Multiple staff members at the University of Pennsylvania have donated to a student organization violating school policy and accusing Israel of genocide and “Jewish supremacy,” Venmo records show.
Kathy Bi, an applied economics doctoral student who teaches managerial economics at the Wharton School of Business; Marina Krikorian, project coordinator at the Annenberg School for Communication’s Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication; and Clancy Murray, a doctoral student in political theory who teaches American political thought, all gave to the Freedom School for Palestine, which has occupied a room in Houston Hall on Penn’s campus since November 14.
Freedom School has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide through its military response to Hamas’s October 7 attack and has shared photographs of signs reading “Penn students for a free Palestine” next to an outline of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, meaning this “free Palestine” would span the entirety of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The organization has hosted discussions on “the false narrative of Palestinian antisemitism” and, as advertised in a since-deleted Instagram post, “Jewish supremacy in Israel/Palestine.”
As the Daily Pennsylvanian reported, the hall in which Freedom School hosts its events closes at midnight, meaning the occupation of the hall is in contravention of university policy. However, Penn police ultimately relented after initially threatening arrests for trespassing, allowing students to remain inside the building after showing school ID cards.
The staff members with Venmo records demonstrating that they have donated to Freedom School are not the only people associated with the university to offer the organization their support. Patricia “Patty” Anton, a “Chaplain for Muslim Life” at Penn, was present at one of the group’s events and shared the aforementioned post about “Jewish supremacy” on Instagram. Huda Fakhreddine, an associate professor of Arabic literature who was captured on video clapping when a speaker at a rally told Jews to go back to Berlin, promoted the Freedom School on her Facebook page. Christopher R. Rogers, a research fellow at the Weitzman School of Design’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, did the same on X.
The revelation that Penn staff members have donated to the group comes on the heels of former university president Liz Magill’s resignation after a much-maligned appearance in front of the House Education & Workforce Committee. Former chairman of Penn’s board of trustees, Scott Bok, stepped down shortly thereafter.
In her opening testimony, Magill touted the creation of a “task force on antisemitism” that would work in concert with a “student advisory group on the Jewish student experience.” University of Pennsylvania junior Noah Rubin, though, told National Review that the student group has yet to convene, and its first planned meeting — which was meant to take place Monday — was canceled.
“What we heard from Magill was that the task force was going to deal with all these issues,” he said, “but when people went to email her, they got an automated response saying the task force was working on it.”
There has not been any other form of communication, Rubin told NR, and Jewish students at Penn do not feel the situation on campus has gotten any better since Magill’s announcement or since her resignation.
“Since the task force started, I’ve actually taken a survey of Jewish students and asked them whether they’ve seen any improvements on campus, whether they feel safer, whether the situation has improved or gotten worse,” he said. “Every single response has said either that they do not feel safer and the situation has stayed the same or that it has gotten worse.”