The San Francisco-based Koret Foundation last year held back a $1.7 million grant to San Francisco State University, according to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week.
Among other accusations in the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s lawyers laid out a squabble over the sizable grant between SFSU and the San Francisco-based Koret Foundation, a well-funded philanthropic organization that works on a range of causes.
Koret’s reason for withholding the grant was due to concerns about “anti-Jewish animus” at SFSU, the lawsuit claims, and because of a 2016 incident where protesters prevented Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat from giving a scheduled talk at the school.
The Koret Foundation declined to comment.
On Dec. 8, 2016, SFSU President Leslie Wong met with Jewish faculty and others. At the meeting, Wong asked the group to sit down with Koret representatives in order to reassure the foundation — likely because of its prominent Jewish origins and mission — that the school should receive the grant, according to the lawsuit.
At the time SFSU professor Marc Dollinger “expressed a profound conflict as well as discomfort” with the request for the meeting with Koret, saying such a meeting would be “an effort toward donor repair,” according to a letter dated Jan. 2 obtained by J.
The letter recapped the Dec. 8 meeting and was written to SFSU vice president of university advancement Robert Nava from Jewish studies professors Dollinger and Fred Astren.
Nava is one of the 13 individuals named in the lawsuit against SFSU, which is being brought by Jewish students and community members. SFSU and California State University’s board of trustees were also named as defendants.
Attorneys filed the suit in federal court on June 19. It accuses the university of violating the plaintiffs’ rights to free speech and equal protection, as well as a provision of the Civil Rights Act that outlaws race-based discrimination under any federal program, or one that receives federal funding.
The full complaint is below, with the relevant material on Koret on page 41:
Abusing philanthropy.
When philanthropy is used as an instrument of pressure to
affect a change in the recipient institution’s policy, it is no longer
philanthropy. It can cause the
ugly stereotypes of money and power to resurface. Equating opposition to Israel with anti-Jewish animus is
also misguided. It presumes that
Jews are collectively supportive of and responsible for the actions and
policies of the government Israel. This sweeping generalization is anti
Semitic.
Why would any Jewish philanthropy want to be associated with SFSU at this point? Bravo Koret. Whats happening at SFSU is not “opposition to Israel”- its attacks on Jewish students, and Jewish faculty who dare defend their people. I hope other philanthropies take notice and follow suit.
How do you defend European colonial settlers who outright stole Arab land?
Had the colonizers been French or British, it would not be called anti-French or anti-British but simply anti-colonialist.
You can never get it through your head – that is Jewish land.
I liked your comment very much. Too bad that you hardly comment.
But where I disagree with you is your notion that Jews are not
in support of the Zionist entity. They are. 95% of Jews both in
the US and in Palestine supported the Gaza genocide of 2009
and 2014.
Three cheers for Koret. As long as Wong runs the show, no Jew should give SFSU a dime. Heck, Wong will not even say Zionist students are welcome at SFSU.
Perhaps
Tod Zuckerman you can read Israeli
Professor Shlomo Sand’s book “The Invention of the Land of Israel.” While you are at it you should also
read his other book “The Invention of the Jewish People.”
Sholmo Sand, the historian of French film? Since when did he become a geneticist?