AIPAC Targets Progressive Lawmakers with Record Spending

There has been growing criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful pro-Israel lobbying operation that is spending record amounts to unseat elected officials who criticize the Israeli government’s war against Palestinians and who are also some of the strongest congressional advocates for workers’ rights and racial and climate justice.

AIPAC’s political efforts operate through different PACs and Super PACs, such as AIPAC PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) PAC, and the United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC. According to the investigative news outlet Sludge, AIPAC has spent more than more than $100 million on federal elections during the current cycle, which makes it the fifth-highest PAC spender in the cycle.

AIPAC spent “record-shattering” amounts in Democratic primaries this year to defeat two Black progressive congressmembers, Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO). According to Sludge, AIPAC spent nearly $12 million to defeat Bush and over $17 million to defeat Bowman. In 2022, AIPAC also spent around $4 million to defeat progressive Jewish congress member Andy Levin (D-MI).

AIPAC’s electoral interventions have a chilling effect on U.S. politics, making it much riskier for elected representatives to criticize U.S. support for Israel, even though a clear majority of Americans oppose Israel’s siege on Gaza, where evidence of war crimes abound, and say the U.S. should not send weapons and supplies to Israel.

But one thing should be clear: AIPAC is only able to have this outsized impact on U.S. politics because of its donor base of wealthy contributors who give AIPAC the millions upon millions of dollars that it deploys to influence politics.

Outlets like Sludge and Open Secrets have documented the top donors to AIPAC’s political efforts, some of whom also help bankroll reactionary efforts like union-busting and militarized policing and donate huge amounts to far-right U.S. politicians.

But unbeknownst to many, some of AIPAC’s top donors also have current and past ties to prominent cultural institutions — art museums, music halls, theatres, and such — as well as numerous universities. These relationships embed them within networks of elite power and put them in positions of influence, through board roles and as donors, over these institutions.

This post lists some of those ties: the donor, trustee, and board relationships that top AIPAC donors have to major cultural and higher education institutions across the U.S.

Top AIPAC Donor Ties to Universities and Colleges

Some of AIPACs biggest donors have trustee and board seats, or are big donors to, major universities and colleges, as well as their law schools, medical schools, and arts schools.

• Marc Rowan chairs the Board of Advisors of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Rowan is the CEO of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He is worth nearly $7 billion. Rowan has given $250,000 to AIPAC-tied groups this election cycle. Rowan made headlines last year when he helped oust UPenn President Liz Magill, who faced criticism from pro-Israel politicians and Penn donors for not cracking down on alleged antisemitism and for bungling congressional testimony. Rowan was also reported to be fundraising for Virginia Foxx, the hard-right Republican congress member from North Carolina who has been leading the congressional inquiries into critics of Israel on campuses.
• Harriet Schleifer is a trustee of Cornell University. Schleifer, a retired attorney and president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has given a total amount of $577,500 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle. Her husband, Leonard Schleifer, the founder and CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is worth $4.3 billion.
• Norman Radow is a trustee of the Kennesaw State University Foundation, which oversees an endowment for the Georgia-based university, and a major donor to Kennesaw State. Radow is the founder and CEO of RADCO Companies, a real estate investment company. Radow has given $277,400 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Steve Zelin is currently a member of the executive board of NYU Stern School of Business. Zelin is a partner at PJT Partners, a global advisory-focused investment bank that spun off of private equity giant Blackstone in 2015. Zelin has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle. He is also on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the University at Albany Massry School of Business.
• Paul Singer, worth $6.2 billion, is the founder of Elliott Management, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds. Singer is an advisor for the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Singer is one of AIPAC’s top donors, with $2 million given to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle. Singer is also a huge donor to and chairman of the Manhattan Institute for Policy, a rightwing think tank that’s part of the Koch-backed State Policy Network.
• Linda Rubin is on the Board of Counsellors of the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts. She is an award-winning theatre producer. Rubin has given $500,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Eric Chern is an Advisory Board Member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Master of Science in Financial Economics. Chern co-founded the Chicago Trading Company, a proprietary trading firm. He has given $270,200 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Eric Mindich is a member of Harvard’s National Advisory Board for Public Service. Mindich is a Wall Street investor who founded Everblue Management, where he serves as CEO, and Eton Park Capital Management. He has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Alan Hartman, whose wife Kim Hartman is a big AIPAC donor, is a board member of and major donor to Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medicine University and a donor to the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House. Kim Hartman has given $256,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle. Alan Hartman is a partner at the investment bank Centerview Partners.
• Helaine Lerner and her late husband Sid have donated millions to fund the Lerner Center at Syracuse University. Lerner is one of the top AIPAC donors, having given $1 million to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Paul Levy is a former trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and a former overseer at the Carey Law School at Penn. He founded the private equity firm JLL Partners and serves as Managing Director. Levy also donated to establish the Levy International Scholars Program at Lehigh University. Levy a top AIPAC donor, having given $1 million to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Jonathon Jacobson, cofounder of Highfields Capital and non-executive chairman of HighSage Ventures, has been a major donor to the University of Pennsylvania, though he halted his donations in protest of Penn president Liz Magill over what some viewed as her insufficient response to alleged antisemitism. Jacobson is also the former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University and a former senior portfolio manager of the Harvard Management Company, which manages the university’s massive endowment. He is a major AIPAC donor, having given $2.501 million to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Edward Levy Jr. has donated to the University of Michigan to fund its Ed Levy, Jr. and Linda Dresner Levy Endowed Fund Scholarships for Student Leaders Studying in Israel. His spouse, Linda Dresner Levy, is a board member of the Detroit-based College for Creative Studies. Edward Levy Jr. has donated $478,100 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.

