Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, testifies before the House Education and the Workforce Committee at the U.S. Capitol on December 5. Another donator said he would stop giving to Harvard because it has not done enough against antisemitism. Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE
Billionaire mega-donor Len Blavatnik said he is ending his donations to Harvard University as part of a continued backlash against school president Claudine Gay’s testimony to the House about antisemitic comments made by students.
A graduate of Harvard’s business school, Blavatnik’s family foundation has donated at least $270 million to Harvard in the past. With his early fortune coming from Russian oil investments, the Ukraine and Russia native who now lives in London has a long history of giving his money to Jewish causes. Advertisement
More than 1,600 Harvard alumni said they planned on withholding their donations until the university takes stronger action to fight antisemitism on campus. Harvard received 37% of its revenue from endowment distributions, its largest source of income, per its last fiscal statement. Current-use gifts made up another 8%.
The Harvard Corporation launched the investigation as Gay faced calls to resign after she took part in a House panel on anti-Semitism, where she, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth and then-University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill declined to confirm that calls for genocide against Jews were against their universities’ codes of conduct. Advertisement
In the statement, however, Harvard Corporation said Gay, who is now facing plagiarism allegations and a House committee investigation, would remain in place. Magill resigned but Kornbluth stayed, as well.
