I have compiled various news articles that discuss the billions of undocumented foreign funds received by universities and the implications of foreign funding on the rise of antisemitism in the US and Canada.
I adore our Jewish community. The Jewish community has contributed enormously to the betterment of my life and provided a theory of unconditional love that leads my every thought and action to this day. That theory of unconditional love, which I’ve taken from a Jewish author, Paul Friedman, coupled with my studies of near-death experiences and world religions, caused me to pursue the practice of unconditional love for all beings. Consequently, I plan to take Friedman’s notion of unconditional love and apply it to academia.
I aim to help universities leave behind the “us versus them” (victim versus oppressor) mentality in favor of love, or cooperation, for all. When I attended graduate studies, I couldn’t find a single theory that advanced love for all groups—not even cooperation for all groups. The theories that ran rampant seemed to force me to assume the role of a jaded victim. But isn’t a view of love, wisdom, or cooperation for everyone a better model for universities to follow? Even if the world outside of academia undergoes massive catastrophes, shouldn’t at least our universities stand as beacons of wisdom for the betterment of everyone? After all, every individual is sublimely beautiful, without exception. So, to bring greater positivity to the world, let’s start with our universities.
With that said, here is my compilation of research on the billions of unreported funding infiltrating universities and its correlation with the rise of antisemitism on campuses:
Introduction
First, let’s look at the recent probe by the House Republicans against universities’ response to antisemitism on campus:
House GOP lawmakers announced Thursday they were opening a formal investigation into multiple universities over their handling of antisemitism on campus.
On Tuesday, members of the House Education and Workforce Committee grilled the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania over their lack of action in response to a wave of violent anti-Jewish demonstrations that have swept their institutions following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
The investigation will look at “the learning environments” and “disciplinary procedures” at those institutions, according to Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC). (King, 2023)
The probe “committee members have deep concerns with [the universities’] leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law,” Foxx said (King, 2023).
What the universities said
At the probe, Ms. Magill, University of Pennsylvania president said the following, much to her later regret:
During a congressional hearing on antisemitism on Tuesday, Magill was asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., if “calling for the genocide of Jews violate[s] Penn’s rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?”
“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill responded, later adding “It is a context-dependent decision.”
“This is unacceptable. Ms. Magill, I’m gonna give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment? Yes or no?” Stefanik then asked.
“It can be harassment,” the University of Pennsylvania president responded.
….
She would later walk back her comments in a video posted to X on Wednesday evening.
(Sabes, 2023)
This apathetic and destructive disregard that these university presidents demonstrated for their Jewish students leaves me heartbroken. I can’t imagine what kind of conduct would warrant measures to be taken to defend the Jews when the conduct surrounds “the genocide of the Jews.” She has since resigned as President of Penn University (Mastrangelo, 2023).
Violence Against Jews
Our Jewish community is our neighbors, here for us to love and enjoy, just like everyone else. However, the universities have not stopped the following from occurring:
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, and the Jewish state’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, there have been a growing number of appalling instances of antisemitism on college campuses.
Some of the disturbing incidents include Pro-Palestinian students surrounding a Jewish peer on campus at Harvard during a demonstration and a Cornell professor who said he found the attack by Hamas “exhilarating” and “energizing.”
A Cornell student was arrested recently for allegedly making antisemitic threats and numerous colleges have reported swastikas and anti-Jewish propaganda, racist emails and threats made against Jewish students prompting increased security and police patrols. (Propper, 2023).
According to the New York Post, a “Cooper Union sophomore Taylor Roslyn Lent is reassessing reality … a day after she and other Jewish students were locked inside the East Village university library as pro-Palestinian protestors pounded on the doors and windows” (Miller, 2023). Lent, a young Jewish woman locked in the library, said, “When they started banging on the door, my heart starting pounding … I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked—I don’t know what would have happened” (Miller, 2023).
Furthermore, some students blamed the Jews while exonerating Hamas, despite Hamas initiating the violence that ensued. This is how the victim/oppressor dichotomy can be skewed by bias and even, as we will learn in the next section, big money. Fox Business reports:
Student groups at Harvard University released a letter after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, saying Israel was “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ violence that killed roughly 1,200 [Israeli] people, most of whom were civilians.
….
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told “America Reports” it wouldn’t shock him that foreign regimes are using their monetary donations to “corrupt colleges and influence students.” (FOXBusiness, 2023)
A private Jewish high school in Toronto, called The Anne & Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy received a bomb threat in an email that also stated, “many jews were going to die today” (CBC/Radio Canada, 2020).
