Edited By: Fern Sidman

In a surprising move, Jewish billionaire investor and philanthropist Henry Swieca has resigned from the board of Columbia Business School, expressing deep concerns about the safety of Jewish students on campus in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has been raging for over a month, according to a report on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency web site. Swieca’s resignation highlights a growing trend of prominent supporters of elite universities reevaluating their support due to their institutions’ responses to the war that the Hamas terror organization launched against Israel on October 7^th. Hamas murdered over 1400 Israelis and others in an unprecedented massacre in southern Israel.

Swieca, founder of Talpion Fund Management and co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, is no stranger to philanthropy, with a net worth estimated at $1.9 billion, as was reported by the JTA. As a child of Holocaust survivors, he has been a member of the business school’s Board of Overseers since 2014. His resignation, although not made public, sends a clear message about his concerns regarding the direction Columbia University is heading, as was noted in the JTA report.

In his resignation letter dated October 30, Swieca voiced his unease, stating, “With blatantly anti-Jewish student groups and professors allowed to operate with complete impunity, it sends a clear and distressing message that Jews are not just unwelcome, but also unsafe on campus,” the JTA report said. Swieca’s decision to step down from the Board of Overseers, the school’s main fundraising arm, serves as a significant statement against what he perceives as the university’s inadequate response to anti-Semitic activities, the report added.

Swieca’s departure coincides with a broader trend of protests by Jewish supporters of elite universities, particularly those with links to institutions that have faced criticism for their handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Similar concerns have arisen at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, where prominent supporters have announced their reconsideration of support for their alma maters due to the institutions’ response to the war, as was indicated in the JTA report. Notably, private equity CEO Marc Rowan is reportedly rallying others in the finance field to withhold donations over this issue.

Swieca’s letter references a specific chant that has emerged during anti-Israel protests since the conflict’s onset: “From the river to the sea.” Critics argue that this chant calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state that supersedes Israel, the JTA report said.  Swieca underlines that statements from the university are meaningless when student groups march on campus, promoting the complete destruction of Israel.

While the letter does not specify particular incidents, it is important to note that Columbia University’s campus has long been a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism, as was indicated in the JTA report. In response to the Israel-Hamas war, student groups have called for the school to sever its ties with a program in Tel Aviv. Moreover, an assault on a Columbia student took place on October 16, and the campus was temporarily closed to the public due to unrest, the JTA reported.

On October 30, the same day Swieca resigned, Jewish students at Columbia held a press conference to demand stronger action to protect Jews on campus. They pointed out that the university had not mentioned Hamas in its statements about the war. The JTA report said that instances of anti-Semitism cited by these students included the discovery of a swastika painted in a bathroom, pro-Palestinian students carrying signs that read “resistance is not terrorism” during an on-campus walkout, and an incident where a student at Columbia’s law school allegedly said, “F— the Jews” to a visibly Jewish student. Additionally, Jews were targeted with anti-Semitic tropes in group chats, and the students demanded that Columbia specifically condemn Hamas and its barbarism, a step the university had not taken until then, the JTA report added.

Swieca’s bio page has been removed from Columbia’s Board of Overseers listing, and in his letter, he noted his graduation year as 1982, although the university identifies him as a 1983 graduate.

The JTA also reported that Talpion’s website says Swieca is the child of Holocaust survivors and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City. It lists a number of philanthropies it backs, including the American Israel Education Fund, an arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Meor, a Jewish heritage study program, as was reported by the JTA.  He runs a grant program that pays out $10,000 for programs that advance Jewish education and outreach. According to the Washington Post, Swieca also funded the expansion of an Israeli organization that aims to rebuild the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, a holy site for Muslims, an ambition that is widely understood as anti-Muslim.

Talpion’s website says that “the name of the company derives from the Biblical word ‘Talpiot’, meaning a castle’s turret, and is also the name of a highly elite intelligence unit of the IDF,” as was noted in the JTA report.