MENSCH ALERT: Billionaire NFL Owner Cuts off Columbia Until it Tackles Anti-Semitism
Robert Kraft, who has given millions of dollars to Columbia, took some valuable time away from the pre-NFL Draft process to light his alma mater on fire
In recent weeks, Columbia has transformed into Gaza City but with pride flags alongside Palestinian flags. Students are illegally occupying land and are chanting for Hamas to “strike Tel Aviv,” while others are preaching for another “Intifada.”
Needless to say, these are disturbing images, and Robert Kraft, a Columbia alum who’s donated almost $10 million to the school since he graduated over 50 years ago, is saying enough is enough.
“The school I love so much–the one that welcomed me and provided me with so much opportunity–is no longer an institution I recognize,” Kraft, the longtime owner of the New England Patriots, said in a statement from his organization, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. As such, the future Hall of Fame owner wrote, “I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.”
That statement is no joke. Through his largesse, Kraft has donated $5 million to the school’s vaunted athletics program, $3 million to create the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, and $500,000 to start the Kraft Family Fund for Interfaith and Intercultural Awareness.
Columbia, for its part, responded by saying it is “grateful” to Kraft for his decades of generosity to the school–and made no pretense about changing anything, solely conceding that it “is a time of crisis for many members of our community and we are focused on providing the support they need while keeping our campus safe.” Well, they’re doing a horrible job, shutting down all classes to appease the mob.
While he does not specify what corrective actions must be taken, other than “ending these protests immediately,” there’s a clamoring chorus of voices, from New York City’s own New York Post and Congressman Ritchie Torres, to every federally elected Republican in New York that is demanding, at a minimum, the president, Minouche Shafik, step down.
Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres, for example, said that Columbia’s cancellation of classes is a final straw. “The cancellation of in-person classes at Columbia University is an admission of failure by President Minouche Shafik, who has chosen to surrender control of Columbia to an antisemitic fringe. If you cannot ensure the safety of your students, then you have no business serving as President of any university, let alone the alma mater of Alexander Hamilton.”
Across the aisle, Congressmen Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis, Nick Langworthy, Nick LaLota, Andrew Garbarino, Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Mike Lawler all wrote to President Shafik that “it is time for Columbia University to turn the page on this shameful chapter. This can only be done through the restoration of order and your prompt resignation.”
Kraft weighing in follows how other titans of industry, like Bill Ackman with Harvard, have started flexing their muscles to demand that the schools they’ve collectively given hundreds of millions of dollars to, actually serve as institutions of learning–and not as Hamas training camps.
The NFL draft is this weekend, and for Kraft’s Patriots in particular it’s a critical one. Yet, he’s taking time this week to let his alma mater know that enough is enough. One longtime frustrated Patriots fan tells me that he’s hoping Kraft can steer some of the money he’s saving towards his football team–which Kraft regularly flies to Israel.
What a mensch!