Billionaire Bill Ackman Criticizes Harvard for Alleged Anti-Semitic Incidents, Saying Its Diversity Policy Is ‘Serious Problem’

Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital Conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Oct. 17, 2017. Mike Blake/Reuters

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has criticized alleged anti-Semitic incidents at Harvard University in an open letter, saying its diversity policies have contributed to the problem.

“For the past four weeks since the horrors of October 7th, I have been in dialogue with members of the corporation board, other alumni, as well as students and faculty sharing and comparing our concerns about the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents on campus, as we wait for you and the University to act,” Mr. Ackman wrote in the Nov. 4 letter to Harvard President Claudine Gay.

“Four weeks after the barbaric terrorist acts of October 7th, I have lost confidence that you and the University will do what is required.”

“Jewish students are being bullied, physically intimidated, spat on, and in several widely-disseminated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted,” he added.

Many Jewish students are now “afraid” to voice their concerns, Mr. Ackman wrote. Several Jewish students have felt the need to remove their religious symbols like mezuzahs, yarmulkes, and Stars of David while on campus so as to avoid being targeted for “discrimination, bullying or worse.”

“On-campus protesters on the Widener Library steps and elsewhere shout ‘Intifada! Intifada! Intifada! From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free!’ as they knowingly call for violent insurrection and use eliminationist language seeking the destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Jewish students are threatened with physical violence, with some “forced to sit next to classmates who openly and comfortably post, under their actual names, anti-Semitic statements and imagery on the student-wide Slack message system with no consequences for their actions,” Mr. Ackman wrote.

He said that several members of Harvard told him the university’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (OEDIB) “is an important contributing factor to the problem.”

“I was surprised to learn from students and faculty that the OEDIB does not support Jewish, Asian and non-LGBTQIA White students,” he wrote. Harvard’s statement on diversity “makes it clear” that the university does not consider Jews as part of such efforts.

He called this “a serious problem” at a time when “anti-Semitism is widely prevalent on campus.”

Despite the alleged anti-Semitic incidents on campus, the first initiative that Harvard took to protect students was to set up a task force on Oct. 24 aimed at aiding students who faced backlash for supporting a statement blaming Israel for being “entirely responsible” for the Israel–Hamas conflict, Mr. Ackman pointed out. The statement had come after Hamas massacred over 1,400 people in Israel on Oct. 7.

The task force sent a “strong message” that Harvard was ignoring anti-Semitic incidents on campus and “taking sides in the conflict by only supporting students who held Israel responsible for Hamas’ vile acts.”

Title VI

Mr. Ackman’s letter accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects people from being subject to discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the federal government.

On Sept. 28, the Biden administration issued a “clarifying release” stating that Title VI “prohibits certain forms of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and related discrimination as part of its National Strategy to Counter anti-Semitism released in May 2023,” the letter said.

Students walk through Harvard Yard, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., April 27, 2022. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Harvard has “failed” to meet these Title VI obligations in recent weeks, it stated, while warning that this “threatens a major source of the University’s funding.”

“When coupled with numerous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni that have publicly and privately shared these same concerns, important sources of Harvard’s revenues are at risk,” said the letter.

Mr. Ackman called for the immediate suspension of students accused of harassing and physically assaulting a Harvard Business School student on Oct. 18. The accused in the case are pro-Palestine students. Harvard is yet to take action against the alleged perpetrators as they await the police department to review the matter.

The billionaire pointed out that Harvard’s student conduct and anti-bullying policies are sufficient enough to invoke a disciplinary probation of the accused students until the police investigation is completed.

He asked for protesters who chanted “Intifada and other eliminationist statements” be subject to disciplinary action. Mr. Ackman wants action to be taken against students who made anti-Semitic statements or shared anti-Semitic imagery on the Slack message boards.

The hedge fund manager asked that the university form a task force to review the “appropriateness of the activities of the OEDIB and whether its practice of excluding certain minority communities on campus, including Asian and Jewish students, is appropriate.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Harvard for comment.

Action Against Harvard

Mr. Ackman’s letter comes after several CEOs have expressed willingness to blacklist Harvard students who blamed Israel for the violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli citizens.

Some of Harvard’s funders have announced cutting off their ties with the university. For instance, a nonprofit established by billionaire Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail severed its relationship with Harvard following anti-Israel activities on campus.

“We are stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists last Saturday,” the Wexner Foundation’s leadership wrote to the Harvard board of overseers in an Oct. 16 letter.

Earlier, Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia quit the Harvard executive board as a protest against the university’s poor response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

On Nov. 2, the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning universities where activities supporting terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah have been held.