'Deeply ashamed.' Another major UPenn backer halts donations, calls on other Jews to do same
Business
High-profile donors have pulled their funding from University of Pennsylvania
(Web Desk) - Venture capitalist David Magerman is the latest major donor to the University of Pennsylvania cutting off financial support to the Ivy League school, and he’s calling for all “self-respecting” Jews to do the same.
Hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asness, another major backer of UPenn, is similarly halting donations.
A growing list of high-profile donors have pulled their funding from the prestigious university, arguing UPenn leaders did not go far enough to condemn a multiday Palestine Writes Literature Festival that took place last month on campus.
UPenn leaders acknowledged that event included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks, and UPenn leaders issued a statement ahead of the festival condemning antisemitism broadly, though not the festival specifically.
That simmering resentment turned to a boil in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel, and a growing number of donors have lashed out against the university’s handling of antisemitism.
Magerman, a UPenn graduate known for building trading algorithms at hedge fund giant Renaissance Technologies, posted a letter on Tuesday sent to UPenn leaders in which he took issue with UPenn President Liz Magill’s decision to hold the festival and her initial response to the terror attacks on Israel.
“I am deeply ashamed of my association with the University of Pennsylvania. I refuse to donate another dollar to Penn,” Magmeran wrote in the letter to Magill and Scott Bok, chair of the school’s board of trustees.
Magerman, who co-founded a seed-stage venture capital fund that invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning, described himself as a “major donor” to UPenn as well as a Torah-observant Jew.
“Jews have played an extraordinary role in the history and legacy of the University of Pennsylvania. And Jews have benefitted from their affiliation with Penn,” Magerman wrote.
“But regardless of the economic and social value of a Penn or Wharton degree, there is no place for self-respecting Jewish people at an institution that supports evil.”
In an email sent to Magill on Monday and confirmed by CNN, Asness said he won’t consider making another donation at UPenn until there is “meaningful change” at the school.
The founder of AQR Capital Management said he just finished a five-year pledge to the university.
Asness cited the Palestine Writes festival, the university’s initial response to the Hamas terror attacks and a broader “drift away from true freedom of thought, expression and speech” at UPenn and other schools.
“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, and it has become clear that it is the only voice some of us have,” Asness wrote.
