Top hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman plans to resign from Brown University's board of trustees in protest at an upcoming vote on whether the Ivy League school should divest from investments in companies with business ties to Israel.
Edelman, who founded Perceptive Advisors, which specializes in health care and biotechnology, Written in the Wall Street Journal They argued that the school was showing “weakness” by caving in to far-left student protesters and was instead “promoting anti-Semitism.”
The board's vote, scheduled for next month, was agreed to as part of a deal brokered to end a month of on-campus rallies against Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 massacre.
“As a member of the Brown University Board of Trustees, I will oppose any upcoming divestment vote on Israel,” Edelman wrote.
“We are concerned that Brown's intention to hold this vote signals the university's stance on growing anti-Semitism on campus and the growing political movement that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Self-described human rights activists say investors should pull their money out of companies doing business in Israel, just as Western countries isolated South Africa's apartheid regime.
Anti-Israel protesters have called the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement a move that they say will force Jerusalem to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But Edelman, which manages about $10 billion in assets, accused Brown's leadership of succumbing to “political and economic warfare” after Hamas terror attacks last year that killed 1,200 people.
“Even considering holding a divestment vote is morally reprehensible, let alone carrying it out, especially in the wake of the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he wrote in a WSJ op-ed.
“I'm not trying to suggest that actual principles influenced Brown's decision to vote to divest. It was based not on facts or values, but on a soft spot for student activists,” the Stern School of Business graduate added.
“Israel, like all other nations, has a moral obligation to protect its people from terrorist attacks, and it has done just that. It is clear that, of all nations in the world, only Israel is called upon to exercise restraint because of the civilian lives tragically lost in war.”
“For some reason, university leadership has chosen to reward, rather than punish, activists who have disrupted campus life, broken school rules, and incited violence and anti-Semitism at Brown.”
“While we value the former trustee's contributions, he fundamentally misunderstands the decisions that led to the upcoming vote on divestment,” Brown University spokesman Brian Clark said in a statement.
Clark said any member of the university community can propose divestment, but “it doesn't predetermine the merits or the outcomes.”
“As an institution, Brown must remain a campus that confronts and questions difficult questions,” he added.
Anti-Israel protesters want Brown's $6 billion endowment to divest from as many as 10 companies, including Airbus, Volvo and Boeing, and to end the university's alleged “complicity in the oppression of Palestinians.”
They are also calling for a comprehensive vetting process for any future investments the fund makes.
The Brown University Divestment Coalition reached an agreement with university officials to hold a vote this October in return for an end to months of pro-Hamas protests that have gripped the Rhode Island campus.
The agreement infuriated billionaire real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht, who suspended his donations to his alma mater.
Jane Dietze, Brown University's chief investment officer, has led a 70% increase in the endowment's value since taking the position in 2018.
But in an interview she According to the school's website, meeting the protesters' demands will be nearly impossible because Brown invests only 4% of its endowment directly, with the rest being handled by third parties such as hedge funds and private equity firms.
“In the 1980s, endowment funds typically owned shares directly, so if they wanted to sell their shares in Coca-Cola, for example, to signal that they wanted Coca-Cola to cease operations in South Africa, it was a simple process.
“Funds today overwhelmingly invest through external managers,” Dietze added.
The complexities of modern endowment investments mean Brown won't be able to withdraw cash from any particular fund for several years.
Endowments are also an important source of funding for major universities, helping to fund university programs and scholarships.
Rhode Island's 2016 anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) law does not apply to private institutions such as Brown University.
Since the Oct. 7 massacre, protests have taken place at other top universities across the US, with pro-Palestinian activists pressuring university leadership to sever all ties with Israel.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz McGill and Harvard President Claudine Gay were forced to resign after giving distressing testimony before Congress in December in which they refused to say whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools' rules.