Lawsuits have been issued to protect our Jewish population. For instance, Jewish students “have filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing the University of California of allowing the ‘longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism’ at its Berkeley campus …. Since Oct. 7, antisemitism has run rampant at the school, the complaint said, citing numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and physical violence against Jewish students” (Campanile, 2023).
Follow the Money
According to a 2023 report, foreign donations to American universities could serve to peddle influence on geopolitical matters:
A 2023 report from the American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) is shining a light on foreign donations to American universities and the role they could be playing in influencing college campuses and responses to geopolitical events. (FOXBusiness, 2023)
Furthermore, the report indicates that foreign funding is implicative in the rise of intolerance toward Jews and other democratic values:
The [Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI)] report contends there has “clearly has been an erosion of democratic norms on campuses,” and that “a massive influx of foreign, concealed donations to American institutions of higher learning, much of it from authoritarian regimes with notable support from Middle Eastern sources, reflects or supports heightened levels of intolerance towards Jews, open inquiry and free expression.
The [NCRI] report also notes growing incidents of antisemitism on campuses during the 2014-2019 period during the donations — which have since come to a head. (Propper, 2023)
So, where is this money coming from? According to Fox Business,
The May [American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE)] report, conducted by Mitchell Bard, a foreign policy expert and the executive director of the AICE, found the top donors to American universities are Arab countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Egypt. (FOXBusiness, 2023)
Over two hundred universities received undocumented funding from foreign countries:
The [Contagion Research Institute] report revealed the clandestine flow of funds from countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates into the coffers of more than 200 U.S. universities to the tune of approximately $13 billion in “undocumented contributions from foreign governments” between 2014 and 2019. (Emmanual, 2023)
The New York Post lists various elite universities that had accepted undocumented funding from foreign countries:
Over 200 US universities including elite institutions Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been accused of raking in $13 billion in “undocumented contributions from foreign governments,” according to a new report.
…. “The huge windfall of cited money was not recorded with the US Department of Education between 2014 and 2019, the NCRI said.” (Propper, 2023)
Much of the funds from foreign countries were from authoritarian regimes:
A sizable portion of the funds were said to be donated from authoritarian regimes around the globe including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE, the report from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) claimed. (Propper, 2023)
Here is a breakdown of the dollar amount of foreign funding, the vast majority of it coming from Qatar, which is a headquarters for Hamas:
The scale of the financial influx is staggering, with Carnegie Mellon University leading the list at $1.47 billion, followed closely by Cornell University with $1.29 billion, Harvard with $894 million, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with $859 million.
Qatar was the largest contributor, providing $2.7 billion, which raises questions about the motivations behind such financial support.
Qatar’s capital, Doha, is the location of one of the headquarters of Hamas. The top three Hamas leaders — Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzuk and Khaled Mashal — are worth more than $11 billion combined and live a lavish lifestyle in the “sanctuary” of Qatar, according to the New York Post. (Emmanual, 2023)
According to Dr. Charles Asher Small of The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism Policy,
What Qatar has done has pumped in, we’ve discovered, tens of billions of dollars in undocumented money coming to our finest universities. So what Qatar has done, they set up a place in Doha., in the capital of Qatar, a place called Education City, and there’s eight American universities in Education City, universities like Georgetown, Cornell University, Carnegie Melon, and Texas A&M, and others, but these campuses in Qatar are receiving billions of dollars and are funneling it into the United States. That’s one source of the money. …. Qatar is influencing our most prestigious universities in the United States and also in Canada and around the world. (YouTube, 2023, November 13)
China and others, too, donated over a billion dollars: “About $1.2 billion flowed from China and another $1.1 billion came from Saudi Arabia, per the report. The UAE reportedly contributed $431 million” (Propper, 2023). Shockingly, “[a]ccording to the NCRI report, these huge donations were not recorded with the U.S. Department of Education between 2014 and 2019” (Emmanual, 2023).
It wasn’t until 2020 that the Federal government required the illegally withheld information to be reported:
Overall, 203 colleges were alleged to have illegally withheld information on millions of dollars they received from the federal government, who in 2020 tightened up their practices and required schools to report all funding streams, according to the study. (Propper, 2023)
Betsy DeVos, US Secretary of Education, says taxpayers have a right to transparency on the dollar amount of foreign funds filtering into universities, and I’d argue that taxpayers also have the right to know how the funds impact student life:
“This is about transparency. If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom,” said US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
“Unfortunately, the more we dig, the more we find that too many are underreporting or not reporting at all,” she said. (BBC, 2020)
Strings attached
BBC News reports that “[o]fficials have previously described foreign spending on US universities as a ‘black hole’” and warned that such money can come with strings attached” (BBC, 2020).
