Israel war: Billionaire Ron Lauder to yank UPenn funding over antisemitism concerns

Billionaire Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire, will pull out from funding the University of Pennsylvania over concerns with its response to antisemitism after the deadly Hamas terror attack against Israel.

The 79-year-old former United States ambassador to Austria is cutting financial support to UPenn barring the Ivy League institution being more supportive of Israel. Lauder, a Republican megadonor and president of the World Jewish Congress, an international organization, previously said in a letter to UPenn he would “re-examine” his donations.

GOP STATE OFFICIALS PRESSURE PROXY ADVISORY COMPANIES IN ‘FIGHT’ AGAINST ESG

“I’ve spent the last 40 years of my life fighting antisemitism all over the world,” Lauder said Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C., at a Heritage Foundation event on the U.S.-Israel relationship. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I would have to fight it at my own university, my alma mater, my family’s alma mater.

“I’ve been joined by other donors who will stop their own gifts to Penn, including Jon Huntsman, who is not Jewish,” Lauder added in the speech. “He’s just an honorable man. Every single university, every single newspaper, every cable channel has to understand there are consequences for their actions. We can no longer be silent.”

News of Lauder’s move comes after Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah and a U.S. ambassador, vowed to halt UPenn contributions for purported “silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel.” Huntsman attended the school and previously gave $50 million to it.

Following the Oct. 7 attacks, UPenn came under major scrutiny from donors due to its president, Liz Magill, releasing a statement that did not initially refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization. Computer scientist David Magerman also announced his decision to pull funding, as did venture capitalist Jonathon Jacobson, hedge fund manager Clifford Asness, and others.

Over 1,400 Israelis and 33 Americans have been killed in the Hamas attack, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

Lauder has taken issue with UPenn’s decision to host a “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” in September, which featured Randa Abdel-Fattah, a writer who has claimed Israel is a “demonic, sick project” and that she “can’t wait for the day we commemorate its end,” the New York Post reported. Roger Waters of the band Pink Floyd, who UPenn banned from campus over alleged antisemitism, attended the festival over Zoom.

Heritage Foundation/ERIN GRANZOW

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but those who watch them,” Lauder said in the Heritage Foundation speech. “This is the time for all of you to stand up and say, ‘This insanity is over.'”

“We all have to stand up with Israel,” Lauder, who noted late last year he won’t back Donald Trump’s 2024 bid after making prior donations to the former president, said. The former ambassador has also made donations in the past to a state committee for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

“We have to fight the left-wing McCarthyism of our alma maters,” he said. “We have to create a new syllabus to deprogram young people who have been brainwashed in our universities to believe America is evil, that Israel is evil, that there’s any merit to socialism over capitalism.”

The University of Pennsylvania did not comment when reached by the Washington Examiner, instead pointing to its statements and student publication articles on Israel.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“I’m well aware Heritage has been fighting this fight for over 50 years,” Lauder added in his speech. “We have to be honest. We will lose it if we don’t fight harder. The good news: We are not outnumbered. The radical Left does not have more people behind it. They are just louder.

“We live in Washington, or New York, or California,” he added. “You might think we are the minority. But we forget. There is a great, big, wonderful country out there, with hardworking people, honest people, who are generous and good. But they don’t like to get shoved around.”