Jewish Leaders Who Benefited from Les Wexner’s Munificence Donate to Jeffrey Epstein’s Victims
A new fund solicits donations from Wexner Foundation alumni for sexual violence survivors.
Les Wexner, pictured with his wife Abigail Wexner at the 2014 opening of an exhibit of art from his private collection at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
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Generations of American Jewish leaders owe their careers to Les Wexner, the lingerie billionaire with deep personal and financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, as Jewish Currents reported in February. Now, some of them are looking for a way to cancel out that debt. On Monday, a group of prominent Wexner alumni announced the creation of a fund to support Epstein survivors, and survivors of sexual violence in general, inviting fellow alumni to donate.
For more than three decades, the Wexner Foundation picked the best rabbinical candidates and graduate students in Jewish studies, and handed them tens of thousands of dollars in tuition stipends, access to networks of established leaders, and a seal of approval that all but guaranteed an enviable job.
Since the extent of Wexner’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein became clear in 2019, some alumni of the Wexner Foundation programs have wrestled with their own proximity to Epstein’s crimes. “It’s clear from conversations in alumni spaces that many Wexner alumni have been feeling the weight of this without having a lot of clarity about what exactly to do, or how to direct that energy,” says Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, an author and one of the organizers of the new fund. “This [fund] is a way to mobilize the community.”
Ruttenberg and a group of other organizers that includes Rabbi Josh Feigelson, CEO of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, are calling this new effort the ASHRU Fund, and are seeking to raise $100,000 from Wexner alumni and others. As of Monday afternoon, $21,000 had been donated. The fund will split donations between the nonprofit World Without Exploitation, which is working with Epstein survivors, and the National Survivor Network.
A large part of Epstein’s wealth appears to have originated with Wexner, who in 1991 gave Epstein power of attorney over his financial affairs. Wexner has positioned himself as another Epstein victim, who was “conned” and did “nothing wrong.” “I think he had, in hindsight, multiple personalities,” Wexner said at the end of a five-hour deposition before House Democrats in February.
Jewish Currents reported in February that the Wexner Foundation had invited alumni to Zoom meetings to discuss what “the Foundation is to do now,” after brushing off questions about Epstein since 2019. At least some of those meetings have already taken place, though the foundation has made no public statement about any outcome or response. Ruttenberg said that the organizers setting up the ASHRU Fund had notified the Wexner Foundation’s president, Elka Abrahamson, shortly before launch, and had asked the foundation to contribute, but had not heard back. (Abrahamson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ASHRU Fund.)
“We know for a fact that Jeffrey Epstein built his wealth working for and with Les Wexner,” says Ruttenberg. “If we have benefited in relation to profound harm, there is an obligation to use some of the privileges that we have to be part of repair.”
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Josh Nathan-Kazis is the news director at Jewish Currents. Previously, he was a senior writer at Barron’s, where he covered healthcare companies, and a staff writer at The Forward, where he investigated Jewish communal institutions.
