Ronald Lauder — heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire and a major donor to the University of Pennsylvania — said he will “re-examine” his financial support to the Ivy League school over its weak response to antisemitism on campus, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
In a Monday letter to UPenn President Liz Magill, Lauder slammed the university’s decision to host a controversial “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” last month — and noted that Lauder had personally traveled to Philadelphia to visit Magill on campus to urge her to cancel it.
“I told you that those invited to the event had a history of not just strong anti-Israel bias, but outright antisemitism. You were already aware of much of this,” Lauder writes. “I now know that the conference has put a deep stain on Penn’s reputation that will take a long time to repair.”
Lauder — whose family bankrolled the creation of the Lauder Center, an internationally focused arm of UPenn’s prestigious Wharton School — added that “the timing of the event could not possibly have been worse,” referring to the deadly attacks on Israel last week by Hamas.
“Today, Israel is fighting for its life and in many ways, Jewish people throughout the diaspora are worried for their safety,” Lauder wrote.
Last month’s pro-Palestinian festival included author Aya Ghanameh, who has called for “Death to Israel,” and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has said Israel is a “demonic, sick project” and that she “can’t wait for the day we commemorate its end.”
Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters, who has been banned from UPenn’s campus over previous alleged antisemitic remarks, took part in the event by way of Zoom.
Lauder added that UPenn’s decision to hold the event and its response has caused him the “greatest sorrow” and that he does not want any students at the Lauder Institute to be taught by those involved with the event.
“Let me be as clear as I can: I do not want any of the students at The Lauder Institute, the best and brightest at your university, to be taught by any of the instructors who were involved or supported this event. In my mind, they put their bias against Israel ahead of any academic honesty. We know who they are and what they said.”
Lauder adds that following the event he tried to contact the professor who organized it — but to no avail.
“The organizers of this event came almost exclusively from the Department of Arts and Science, run by Steve Fluharty. I called Steve and asked if I could meet with students and faculty involved in this event, so I could better understand where this hatred came from. I did not hear back from him. When I did see him, he acted as if it never happened.”
While he has yet to halt any further donations, he adds that he is “re-examining” ongoing financial support. UPenn didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lauder’s letter comes a day after Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who served as ambassador to China, said that his family will no longer donate to the University of Pennsylvania, over its “silence” to the attack by Hamas against Israel last weekend.
Days earlier, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan demanded Magill resign from her post given her unwillingness to condemn the Hamas attacks. Rowan also urged alumni to “close their checkbooks” until the school’s leadership changed.
Rowan noted the “sickening parallels” between events at Penn and at Harvard — where several student groups blamed Israel for last weekend’s Hamas massacre that killed more than 1,000 – many of them women, children and the elderly.
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