FOXBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - Patriots Owner Robert Kraft released a letter Thursday addressing hate on college campuses amid ongoing campus protests.
Kraft’s letter ran as a full-page advertisement in newspapers across the country. A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Kraft said he is “deeply saddened by the hate and polarization taking place today on a campus I love so much.”
“I am appalled that this hate has only continued to rise and has spawned growing levels of physical intimidation and threats of violence that have taken over college and university campuses across our country,” Kraft continued.
Kraft released the letter as part of a new campaign from his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which he created in 2019. The campaign coincides with American Jewish Heritage Month.
Kraft in an April 22 post on X said he was “deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country.”
“I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” he said.
After a flurry of clashes between protesters, counter-protesters and police across the country, and after an escalation of protests at Columbia that led to more than 100 arrests earlier this week, Kraft weighed in again.
“I believe political issues can be, and most importantly, should be debated,” he said in his letter. “They should be debated vigorously. But vicious hate speech and physical intimidation, preventing others from feeling safe, pursuing their studies, or having their voices heard is completely unacceptable.”
“The leadership and faculty of so many of our leading educational institutions have failed their students,” Kraft continued.
Kraft said the mission of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism “is to build empathy among all Americans, young and old, as a way to fight the rising hate in our country.”
“Today, and every day, at FCAS we are standing up to Jewish hate and all hate, and I encourage our nation’s university leaders to act with courage and wisdom so that knowledge, not hate, is what is being produced on our nation’s campuses,” he said.
Protests spread rapidly in recent weeks as pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments on campuses across the country. Among other demands, protesters have called on university and college officials to divest from any companies doing business with Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza.
President Joe Biden addressed protests in a speech at the White House Thursday morning.
Back in the Boston area, pro-Palestinian encampments remained in place on the campuses of MIT, Tufts University and Harvard University.
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