Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife have announced they are quitting the Harvard Kennedy School's executive board to protest school president Claudine Gay's reaction to a students' letter blaming Israel for the Hamas massacre.
The resignations were reported by the New York Post, which detailed a report from the Hebrew language news site, TheMarker.
According to the Post, Ofer is a shipping and chemicals magnate. Forbes reported that his net worth is estimated at $13.6 billion.
According to the report, Ofer and his wife, Batia, said they resigned "in protest of the shocking and insensitive response by the president of the university, who did not condemn the letter by student organizations who blamed Israel for the massacres."
Harvard alums, including former school president Larry Summers, have spoken out about the statement from Gay.
Summers criticized the university's belated response on Monday, asserting that the statement failed to "address the demands of the current situation."
Referring to the school's previous reactions to global conflicts, Summer said: "The university's silence before Tuesday permitted it to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state off Israel.
"Instead, Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement, apparently coming from two dozen student groups, blaming all the violence on Israel. I am sickened. I cannot fathom the administration's failure to disassociate the university and condemn this statement immediately."
Over 30 student organizations at Harvard collectively issued a statement, attributing complete responsibility for all ongoing violence "to the Israeli regime," The Hill reported.
Gay distanced herself and the university leadership from the students' statement, emphasizing that the group does not represent the entire school.
"Let me also state, on this matter as on others, that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership," she said.
The Post reached out to the Ofers and Harvard for comment.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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