Redeem now - Dick Wolf threatened to stop funding UPenn amid backlash over the school's Israel-Hamas response.
- Wolf, an alumnus, is calling on the school's president and chair of the board of trustees to resign.
- His main criticism stems from a Palestinian literature festival held at the school before the war began.
Dick Wolf, the creator of the "Law & Order" television franchise and a University of Pennsylvania alumnus, is imploring the school's president to step down over the university's hosting of a controversial Palestinian literature festival that preceded the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.The television creator is the latest in a list of prominent investors who are vowing to pull their funding from the Ivy League institution after UPenn leaders acknowledged ahead of the Palestine Writes Literature event last month that some of the speakers had made antisemitic comments in the past.
In a September 12 statement, university leaders addressed "deep concerns" about several speakers' history of "engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people." Coordinators of the event — which the university did not organize — rejected the narrative that the festival embraced antisemitism, the college's newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, reported.
The literary festival occurred weeks before Hamas attacked Israel earlier this month.
CNN reported that Wolf, a prominent donor and namesake for the university's Wolf Humanities Center, said he would forgo financial support and "end all donations" to his alma mater unless President Liz Magill resigns her role.
"President Magill, I implore you and [chair of the board of trustees] Scott Bok to step down from your UPenn positions before any more unnecessary damage to UPenn," Wolf wrote in a letter obtained by the outlet. "There is no hope for unification in our community until you step aside."
Wolf also expressed dismay at the notion that the Wolf Humanities Center "contributed to this hate fest," CNN reported. Wolf told The Daily Pennsylvanian last week that Magill and Bok's leadership "inadequately represented" the UPenn community.
Representatives for Wolf and the Palestine Writes Literature Festival did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania declined to make a copy of Wolf's letter available and instead pointed Insider to a series of recent statements made by university leaders as backlash grew.
In a Tuesday statement, Magill acknowledged the growing cohort of angry alumnus, which include hedge fund manager Clifford Asness and Apollo Global Management's Marc Rowan, and said the university stands "emphatically against the terrorist attacks on Israel and against antisemitism."
"I've said we should have communicated faster and more broadly about where we stand, but let there be no doubt that we are steadfast in our beliefs," Magill wrote this week.
The University of Pennsylvania is not the only higher education institution losing donors and facing intense backlash over its stances amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
On Harvard's campus, a collection of student-led groups released an open letter blaming Israel for the October 7 attacks by Hamas. In response, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called on the school to release the names of students who signed the letter so he and other CEOs don't "inadvertently hire" them.
Les Wexner, the billionaire retailer known for brands including Victoria's Secret, also pulled funding from Harvard over the school's response to the Israel-Hamas war. Idan Ofer, one of Israel's wealthiest people, left the board of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, saying his faith in the school's leadership had been "broken" over its response to the attacks.
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