites and other fellow travelers is not OK."

Asness echoed some of his fellow donors who took issue with the university’s response to Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.

"Of course, most distressing to me was your first statement making vague equivalences between the intentional murder of children (and others) by terrorists and the accidental injury to children that sadly occurs when murdering terrorists hide behind children to escape justice," he wrote. "There is no semblance of equivalence. I must believe this equivalence was not your goal. But it clearly reads that way to me."

He indicated that having recently completed a five-year pledge of donations to UPenn, he "will not be considering another until such meaningful change is evident."

 "I do not like making something like this about money – but it appears to be one of the only paths that has any hope of mattering," he concluded, "and it has become clear that is the only voice some of us have."

Penn isn't the only Ivy League school that's landed in hot water since Hamas' attack on Israel last week. Harvard has been the center of controversy, with pro-Palestinian student groups releasing a joint statement claiming Israel was "entirely responsible" for Hamas’ attack. It said, "Today's events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison."

Separately, multiple pro-Palestinian student groups hosted a march and "die-in" at Harvard Business School Wednesday in protest of Israel’s "genocide" of Palestinians in Gaza.

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The Wexner Foundation, a nonprofit started by Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail, announced in a letter this week that they will be stopping their funding to Harvard, saying they were "sickened and stunned" by the school's "dismal failure" to take an unequivocal stand against the "barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians." They accused the school of "tiptoeing" around the issue and announced a hard stop to their financial and programmatic support of the university in a letter obtained by Fox News.

On Monday, Scott Bok, the Chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, released a statement about a meeting with Magill where Trustees condemned the Hamas attacks and Magill in turn outlined plans to "enhance education and training to combat antisemitism on campus."

"The unanimous sense of those gathered was that President Magill and her existing University leadership team are the right group to take the University forward," he said.

For her part, Magill released a statement Tuesday, "Alumni are important members of the Penn community. I hear their anger, pain, and frustration and am taking action to make clear that I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism. As a University, we support and encourage the free exchange of ideas, along with a commitment to the safety and security of our community and the values we share and work to advance. Penn has a moral responsibility to combat antisemitism and to educate our community to recognize and reject hate in all its forms. I’ve said we should have communicated faster and more broadly about where we stand, but let there be no doubt that we are steadfast in our beliefs."

Reached for comment, a University of Pennsylvania spokesperson directed Fox News Digital to Bok and Magill's recent comments and statements on the matter.

Fox Business' Breck Dumas and Eric Revell and Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report. 

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Yael Halon is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..