The Huntsman family says it's cutting off its mega-donations to University of Pennsylvania over 'antisemitism'

• The Huntsman family halted donations to the University of Pennsylvania over its response to Hamas' terrorist attacks.
• The family, which has donated tens of millions to Penn, is the latest to "close its checkbook."
• Tensions have spilled over, as alumni and employers react to colleges' and students' response to the war.

The Huntsman family has halted donations to the University of Pennsylvania due to its response to Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel and the resulting war. It's the latest indication of the growing friction between elite colleges and their rich alumni over the conflict.

Jon Huntsman Jr. — the former governor of Utah and US ambassador to China, Russia, and Singapore — penned a letter to Penn's president Elizabeth Magill, alerting her of the Huntsman Foundation's decision.

"The University's silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low. Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate," he wrote in the letter, which was published by the student newspaper. "Consequently, Huntsman Foundation will close its checkbook on all future giving to Penn."

The Huntsman family, which includes three generations of Penn graduates, has donated tens of millions of dollars to the school over the past three decades, including a $10 million gift in 1997 and a $40 million gift to its business school, Wharton, in 1998. The family has donated at least $25,000 annually to Wharton in recent years.

The late Jon Huntsman Sr. attended Wharton on scholarship and went on to become the billionaire CEO of chemical giant Huntsman Corp. Huntsman Jr. has had two stints on Penn's board of trustees.

Huntsman's letter was reportedly written before an email from Penn's president Magill went out to the Penn community on Sunday.

"I want to leave no doubt about where I stand," she wrote in the email, which was viewed by Insider. "I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas's terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians."

The Huntsmans are the latest megadonors to pull back from from donations to the school: Last week, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan announced he would donate $1 — rather than his typical annual contribution — unless Magill and the chairman of its board of trustees, Scott Bok, stepped down. Rowan and his wife donated $50 million to Wharton in 2018. 

The campus has been mired in tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since September, when the Palestine Writes Literary Festival, which some said gave antisemitism a platform, was hosted at the university.

"The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views," Magill wrote in her email on Sunday. "While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community."

Penn did respond to a request for comment regarding Huntsman's letter. The Huntsman family did not respond to requests for comment ahead of publication.

Across the country, campus conversations have boiled over into the real world, as alumni donors and prospective employers follow student and school leadership responses to the war between Israel and Hamas.

For the past week, Harvard has been grappling with the ramifications of a joint statement signed by more than 30 student groups, together dubbed the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, that said the Israeli government was "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." 

The statement launched a series of hostilities: Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum and donor, called on the university to release the names of students in the groups that signed the letter so he could avoid hiring them. A Harvard alum, who seemingly had nothing to do with the letter, said they were doxxed. Ackman's call for the list of names was likened to McCarthyism.

The joint statement was eventually deleted, but the fallout continues.

Idan and Batia Ofer, Israel's richest man and his wife, stepped down from the board of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

"Unfortunately, our faith in the University's leadership has been broken and we cannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees," the Ofers said in a statement.

Yale, NYU, and Stanford have also been caught up in the escalating tensions, which have no signs of slowing down or staying on campus behind ivy-covered gates.