Yet another billionaire donor demands UPenn fix its anti-Semitism problem
Len Blavatnik, a philanthropist and noteworthy figure in the business world, has joined the growing list of benefactors expressing discontent with the university's handling campus anti-Semitism.
Influential donors have been retracting their support from the University of Pennsylvania, citing concerns over anti-Semitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Now, billionaire Len Blavatnik, a philanthropist and noteworthy figure in the business world, has joined the growing list of benefactors expressing discontent with the university’s handling campus anti-Semitism.
“The university’s condemnation of Hamas’s terrorist attacks … is fundamental to its academic mission and responsibility,” Blavatnik wrote in a Monday letter to the university. “So, too, is your recognition that antisemitism is resurgent on campus and that immediate steps are needed.”
Blavatnik also insisted that the school “examine how the university’s culture has deviated from its foundational moral values and implement changes to bring it back in line.”
This donor revolt is not an isolated incident but part of a larger trend of benefactors using their financial influence to hold educational institutions accountable for their campus culture and ideological leanings.
Blavatnik noted that he will “rely on the guidance” of Marc Rowan “as things move forward. In an October op-ed, Rowan, CEO of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, called on donors to ”close their checkbooks” to UPenn until UPenn’s president, Elizabeth Magill, and the chairman of its board of trustees, Scott Bok, resign.