Since the October 7 massacre in Israel, leftist college students have finally declared their longstanding desire for an open season on Jews.  “Safe space” university campuses are now anything but if you’re Jewish.  Slogans like “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea” have become the modern equivalent of “sieg heil” for brainwashed university progressives.

Alumni from saner times have begun to realize that their donations to out-of-control colleges are subsidizing socialist and, now, fascist causes.  Hedge fund CEO and billionaire Leon Cooperman has publicly declared withdrawal of his substantial financial support to Columbia University.  During a Fox Business interview, he suggested that those engaged in a protest with the professor who declared the October 7 attacks “awesome” have, to paraphrase, brown excrement in place of gray matter.

Mr. Cooperman noted the sad fact that we have exactly one true ally in the Middle East: Israel, the one society in the area that is a tolerant Western-style society — one that accepts, for example, those who are gay.  Anywhere else in the region, including Gaza, homosexuals would face up to ten years in prison (or worse).  Groups like Queers for Palestine should take note.  Interestingly, there are no homosexuals in the Muslim paradise that is Iran.  In 2007, Iran’s president visited Columbia and confirmed: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

Mr. Cooperman is late to the party.  Beside yours truly, many others have decided that radical protests demand radical action: stop funding schools that tolerate the actions of leftist (fascist) students with their hard-earned money.

Last year, Fox News host Pete Hegseth decided to put his Harvard Masters of Public Policy diploma in an envelope and send it back, marked “return to sender.”  He wrote, “Thank you for the ‘education,’ but I can no longer support your leftist cause.”

Others have suffered “educational remorse.”  Even earlier than Mr. Hegseth, “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams ended donations to his alma mater, U.C. Berkeley.  At the time, Mr. Adams memorably remarked “I’m ending my support of UC Berkeley, where I got my MBA years ago. ... I wish them well, but I wouldn’t feel safe or welcome on the campus.  A Berkeley professor made that clear to me recently.  He seems smart, so I’ll take his word for it.”  Mr. Adams has since been canceled by his book publisher.

It’s common knowledge that conservative voices aren’t welcome at today’s universities.  Speakers from the right are the targets of protests and shouted down, if they get to the podium at all.  But overt antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests makes even left-leaning alumni cringe.

It all makes you wonder why moderates and conservatives, especially Jewish ones, still donate to their colleges.  Is it a salute to the good old days?  Is it some strange kind of guilt?  Is it just a reflex after so many years of supporting institutions that now bear no resemblance to their former selves?

Why would you support institutions that make it their business to instill hatred toward you?  Today’s colleges are not only hotbeds of leftist ideology; they actively work to silence anyone who thinks, well, as you do.  Indeed, your very existence (and Israel’s) makes professors and students tremble with rage.  On college campuses, it’s as if the Jewish lives lost in the Hamas attack never happened.  Is this the kind of place you want to support with your dollars?

Charitable donations are commendable, but supporting your enemy financially is not a wise investment.  Conservative dollars going to a liberal university means supporting socialism, antisemitism, and fascism — in other words, the academic status quo.  Let’s face it: the status quo wants you dead.

So, kind-hearted conservatives, stop donating to liberal brainwashing factories and use your hard-earned money to help starving children, disable veterans, or animal shelters.  Give to organizations that are a little less interested in your destruction.

Joe Alton, MD is a physician, medical preparedness advocate, and N.Y. Times bestselling author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide for When Help Is NOT on the Way and other books.

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