AIPAC Donor Ties to Prestigious Cultural Institutions

Top AIPAC donors are tied to some of the most famous art museums, performance venues and cultural institutions in the U.S. Through these positions they insert themselves into networks of powerful people and hold influence over the governance and direction of these important institutions.

Theatre and Performing Arts

• AIPAC donor Eric Mindich, mentioned above, who has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle, sits on the board of the Lincoln Center Theatre, the prestigious theatre company that is part of NYC’s larger Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, of which Mindich is a previous board member.
• Linda Rubin, mentioned above, who has given $500,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle, is a board member of the Geffen Playhouse renowned Los Angeles-based theatre company.
• Deborah Simon is a trustee of the Juilliard School, the renowned performing arts school. She is a philanthropist who is the daughter of the late Melvin Simon, co-found of the Simon Property Group. Her family is worth $11.6 billion. Simon is one of AIPAC’s top donors, having given $1 million to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.

Art Museums

• Amnon Rodan is the co-president of the board of trustees of the Aspen Art Museum. He is the former chairman of the “billion-dollar brand” Rodan + Fields, the skincare products marketing powerhouse. Rodan has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Paul Marciano is the founder of the Los Angeles-based Marciano Art Foundation. Marciano is a cofounder, along with his brothers, of Guess jeans. The family was worth $1.2 billion in 2015. Marciano has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle (his brother Maurico also gave $250,000).
• Martin Geller is founding member and leading donor to the New York-based Serpentine Americas Foundation, which supports the Serpentine Galleries in London, England. Geller is the founder and chairman of Geller & Company, a wealth advisory firm. Geller has given $261,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Eric Mindich, mentioned above, who has given $250,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle, previously sat on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The museum has faced protests in the past for its board members’ ties to weapons manufacturers, including in 2024, with protests against billionaire Nancy Carrington Crown, whose family owns 10% of General Dynamics, and several years earlier, with protests against tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders.

Orchestras

• Linda Dresner Levy, whose husband Edward Levy Jr. is a major AIPAC donor and former AIPAC president, is a trustee of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Dresner Levy is a well-known fashion boutique owner. Levy Jr. gave $478,100 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.
• Linda Rubin, mentioned above, who has given $500,000 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle, previously sat on the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Science Museums

• Anthony “Tony” Davis is a trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Davis is the co-founder and president of Linden Capital Partners, a healthcare private equity firm. Davis has given $263,900 to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle.

AIPAC Donor Bernie Marcus: Bankroller of the Extreme Right

One of AIPAC’s biggest donors is Bernie Marcus, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot. Marcus is worth $10.4 billion, and he has long used his vast wealth to channel millions of dollars into rightwing, anti-worker causes.

Marcus is one of the very top AIPAC donors. He has given a whopping $3 million to AIPAC tied-groups this election cycle, as well as $1 million the last election cycle.

Marcus has some benign-sounding affiliations. For example, he’s a benefactor and chairman emeritus of the Georgia Aquarium, located in his power base of Atlanta.

But make no mistake: Marcus bankrolls a virtual empire of hard-right operations. These include key anti-worker, union-busting operations:

• Marcus helped found the Job Creators Network (JCN) in 2010 and has given at least $6.9 million to the JCN. The JCN has dedicated itself to lobbying against workers’ rights and pro-worker National Labor Relations Board decisions.
• The Marcus-funded JCN has paid out at least $6.5 million to Rick Berman, the notorious anti-labor consultant behind the Center for Unions Facts.
• Marcus gave $1 million in 2020 to the Liberty Justice Center, a rightwing law firm that was behind the 2018 Janus Supreme Court decision.

Marcus also is a big donor to groups within the State Policy Network, the Koch-funded network of rightwing groups. Many of these groups have played pivotal roles in the decades-long rightwing movement. For example:

• Marcus has given $800,000 to the Federalist Society, which has played a pivotal role in the rightwing takeover of the U.S. federal court system, including the Supreme Court.
• Marcus has given $1.25 million to Judicial Watch, which has supported efforts to purge voter rolls.
• Marcus has given nearly $2.5 million to the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a Georgia SPN partner that, most recently, has been fighting the rights of farmworkers to unionize.

Marcus is also a major donor to policing and to groups that facilitate policing exchanges between Israel and U.S. police:

• Marcus gave $200,000 to the Atlanta Police Foundation in 2022, which is using corporate donations to fund the construction of a highly contested training facility for police departments, dubbed Cop City, in Atlanta.
• Marcus has given at least $350,000 to the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) since 2020 and $1.25 million since 2005. GILEE is a key hub organizing trainings and exchanges between police forces in the U.S., especially within Georgia, and the Israeli Police.

Marcus has donated millions toward electing Donald Trump and is backing Trump in the 2024 race.

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AIPAC oversees a vast electoral operation, donating record amounts to defeat some of the most progressive candidates and elected officials in the U.S.

But it is only able to do this because of the tens of millions of dollars it receives from its donor base, made up of a host of billionaires and wealthy elites who make huge donations to AIPAC PACs and super PACs.

As this post shows, many of those donors are also connected to universities and colleges across the U.S., as well as some prestigious arts and cultural institutions. These relationships can have real-world implications — for example, when Marc Rowan and other donors to UPenn who give big to AIPAC leveraged their influential positions there to oust Liz Magill.