The ramifications of foreign funding has implications for the intolerance toward our beloved Jewish population and democratic values, especially given the influence elite universities possess over political and cultural arenas:
The notion that international actors may be utilizing undisclosed channels to funnel large sums of money into U.S. colleges, particularly those with significant cultural and political influence, raises grave concerns about the erosion of values fundamental to a democratic society.
The [Contagion Research Institute] report highlights the concern that the “massive influx of foreign, concealed donations to American institutions of higher learning, much of it from authoritarian regimes … reflects or supports heightened levels of intolerance towards Jews, open inquiry and free expression.”
It raises “the sobering possibility” that international actors are funneling large sums of money into colleges and “elite institutions that often have outsized influence on American culture and politics” for reasons that are “harmful to the democratic norms of pluralism, tolerance, and freedom,” the report said.
“There clearly has been an erosion of democratic norms on campuses (self-censorship; censorship by scientists; disinvitations rising; abandonment of free speech/academic freedom by academics),” the authors of the report said…..
The sheer scale of undisclosed money raises the alarming question: Are American universities selling out our country’s values to the highest bidder? (Emmanual, 2023)
It is quite presumable that foreign funding comes with strings attached:
“Foreign government contributions to universities almost always come with strings attached or, at the very least, ulterior motives,” said Ben Freeman, the director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute.
….
“Even if none of the more nefarious aspects of foreign funding of American universities are taking place, foreign governments are counting on their donations leading to a general sense of goodwill towards their countries,” he explained.
Freeman added: “This could translate to an implicit bias amongst university graduates, which is probably why it’s no coincidence that most of the top recipients of funding from countries in the Middle East are universities that produce some of the top foreign policy minds in the U.S.” (FOXBusiness, 2023)
For instance, a federal “report concluded that a large donation by Prince Alwaleed in bin Talal to Georgetown University empowered the Saudis to ‘push a particular ideologically-driven narrative through the teaching and learning done on specific topics relevant to the Middle East’” (Camera, 2020).
Repercussions for the universities
With that said, here are some of the potential repercussions for universities not acting to protect their Jewish student populations, which include the removal of federal funding:
The schools could be stripped of federal funding if they are found to be in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs or activities receiving government money.
Stefanik took center stage during Tuesday’s hearing thanks to her exchange with Harvard University president Dr. Claudine Gay, who was evasive about whether calling for an ‘intifada” violated the Ivy League school’s code of conduct.
The upstate lawmaker explained that “’intifada’ in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict is indeed a call for violent armed resistance against the state of Israel, including violence against civilians and the genocide of Jews. (King, 2023)
As well, donors have been pulling funding from these elite institutions, including donor Ross Stevens and his $100 million gift:
Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, donated to Penn in 2017, a gift that consisted of partnership units in the firm which are now valued at around $100 million to help the university establish a financial innovation center. Attorneys for Stevens sent the university a letter indicating the school violated Stone Ridge’s limited partnership agreement through its failure to adhere to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment rules. The news was first reported by Axios.
The letter said that Stevens and Stone Ridge “are appalled by the University’s stance on antisemitism on campus.”
It added that Penn’s “permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students would violate any policies of rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge.” (Revell, 2023)
In conclusion, stopping antisemitism and the demonization of any student group should be firmly enforced through policy. The value of every human being should be the premise of universities. In my opinion, the victim/oppressor theories are harmful, as money could buy who gets assigned the label of the victim versus oppressor, which can readily culminate into hatred and violence, as we are seeing with antisemitism on campuses. I love our Jewish population; antisemitism breaks my heart.
Theories that advance love and cooperation for all—win-win situations—should be academia’s focus. Billionaires, foreign governments, and foundations that funnel billionaire or foreign government contributions should not be able to buy influence in universities, especially when their biases label a group an oppressor and another as a victim, and even more ironically when someone else could arbitrarily buy the flipside. The fact that this victim/oppressor model is prevalent in universities is a problem. Moreover, never should a university accept funding from anyone when the implied strings attached involve the alienation, harassment, exclusion, or dehumanizing of any student group or person.