CAMPUS CASH
Avi Kaner joins ‘donor revolt’ at Columbia University, redirecting funds to Jewish Studies department
Kaner responded to claims that Jewish Studies departments may also perpetuate anti-Israel bias: ‘Nothing is perfect … We still have a seat at the table’

Bryan Anselm for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Members of the student group Aryeh tabling on central campus at Columbia University in New York, N.Y., on April 10, 2024.
Avi Kaner, the Jewish co-owner of New York City supermarket chain Morton Williams — and a longtime donor to Columbia University — is the latest philanthropist to redirect donations previously given to the institution’s Morningside Heights campus in the wake of soaring antisemitism since Oct. 7.
Kaner has made annual gifts to Columbia — his alma mater — for 30 years together with his co-owners of the specialty supermarket, which maintains a branch next to the university’s main campus. Last week, Kaner announced the decision to target their gift specifically to Columbia’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, instead of the university at large. He called for “like-minded donors and alumni to do the same.”
The Morton Williams owners had previously donated to the university president’s discretionary fund. Last year, due to rising antisemitism on campus, they earmarked the gift to Columbia’s business school. Kaner told eJewishPhilanthropy that he is directing the money to the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies “this year and for years going forward, unless there is change at Columbia and Jewish students feel comfortable being at school again.” Kaner declined to disclose the size of the donation.
Kaner’s decision makes him the latest of several major benefactors to take part in the so-called “donor revolt” against Columbia, which has included New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and businessman Len Blavatnik, both of whom have pulled financial support altogether from the university in the wake of anti-Israel protests and other related incidents that have unfolded on campus.
The trend has sparked a debate among antisemitism watchers over whether university donors should continue funneling money into the Ivy League school, or pull out entirely and redirect their giving to groups such as Hillel and Chabad or Jewish day schools. Some argue that Kaner’s response — giving to Judaic studies departments, where some faculty still express views against Israel — could still perpetuate the problems that he is looking to address.
Kaner acknowledged this, but indicated that he sees this type of donation as the best choice. “Not all Jewish students go to Chabad or Hillel,” Kaner argued, while noting that he also gives to Chabad. “They may not be engaged that way and [those groups] are not ‘part of the university’; we want to be a more formal part of the university and for this year, this was the only option we saw to be supportive of the university.”
Kaner’s move also raised questions about how much influence donors have over universities to begin with. In the short term, even substantial donations are “a drop in the bucket” for Columbia, Kaner said, noting that the school has a “huge endowment.”
“In the long term, it’s a much bigger deal … there’s a trickle effect,” Kaner said, explaining that each time a donor pulls out, the school “isn’t just losing his donation this year, but they’ve lost his donation for the next 30 years.”
“We’re continuing to give because [Columbia], the people who shop at our stores, have become part of our family and we’re there for the students,” Kaner told JI. In November 2023, Morton Williams’ Columbia location, which has an Israeli product section and offers kosher meat, was the target of attacks and vandalism by Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. The groups have continued to call for an anti-Israel boycott of the grocery chain, Kaner said, noting that “business is down” as a result.
“But that has made us double down on items imported from Israel,” Kaner said. “We view this as corporate responsibility.”
“We will redirect in such a way that [money] will go to a place that will do good,” Kaner told eJP. “Nothing is perfect — I know there are [anti-Israel] professors — but it’s a decision you have to make. We still have a seat at the table instead of cutting out 100%.”